Infographic: How To Start Your Startup In Antwerp

Read the complete Antwerp Startup City Guide

Don’t know what the skyline of Antwerp looks like? Let us explain: there are two high buildings, standing out of the crowd: One is the cathedral, the other is “boerentoren”, a major part of the city predominately inhabited by startups. It signals the aspiration of a city that aims to move forward, become a home to innovative startups, and drive entrepreneurial spirit. Let’s take a closer look at the opportunities Antwerp holds!

Ups & Downs Of Founding In Antwerp

Antwerp’s location, Belgium, holds big chances for entrepreneurs as it’s close to the center of Europe with all its institutions. It’s a country that has many faces (languages, cultures,…) – sometimes this will not only be an opportunity but also a challenge. On the hand, you don’t have to cross borders to test your product for a different audience (there are three official languages in Belgium: Dutch, French, German), on the other hand, the market is quite small. However, there’s an upside: in case you do decide to cross borders it doesn’t take a lot of time to get to Brussels airport (approx. 30 minutes) and from there to Amsterdam, Paris, or London – hubs that can be vital for your startup.

Plus, a thriving community of entrepreneurial students will give you a warm welcome, at Gate15, which introduced the project TakeOff Antwerp to bring students closer to entrepreneurs.

The diversity of Belgium could be a challenge since the broad variety implies complexity. The structure of the country is quite obscure, meaning a lot of bureaucracy and situations where it’s not always clear who should take decisions when it comes to composing and executing laws, though there efforts to reform this situation.

As complex as the governmental side to this story might be, as interesting is the current startup ecosystem. We’ve identified key players and opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs:

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