2022 Scale-Up Confidence Survey

2022 Scale-Ups Confidence Survey

The Deloitte Scale-Ups Confidence Survey reveals that Belgian and Dutch scale-ups have gained confidence over the past three years. Why did the confidence score rise from 6.9/10 to 8.4/10? What are the challenges to growth in 2022? Read our report for more insights.

Key findings:

• Finding the right talent is now the biggest challenge amongst scale-ups with 50% of companies highlighting talent as their biggest challenge to reach their growth ambition, up 22% from last year and surpassing delayed/lower customer signings.
• Survey respondents increased their headcount by 5.494 FTEs in 2021 growing 47%, with a median expected and realised FTE growth of 5. Respondents are set to grow their headcount by another 6.712 FTEs in 2022, growing 39%, while doubling their median expected FTE growth to 10.
• FinTech scale-ups achieved the highest revenue growth in 2021 (171%), whilst Electronic devices, hardware & semiconductor scale-ups expect the highest growth in 2022 (187%).
• 56% of scale-ups achieved their expected revenue growth in 2021, up 21% vs 2020 with life sciences & healthcare having the largest percentage (67%) of scale-ups achieving their expected growth.
• New customer acquisition remains the primary area of focus for scale-ups to realise their growth aspirations in 2022 at 80%. Partnerships & Resellers declined by 8% which is surprising considering that it is an essential driver for international scaling and the challenges for scale-ups to attract talent.
  

About the survey

Deloitte surveyed 291 scale-ups with 172 from Belgium, 110 from the Netherlands, and 9 from other countries. More than 90% of the respondents operate in a B2B context. 77% of the respondents were CEOs or (co)-founders demonstrating an interest in understanding developments within the ecosystem.

The survey was conducted at the end of February 2022.