The entrepreneurship track
For first-time founders: from a bold idea to a tested one, with the tools, the network and the people the early stage actually needs.
Entrepreneurial culture
Brussels' incubator for
a first company.
StartLab.Brussels is where a first-time entrepreneur or a researcher in the capital tests an idea, before anyone talks about scaling it.
Who they are
Early stage, backed by the city's universities.
StartLab.Brussels opened in 2016, a year after VentureLab in Liège and out of the same conviction: that young people are the ones who will build what comes next, and that they need somewhere to start. It is built for the earliest stage, when a founder still has more questions than answers.
The universities and schools of the city stand behind it, with the Brussels-Capital Region and private partners, Pulse among them. It is an effort at the scale of the city, not one institution's program.
- Who it is for
- First-time entrepreneurs and researchers in Brussels
- Two tracks
- One for entrepreneurs, one for academics turning research into a company
- Running since
- 2016
Why we fund them
Two incubators, one effort.
StartLab.Brussels and VentureLab were founded a year apart and share a mission: to reveal and activate the part young entrepreneurs can play in building the world of tomorrow.
The money goes to the growth of the initiatives as a whole. From 2026 to 2028 they have one aim: to reach more young people with a project, and to make both houses sturdier through structured cooperation, better efficiency and income from more than one source.
What they run
Two tracks, one community.
The academics track
For researchers turning ambitious science into a startup. That is a different problem from a first business, so it gets its own path through the incubator.
A network, not a classroom
Experienced entrepreneurs, partners and alumni around the table. StartLab's own promise is a community and a strong network, and that is what the funding pays for.
In their words
Someone who lived it.
Thanks to StartLab I was able to move very quickly from the idea to testing the project, and to judge whether my company could work.
In pictures
The house at work.
Go further
Start where you study.
StartLab.Brussels takes applications through the year, for both tracks.
