Start it@KBC has calculated that, by 2025, AI will account for 46.9% of all start-ups

Europe’s largest accelerator analyzed data from 1,839 participating start-ups between 2014 and today. The rise of AI is clear. And everything indicates that their number will continue to grow.

In the software category, which accounts for 63.3% of participating start-ups, the rise of AI is particularly striking: 74% of all current software start-ups are AI companies. In 2025, AI will account for a total of 46.9% of all start-ups. This is a spectacular increase since, over the entire period from 2014 to 2025, AI will account for only 11.8% of software start-ups, or 6.5% of the total.

In the hardware category, mechatronics is the largest subcategory, accounting for 72.2%. Over the entire 2014-2025 period, it accounted for 46.8%, or 7.6% of the total number of startups. Mechatronics refers to mechanical systems combining hardware, electronics, and software: cars, robots, advanced production equipment, etc.

In a short space of time, AI has become the technology of the moment: nearly half of all start-ups are now dedicated to it. And as we are only at the beginning, we expect their number to continue to grow,” says Lode Uytterschaut, Founder & CEO, Start it @KBC.

Exciting, but risky

At the same time, the risk of a bubble is very real: a lot of money is flowing into AI today. “At this rate, sooner or later the wheat will be separated from the chaff. Ethical issues, such as chatbots that make racist comments or people who use chatbots as therapists without being aware of the privacy risks, are challenges to which we do not yet have answers. Furthermore, AI will move from a primarily ‘explanatory’ function to a more executive function: this is exciting, but also very risky.”

Despite the bubble effect, AI has become an integral part of our daily lives thanks to its many applications. This is in contrast to blockchain, for example, which has a much more limited scope of application and, as expected, has passed its peak, with a very small share of 0.7% over the period 2014-2025.

In terms of business model, B2B largely outweighs B2C, with 75.5% of the total number of B2B start-ups in 2025, compared to 24.5% for B2C. Lode Uytterschaut sees this as “a logical percentage given Belgium’s historical position as a small B2B country with a developed service sector in the fragmented European market, but higher than the international averages of between 60 and 65%. By way of comparison, Y Combinator, the world’s leading accelerator, known for its B2B focus, had 70% B2B start-ups in 2023.”

Software is most attractive to investors; hardware attracts the largest amounts

Looking at the technologies most popular with investors, we see that the majority of investments go to software: 80%, compared to 19% for hardware. The remaining 1% falls into neither category.

“It’s no surprise that software is more popular with investors: start-up costs are lower and scalability is higher. What’s more, there are no long development times or logistical issues to complicate matters, while iteration is simple and the marginal cost per ‘item’ sold is minimal. In other words, it’s much less complex to set up than hardware,” explains Andy Gijbels, CTO, Start it @KBC.  Given the potential and popularity of AI, we expect investment in software to continue to increase in the coming years, although there will be a downturn sooner or later when it becomes clear that not all AI start-ups working on the same idea will survive. We even expect this to happen within the next two years, when startups that are raising money today but are not gaining enough traction will find themselves running out of funds again.”

Medtechs attract the most money

The fact that more investment is going to software does not mean that hardware startups are less likely to raise funds: as there are more software startups, they logically attract more investment. However, they do not raise the largest amounts per investment on average: that “honor” goes to medtech startups, which must have their products approved and tested before they can even consider production or marketing.

Mechatronics and other hardware subcategories also have higher capital requirements than software. The low ranking of AI in this classification can be explained by a recency bias: most AI startups are still too young to have raised funds, which significantly lowers the average.

Start it @KBC start-ups have a better chance of survival

Of the 1,839 start-ups that have participated in the program since 2014, 67% are still active today. Start it @KBC start-ups are performing well above the overall average: after five years, around 73% of them are still in business, compared with only 51% according to an international benchmark for start-ups that have raised venture capital.

It should also be noted that 221 start-ups from the Start it @KBC stable have already raised more than EUR 1 million, and 119 have exceeded EUR 2 million. Together, they have raised more than EUR 1.1 billion and created more than 12,000 jobs, making this ecosystem one of the largest employers in Belgium. Well-known names such as Aikido Security, Bolt, Loop Earplugs, Conveo, Keyrock, Segments.ai, Crazy Games, and Ritchie are among the most successful.