Through this programme, VLAIO aims to stimulate more high-growth companies with impact in Flanders.

Scale-Ready supports innovative start-ups in various aspects of business development along their growth path towards becoming successful scale-ups.

This programme is aimed at young innovative companies with the ambition and potential to grow rapidly (including internationally). It involves:

• Financial support aimed at young start-ups no more than 5 years old;
• For companies with legal personality and an operational establishment in Flanders;
• Where the founders and co-founders hold at least the majority (50.1%) of the company;
• With high potential and matching ambition;
• With a well-considered project plan involving costs of at least €500,000;
• That have a competent team and appropriate guidance;
• That have achieved their first revenue or possess a Letter of Intent (LOI) from one or more customers;
• The project has a duration between 2 and 3 years. The start date is at the earliest the first day of the month following submission of the support application. 

Payment of the grant depends on the achievement of the milestones proposed in the project plan. In the initial project plan, the entrepreneur must define measurable milestones at least annually. It is additionally recommended not to define more than 2 milestones per year. A corresponding grant tranche is paid per project phase. After each phase, the results are evaluated. The company must – if applicable – submit an updated project plan for any later phase(s). On the basis of this information, the panel issues an opinion and VLAIO decides whether a subsequent phase may be financed or not.

Examples of eligible activities include:

• Building a competent team by recruiting the required profiles needed for scaling;
• Producing a sufficiently large batch of the product;
• Investments in production capacity that are necessary to enable scaling;
• Investments in international market development and marketing activities;
• Developing clear work and decision-making processes and building corresponding IT systems (automation);
• Investing in the automatic recording, processing and reporting of commercial, operational and financial data.