Ghent owes its new title to the presence of flourishing start-ups such as Showpad (sales software) and Engager (marketing software). Together with TeleAtlas (a creator of digital maps), Drupal (open source software specialist) and Teamleader (developer of company software), these successful new companies have put Ghent on the map as a start-up hub.

An important factor contributing to this success is iMinds, a Ghent-based digital research center that actively supports and accelerates the growth of many local technological start-ups

Additionally, the region – and Belgium as a whole – is right on trend with its B2B approach. More than half of European tech ‘scaleup’ companies – start-ups on the verge of growing – are business-to-business, and Belgium leads the European pack, with a whopping 74% of the country’s start-ups being B2B-oriented. 

With Dutch as its official language, Flanders (Dutch: Vlaanderen) is the northern region of Belgium. The capital of both Belgium and Flanders is Brussels.