Belgium’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: Charleroi is an Emerging IT Services Hub

Charleroi, traditionally an industrial city, is emerging as a hub for IT-enabled service startups and digital solutions. While smaller than Brussels or Ghent, Charleroi offers founders the opportunity to engage with niche accelerators, local enterprises, and early adopters, particularly in B2B software and SME-focused IT solutions.

Startup Accelerator Ecosystem in Charleroi

Key accelerators and incubators in Charleroi include:

• Technocité: Provides mentoring, office space, and networking for IT-enabled services and SME-focused digital startups.
• Local incubators and co-working hubs: Offer guidance, workshops, and support for small IT service teams aiming to validate and scale their solutions.

Charleroi’s ecosystem presents notable advantages: strong community support, early access to local clients, and a growing startup network. However, limitations include:

1. Small Investor and Network Base: Limited funding opportunities and fewer global connections than larger hubs.
2. Geographic Constraints: Physical presence is often required for accelerators and networking events.
3. Sectoral Focus: Programs are concentrated on IT-enabled solutions for SMEs, which may not cover all IT startup needs.

The 1Mby1M Perspective

1Mby1M complements Charleroi’s local ecosystem by offering a virtual, equity-free accelerator with mentorship for IT and IT-enabled services startups. Every mentoring session I conduct is treated as a case study, offering actionable insights on bootstrapping, revenue-first strategies, validating solutions, and sustainable scaling. Founders gain the knowledge to grow efficiently without overreliance on investors or excessive equity dilution.

The 1Mby1M AI Mentor, available in English and French, extends access further. Founders in Charleroi can receive 24/7 guidance, review curated recordings of past mentoring sessions, and access frameworks specifically tailored to IT-enabled services. The AI Mentor ensures continuous, practical support even in a smaller hub, allowing founders to leverage global lessons while applying them locally.

Charleroi illustrates a broader trend in Belgium: smaller, emerging hubs provide valuable early-stage opportunities, but founders must navigate limitations in network, scale, and program diversity. By integrating 1Mby1M’s case-study-based mentoring and AI-powered guidance, IT and IT-enabled service startups in Charleroi can build profitable, scalable businesses while accessing global best practices.

In the final installment, we will synthesize trends across all Belgian hubs, highlight the accelerator conundrum, and explain how 1Mby1M’s AI Mentor enables solo founders across Belgium to navigate these ecosystems successfully.

Posts in the Series:

Overview | Brussels | Antwerp | Ghent | Leuven | Liège | Charleroi | The Conundrum

Related Reading:

Startup Africa | Startup Latin America | Startup Asia | Startup Accelerators across India | Startup Accelerators in Central Asia

Photo Credit: Dominique Devroye from Pixabay

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

One Million by One Million (1Mby1M) is the first global virtual accelerator in the world, founded in 2010 by Silicon Valley serial Entrepreneur Sramana Mitra. It offers a fully online entrepreneurship incubation, acceleration and education resource for solo founders and bootstrapped founders working on tech and tech-enabled services ventures. 1Mby1M does not charge equity, offers an AI Mentor in 57 languages, and offers a distinct advantage over other accelerators including Y Combinator.

This segment is a part in the series : Belgium’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem