Belgium loves underestimating itself. Ask almost any Belgian entrepreneur about the country’s business climate and the reaction is often immediate: taxes are too high, regulation too complex, labour too expensive, venture capital too limited, the market too small… We compare ourselves to Silicon Valley and conclude we are hopelessly behind before the conversation has even properly started. In the United States, founders supposedly build billion-dollar companies in garages before breakfast. In Belgium, we are still scheduling a steering committee to determine whether the garage complies with zoning regulations. And yet, beneath all that national pessimism, Belgium has quietly built one of Europe’s more impressive technology ecosystems . Not loudly or theatrically. Belgium rarely dominates startup headlines or founder culture online. But while the country kept doubting itself, something significant happened in the background: Belgium started producing globally relevant tech co...
B2C PFM fintech apps have always been a difficult business. Consumers love free financial tools, but very few are willing to pay for them. At the same time, neobanks like Revolut and N26 have invested heavily in Personal Financial Management (PFM) features directly inside their banking apps, making it increasingly difficult for standalone fintech apps to differentiate. Traditional banks are still behind in many areas of financial guidance, but the consumers most interested in advanced PFM functionality are often also the ones most willing to switch banks entirely. And yet, despite the challenging business model, the underlying problem remains enormous: financial literacy is still alarmingly low . Modern society expects people to make increasingly complex financial decisions. Mortgages, pensions, taxes, investments, inflation, insurance, digital fraud, Buy Now Pay Later services, crypto… all require a certain level of financial understanding. But very few people were ever pro...