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About us

As a brand of Flanders Investment & Trade, Startup.Flanders is dedicated to making startups succeed internationally and technologically. Find out more about us.

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Our mission
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Our mission

Flanders' startup scene is home to a myriad of promising startups, scaleups and supporting cities and organizations. They’re thriving, growing and collaborating thanks to the advantages of a close-knit ecosystem and the undeniable perks of Flanders.

Startup.Flanders was founded as a global brand identity for Flanders’ buzzing startup ecosystem. Its goal is to help ambitious entrepreneurs – in any phase or industry, from Flanders or abroad – set up, scale and succeed with their startups in Flanders, all while enabling them to benefit from our startup ecosystem as much as possible.
 

Our services

We offer an array of services to spark your success at home and abroad. We support you by: 

  • exploring new markets, technologies and partnerships
  • setting you up with the right people to speed up your ambitions
  • giving tailor-made advice to establish your business and make it work 
  • providing services and partners that spur your growth, technological skill and success abroad 

    Our tools

    To achieve that, we have all the right moves and an array of tools up our sleeves. As your gateway to international and technological growth, we guide you towards:

    Funds & programs

    • practical startup programs
    • national grants 
    • European funding opportunities
    • attractive R&D tax incentives

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    Network

    • other startups and scaleups
    • accelerators and incubators
    • local innovation hubs
    • plenty of other ecosystem players

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    Center of expertise

    • tech experts and partners
    • industry experts
    • country and market experts

    • international network and offices

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    "Over the years, Flanders Investment & Trade helped us build our international network. Their Science & Technology Counselors play a vital role as sounding boards for new attractive markets such as Asia, Africa and the Americas."

    Lieselot Declercq
    cofounder of d-teach
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    Startup.Flanders has your back. And Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) has ours.

    As a brand of Flanders' official government agency for international business, Startup.Flanders can rely on FIT’s broad international network of experts and partners, 30+ years of experience and hands-on employees who are dedicated to making ambitious Flanders-based and international entrepreneurs' dreams come true.

    FIT's goals in a nutshell:

    Help Flanders-based companies export and internationalize, so they can grow.

    Execute Flanders' internationalization strategy together with FIT partners.

    Attract foreign companies to invest and expand in Flanders.

    Boost the international marketing of Flanders-based innovation and put Flanders on the global map.

    Man at work

    Science & Technology Offices

    You're not the only one with bold ambitions, by the way. Flanders has them too. Taking technological innovation dead serious, the region wants to climb to the very top when it comes to digital tech, health tech and climate tech.

    To strengthen this ambition, Flanders Investment & Trade has set up 10 Science & Technology Offices in innovation hubs across the world: New York, Palo Alto, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Munich, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou and Tokyo.

    There, dedicated teams of Science &Technology Counselors build solid tech networks by connecting local tech companies, venture capitalists, knowledge and research centers, industry clusters, incubators, accelerators and other relevant tech players.

    And, more importantly, they tie their local network and experts to Flanders’ startup ecosystem – opening up unique partnership possibilities for you to tap into!