2025: A Bright Year Ahead

 2024 in review, 2025 in focus—Insights from imec.istart Program Director Sven De Cleyn. 
 

We’ve left 2024 well behind us. Needless to say, it was a challenging year in many regards. Socio-economic and political turbulence has caused uncertainty at many levels of society. There could be many reasons to be pessimistic about the future, but I am by nature an optimist. And in the Belgian and European startup ecosystem, there are plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about 2025 and the years ahead. 

Belgium’s unicorn club expands 

2024 was a landmark year for startup investments in Belgium, with the largest funding round ever in a Belgian tech scaleup. Huge congratulations to the Lighthouse team for raising their 351 million euro Series C round and becoming Belgium’s fifth tech unicorn, after Collibra, Odoo, Deliverect and Team.blue. (Though many tend to forget TeleAtlas, which achieved unicorn status before being acquired by TomTom in 2008.) 

This milestone puts the spotlights on Belgium, showcasing the great talent and technologies developed in our small country. 

Imec's expanding role on the global stage 

Another reason for optimism is the pivotal role taken by our mother institute imec in the global semiconductor chips industry. After more than 40 years at the forefront of the developments in our industry, imec accelerates its presence in key global ecosystems. 

Scaling into new countries will be challenging, but it also allows to engage more deeply with research institutions, corporate innovators, investors, governments, students, and entrepreneurs worldwide. This expansion will create exciting new opportunities to accelerate innovation roadmaps through collaboration. 

 
Imec.istart breaking barriers 

2024 was also an interesting year for imec.istart. Having grown into an ecosystem of over 340 tech startups and scaleups with programs across three European countries, the abundance of talent, passion and bright ideas is a continuous source of energy for me and my team. The road for our startups is not always paved with roses, but our founders continue to deliver outstanding results, and more and more of our portfolio companies achieve international breakthroughs.  
 

1 billion & beyond 

Despite Lighthouse’s record-breaking achievement, the 2024 funding landscape remained challenging for many startups and scaleups (despite the sparks of hope I’ve seen again in the previous year). 

This is why we helped launch the imec.istart future fund, a follow-on investment fund playing a pivotal role in our community by helping our most promising portfolio companies bridge the gap between early-stage funding and Series A rounds—ultimately enabling faster international commercial breakthroughs. It fills me with pride that, despite the challenging fundraising environment, we successfully launched this new fund initiative. 

Another 2024 major milestone: over the past 13.5 years, our portfolio companies surpassed the €1 billion mark in total funding—a milestone worth celebrating. While I know that funding alone is a vanity metric, for me, it represents our ecosystem’s ability to convince both Belgian and international investors of its potential and the tangible impact our startups create in the daily lives of citizens, patients, business leaders, students, governments, and society at large. 

More and more often, as I walk through a city, I come across solutions developed by ‘our’ startups and scaleups, making that impact ever more visible. 

2025: going global  

In 2024, I noticed an increasing realization across many European countries that building strong local startup ecosystems is not enough —we must also connect and integrate them across borders.  

For imec.istart, the challenge in 2025 will be to scale our presence into new regions and help startups and scaleups extend their impact in each of those regions. By fostering cross-border collaboration, we can accelerate commercialization, drive disruptive innovation, and strengthen Europe’s global tech footprint. 

The combination of these signals is what fuels my optimism for 2025. Yes, we will face challenges, and so will the startups and scaleups in our portfolio across Europe. But the rays of light breaking through the clouds strengthen my confidence that this will be another year filled with milestones to celebrate in our growing and thriving startup ecosystem. 

If you’re a tech startup ready to scale big, our open calls are your launchpad. Let’s make 2025 a game-changer!