Successful international growth strategies for start-ups

Start-ups and scale-ups operate in a completely different context than traditional companies, and face different financial and strategic challenges. Five years ago, BNP Paribas Fortis opened Innovation Hubs in all of Belgium's provinces. These hubs are designed as ecosystems where entrepreneurs can engage with venture capital investors, business angels, universities, incubators and experts such as lawyers.

“Our role as bankers is expanding,” says Conchita Vercauteren, relationship manager at BNP Paribas Fortis. “These days, we don't just give financial advice. We also try to support start-ups in other ways, helping them overcome the obstacles that they all run into sooner or later.”

Learning to delegate

Even though the landscape is very different for start-ups and scale-ups, they both often face similar challenges. “Turnover as forecast in the financial plan is almost always slow to materialise,” Conchita Vercauteren explains. "Growth companies often underestimate the efforts needed to convince customers to engage with them, especially when addressing large businesses whose decision-making processes involve many people. It's vital for growth companies to speak to people at the right level immediately."

Fresh capital

In addition, many innovative new businesses have to deal with heavy cash outflows because production and development require major investment, and initial sales might be slow. “In that case, you need one or more shareholders who can provide a sufficient level of comfort, or new external shareholders who can bring money to the table.” Preparing a financing round is a lot of work and can easily take three to six months. Our experts at the Innovation Hubs can also help starters with this. “Entrepreneurs need to concentrate on their core business, rather than spending their valuable time trying to raise capital,” Conchita Vercauteren concludes.

Strategic advice

In addition, the experts at the Innovation Hubs can suggest strategic changes. “We see that start-up founders initially tend to take on a number of roles and responsibilities such as business development, R&D, HR and financial management,” Conchita Vercauteren notes. "But this takes up a lot of their energy. And it also takes time to master these different skills. We regularly remind them that delegating certain tasks is sometimes better than retaining absolute control, even if this can be quite tricky when you're working with a limited budget." Experts at the Innovation Hubs analyse the composition of the management team, primarily emphasising complementary skills.

The need for flexibility

The digital revolution has accelerated sharply in recent months. This only strengthens Conchita Vercauteren’s conviction that financial institutions must support innovative start-ups and scale-ups. "Digital solutions are crucial for our economy and our society. Innovative digital products and services are not just useful, but also essential!"

This is something the Covid pandemic proved beyond doubt. Applications were developed to remotely identify potential infections using questionnaires, while a multitude of biotechnology companies worked on treatments and vaccines for Covid-19. "Many start-ups demonstrated great flexibility and remarkable creativity. Just what an economy needs."

International network

So in our view, it's crucial that these innovative start-ups and scale-ups stay in Belgium. "A company doesn't necessarily need to move abroad just because it aspires to international growth. We want to make it easier for them to stay. That's why start-ups have access to BNP Paribas Fortis's international network through these Innovation Hubs, so they can connect with more traditional companies at the local level. Besides being disruptive, the digital revolution is also facilitating a transfer of knowledge between young digital entrepreneurs and established companies. That's an interaction from which both parties stand to benefit.”