The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) began its primary activities in Belgium in 2008 with the launch of its flagship program, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). It was an immediate success and soon evolved into a robust, year-round support system for the Belgian startup ecosystem.
In 2016, led by the Employers Associations in all regions of Belgium, the grassroots communities powering GEW formed GEN Belgium in order to provide a coordinating forum for the country’s ecosystem leaders. Its members helped organize the Think Bigger forum in Brussels, which featured Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, and has worked to validate and improve entrepreneurship policies in Belgium.
A coalition of major Belgian business organizations make up GEN in Belgium. These include:
- Pulse Foundation
- UCM (Union des Classes Moyennes).
- Unizo (Unie van Zelfstandige Ondernemers).
- UWE (Union Wallonne des Entreprises).
- VBO FEB (Federation of Enterprises in Belgium).
- Voka (Flanders' Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
GEN in Belgium connects Belgium and its regions to the global entrepreneurship ecosystem through participation in live international events such as the GEN’s flagship Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), the Startup Nations Summit, and GEC+. It brings to Belgium a constant flow of new best-in-class entrepreneur support initiatives – including GEN Founders, GEN Invest (and the Global Business Angel Network), and Startup Huddle.
The GEN coalition works on policy development and advocacy in association with GEN’s research and policy networks and by leveraging resources such as the GEN Atlas. With partners such as the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), GEN shares knowledge, know-how, information and experience about monitoring and evaluating policy implementation, and alignment with policies in Europe and worldwide.
In addition to other opportunities for Belgium’s startups to engage on a global level, GEN Belgium organizes global startup competitions such as the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC). Since its global launch in 2019, the EWC has become a prominent fixture in the Belgian startup ecosystem, providing a platform for local founders to scale globally.
Two prominent Belgium companies, Manual.to, which specializes in digitized instruction manuals, and Sealution, maritime data startup, gained access to a global peer community and a virtual bootcamp that provided pitch training and investor preparation. They each then advanced to the global finals and competed for share of the global $1 million prize pool.
Through its programming, GEN continues to expand its membership in Belgium, deepen its work with Belgium's universities, and coordinate the work of Belgium’s ecosystem.