ResultX Raises More Than €400k to Expand ESG Reporting for SMEs
ResultX has secured more than €400,000 in innovation grants from Belgium’s Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, marking a significant milestone for the Hasselt-based startup as it works to make environmental, social and governance reporting accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe. The funding represents critical validation of the company’s mission to democratize ESG compliance, an area where SMEs have historically struggled against resource constraints and complex regulatory frameworks.
The grant from VLAIO, which finances strategic and industrial research across Flanders, will enable ResultX to accelerate development of its artificial intelligence-powered platform, with particular emphasis on refining machine learning models and expanding automation features. The company plans to enhance capabilities that allow businesses to automatically respond to standard ESG inquiries from banks and clients while streamlining policy documentation and data integration with existing systems. For a startup founded just three years ago in 2022 by Simon Van de Voorde, Joos Kesters and Andries Paesen, all graduates of Vlerick Business School, the funding injection provides crucial runway to scale operations during a pivotal moment for European sustainability regulation.
The timing couldn’t be more strategic. Europe’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is reshaping the compliance landscape, with the first wave of large companies already publishing CSRD-compliant reports for the 2024 fiscal year. While the directive’s phased implementation initially targeted listed SMEs for compliance starting in 2026, recent European Commission proposals in February 2025 have suggested significant revisions. Under the revised approach, only companies with more than 1,000 employees would face mandatory reporting requirements, with smaller firms encouraged to adopt voluntary standards developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.
This regulatory evolution has created both pressure and opportunity for smaller businesses. While SMEs may escape direct CSRD obligations, they increasingly face indirect demands from larger partners in their supply chains who themselves must report comprehensive ESG data. Banks operating under the EU’s updated capital requirements regulation are now incorporating ESG risk assessments into lending decisions, requiring detailed sustainability information from borrowers regardless of size. Procurement departments at multinational corporations routinely request ESG documentation from suppliers competing for contracts. The result is a compliance ecosystem where voluntary quickly becomes necessary for competitive survival.
ResultX addresses this challenge through technology that automates what has traditionally been a labor-intensive process. The platform connects directly to a company’s existing tools and supply chain systems, using artificial intelligence to extract and structure ESG data from various sources including invoices, internal documents and policy files. The software employs retrieval-augmented generation systems to make company data searchable, filtering relevant documents and linking extracted information to specific data points required under European Sustainability Reporting Standards. Companies can integrate systems like SharePoint, allowing the platform to continuously update ESG metrics without manual data entry.
The automation extends across the value chain, pulling sustainability information from suppliers and business partners to provide a comprehensive view of environmental and social impacts. This capability addresses one of the most challenging aspects of ESG reporting: Scope 3 emissions accounting, which requires tracking indirect greenhouse gas emissions throughout a company’s entire value chain. Traditional approaches to this problem involve time-consuming surveys and data requests that strain relationships with smaller suppliers. ResultX aims to streamline these information flows through standardized data exchange protocols.
The platform generates audit-ready reports with traceable source references, meeting requirements from financial institutions, procurement departments and regulatory authorities. An integrated search function allows users to quickly retrieve specific metrics or policy documents in response to stakeholder inquiries. The company emphasizes that reports can be produced in minutes rather than the weeks or months typically required for manual compilation. This speed advantage is particularly valuable during tender processes where timely ESG documentation can determine contract awards.
The funding from VLAIO positions ResultX within Belgium’s broader innovation ecosystem. The Flemish agency allocated its 2025 budget toward supporting research and development projects that enhance regional competitiveness, with particular focus on digital transformation and sustainable business practices. The agency’s support extends beyond direct funding to include guidance on intellectual property strategy and connections to potential corporate partners.
ResultX now joins a competitive landscape of ESG technology providers seeking to capture the SME market. Singapore’s Greenprint platform, developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, offers similar automation for sustainability reporting, claiming companies can complete disclosures in under 10 minutes through integration with government databases and utility records. Multiple startups across Europe and North America have raised venture capital to build ESG software platforms, recognizing that millions of small businesses face compliance pressures without dedicated sustainability departments.
The company has already secured notable early customers including PXL University College and Gijbels Group, a Belgian construction company. In October 2024, ResultX raised €1.2 million in a funding round led by Belgian entrepreneur Joris Ide, whose eponymous company manufactures building materials. That capital injection preceded the VLAIO grant by several months, suggesting the startup has successfully layered multiple funding sources to support rapid development. The company’s team has expanded to eight employees with an average age of 25.7 years, reflecting the founders’ strategy of building a young, technically skilled workforce capable of iterating quickly on artificial intelligence models.
The founders met while studying at Vlerick Business School, where they initially developed a business plan for sustainability consulting targeted at football clubs. The concept attracted attention from the Belgian Pro League, though the partnership ultimately didn’t materialize. The pivot to software came after a major consultancy discovered their approach, recognizing the potential for technology to scale beyond manual consulting services. This evolution from services to software reflects a common trajectory in the enterprise sustainability space, where the volume of compliance work creates natural incentives toward automation.
The broader market dynamics favor platforms like ResultX as ESG considerations move from voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives to material business requirements. The European Banking Authority’s updated rules require financial institutions to evaluate climate and environmental risks when assessing creditworthiness, forcing lenders to collect granular sustainability data from borrowers. Insurance companies are incorporating ESG factors into underwriting decisions, particularly for property and casualty policies exposed to climate-related losses. Supply chain finance programs increasingly offer preferential rates to companies demonstrating strong sustainability performance, creating direct economic incentives for comprehensive ESG reporting.
These market forces suggest sustained demand for technology that reduces the cost and complexity of compliance. The question for ResultX and its competitors is whether automation can truly eliminate the expertise gap that prevents many SMEs from engaging meaningfully with sustainability frameworks. Critics of automated ESG reporting argue that meaningful progress requires human judgment about materiality, stakeholder priorities and strategic trade-offs that software cannot replicate. Supporters counter that automation handles routine data collection and formatting, freeing human resources to focus on strategic sustainability initiatives rather than administrative compliance.
