Belgium-based Trendtracker is making strategic waves, having secured €5.9 million in funding to scale its AI-driven platform globally. As someone who has built companies and observed countless startups navigate the challenges of growth, I see this funding as a significant step in addressing a problem many businesses face, turning overwhelming data and trends into actionable strategy.
Understanding Trendtracker’s Offering
Trendtracker, founded in Ghent in 2019, provides a tool that continuously monitors global signals, interpreting them to detect emerging trends and their business impacts. It goes beyond simply aggregating data; its predictive system assesses the relevance of trends and delivers concrete recommendations for decision-making. This capability allows large enterprises like Siemens, PepsiCo, and PwC to anticipate market disruption and refine strategies before it’s too late.
For entrepreneurs, this is powerful. Many startups struggle to see beyond immediate challenges because spotting future trends feels like predicting the weather, unreliable and overwhelming. Tools like Trendtracker simplify this process, making strategic planning leaner and smarter.
Why Strategic Guidance Matters
Here’s an alarming statistic: According to PwC, 70% of CEOs admit they didn’t feel prepared for unpredictable external events. From political instability to technological shifts, these disruptions often lead to reactive, instead of proactive, decision-making. I’ve seen businesses crumble because they couldn’t predict the right trends. Enter Trendtracker, which flips the script by providing structured foresight to help organizations stay ahead.
How Is The Funding Being Used?
Trendtracker is channeling this €5.9 million to expand its presence globally, particularly in the US and Middle East markets. Looking at these regions makes sense, the US offers fast-adopting industries and innovation hubs, while the Middle East is rapidly diversifying its economy and embracing tech solutions. On top of this geographical push, they’re improving the AI agents within the platform to deliver even more accurate recommendations.
The company also plans to invest in expanding their team. Hiring experts in strategy, innovation, and data science is not merely a cost, it’s the maturity phase where you scale up your infrastructure to accommodate bigger clients. For any startup founder, this is key advice: when scaling, don’t underspend on essential talent for managing growth.
Let’s break down the benefits
Trendtracker provides three major competitive advantages for businesses and startups aiming to refine decision-making:
- Trend scoring and forecasting: Every startup founder knows the pain of acting on bad data. Their platform minimizes this by not only detecting but scoring trends based on KPIs and contextual relevance.
- Always-on insights: Traditional market analysis doesn’t cut it anymore, it's too slow. With Trendtracker, insights are available in real-time, ensuring businesses adjust faster to external changes.
- Comprehensive recommendations: Beyond delivering raw findings, they go a step farther to offer applied strategies, removing the guesswork from decision-making.
Companies across various sectors use it, from consumer goods like PepsiCo to consulting firms such as Deloitte. Why the universal appeal? Staying relevant isn’t sector-specific, every business competes against the clock.
Most common mistakes startups make in trend strategy
From my experience, startups often stumble over these:
- Overestimating their intuition: Many founders assume they “just know” what their market demands, ignoring objective data. Trendtracker introduces measurable clarity.
- Ignoring weak signals: Emerging industries could suddenly gain traction. Trendtracker tracks such ‘weak signals,’ keeping businesses prepared for the unexpected.
- Not updating strategies: Thinking your initial strategy will last years is naive. Tools like this provide updates based on evolving signals.
How startups can emulate Trendtracker’s approach
Even without Trendtracker’s funding, startups can prioritize smarter data processes. Start by integrating free predictive tools or platforms that offer simplified trend analysis to test your market foresight. Develop a habit of challenging assumptions with objective metrics. On small budgets, there are valuable education resources (like OpenAI API tools or Google’s trend platforms) to start tracking shifts without spending much.
Also, watch your introduction of AI. It isn’t about replacing judgment, Trendtracker’s value lies in augmenting decisions, not removing human oversight.
Conclusion
The €5.9 million Series A boost confirms an important truth about modern business: agility doesn’t mean moving fast blindly, but moving fast with precise context. As Trendtracker advances towards global markets, its success reminds us of the growing importance of strategy platforms that don’t just inform but guide decisions comprehensively. If you’re looking to improve your startup’s ability to adapt in unpredictable environments, this should be the model you study.
FAQ
1. What does Trendtracker do?
Trendtracker is an AI-powered platform that tracks, scores, and forecasts trends using global signals to inform businesses about emerging disruptions and strategic foresight. Discover Trendtracker
2. Who are Trendtracker’s main clients?
Large organizations like Siemens, PepsiCo, PwC, Procter & Gamble, and Deloitte rely on Trendtracker for strategic intelligence and decision-making. Learn more about Trendtracker’s clients
3. Why is Trendtracker’s platform considered unique?
It employs multi-agent AI to detect, contextualize, and score emerging trends, offering measurable KPIs and actionable strategic recommendations tailored to businesses. Explore Trendtracker’s capabilities
4. How will the €5.9 million funding be utilized?
The funding will be used for global expansion in the US and Middle East, advancing AI development, and expanding Trendtracker’s team of experts. Learn more about funding usage
5. What problem does Trendtracker aim to solve for businesses?
Trendtracker helps businesses handle large volumes of data, spot weak signals, and develop informed strategies to avoid reactive decision-making and stay ahead of disruptions. Find out how Trendtracker solves business challenges
6. How does Trendtracker provide competitive advantages?
Trendtracker offers continuous real-time insights, measurable trend forecasting, and concrete strategic recommendations, allowing businesses to adapt quickly and refine decision-making. Check out Trendtracker’s features
7. What industries benefit from Trendtracker’s services?
Trendtracker is utilized across industries, including consumer goods, consulting, insurance, and government sectors, for foresight and risk mitigation. Explore Trendtracker’s industry applications
8. Why is the US a target market for Trendtracker’s expansion?
The US offers fast-adopting industries and innovation hubs, making it a strategic market for deploying advanced AI-driven strategic intelligence solutions. Learn more about Trendtracker’s expansion strategy
9. How does Trendtracker help startups specifically?
Trendtracker simplifies strategy planning by tracking trends, scoring relevance, and delivering recommendations to startups struggling with data overload and short-term decision-making. Understand Trendtracker’s benefits for startups
10. Why are AI-backed strategy tools increasingly vital for businesses?
AI-backed strategy platforms like Trendtracker provide proactive insights and foresight, enabling businesses to anticipate and counteract disruptions faster than traditional methods. Discover the impact of AI strategic intelligence tools
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.