Around 6 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Sumsum

Sumsum is een full-service bureau uit Heverlee, actief sinds 2017. De bezetting ligt rond 6 VTE. Het aanbod is gericht op ux/ui design. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: brede innovatie/digitale projecten.

1

How this agency makes money

Revenue, margin and what an hour of work brings in. Everything on the earning side sits together here.

Revenue trendgross margin per financial year

20212022202320242025

Latest year: € 435.848 gross margin, growth -46,8% against a sector median of +1,7%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

SumsumSector median

EBITDA margin -5,2%, sector median 23,9%. Value-added coverage 0,95 (median 1,27). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 69.182

Median (2025) € 78.251

Against a payroll cost of € 72.150 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 43

Median (2025) € 49

10.180 hours worked, 1.616 per FTE. Against that sits € 45 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -2 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Below the median

No hourly rate follows from this. Gross margin is already net of services and sundry goods, which mixes rebilled production with the agency's own overhead, and the accounts do not say how many hours were billable. Deriving a rate from this systematically understates it.

2

Can the agency take a hit

Buffer, cash position and payment behaviour side by side, so you can see where they disagree.

Bufferequity in months of payroll

Buffer: -21,5 months (median 5,8 mo). Equity in the latest year: € -816.182.

Critical buffer

Cash positionAvailable cash, and whether it covers short-term debt

Cash € 8.152. Liquidity ratio 0,23: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency -326,6%.

Not covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 42 days of supplier credit, sector median 54. The accounts were filed 208 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays and files on time

3

Signals and strengths

Events from the CBE and the Official Gazette over the past 24 months, plus positive markers derived from the figures.

Continuity

4 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. That can be contraction, and just as easily a deliberate choice for fewer but more experienced people. Ask who left and who came in their place.
Critical buffer · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than one month of payroll. At an agency that pays out its profit every year this means something different than at one that is losing money. Ask where the reserve sits.
Negative equity · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Debts exceed assets. Sometimes a subordinated shareholder loan sits opposite that, sometimes not. Ask how the agency is covering this, and on what timescale.
+ 5 older signals within 24m

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation. Each signal is a fact from a public source, without the agency's own context. Best to ask them directly.

4

All the figures

Reference material, not a starting point. Expand it if you want to read the series yourself.

5 financial years, 2021 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 293.711	€ 572.419+94,9%	€ 886.502+54,9%	€ 818.852-7,6%	€ 435.848-46,8%
EBITDA	€ -51.606	€ -113.595	€ -20.706	€ -166.582	€ -22.674
EBITDA margin	-17,6%	-19,8%	-2,3%	-20,3%	-5,2%
Staff
FTE	5,8	10,8+86,2%	14,1+30,6%	13,8-2,1%	6,3-54,3%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 50.640	€ 53.002	€ 62.873	€ 59.337	€ 69.182
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 59.187	€ 60.653	€ 63.944	€ 71.000	€ 72.150
Balance sheet
Equity	€ -272.600	€ -402.479	€ -480.235	€ -725.159	€ -816.182
Cash	€ 13.039	€ 8.932	€ 54.231	€ 9.767	€ 8.152
Liquidity ratio	0,48	0,47	0,56	0,43	0,23

Payroll cost per FTE comes from the social report where available, otherwise from the Remuneration line. Both are gross costs including employer contributions.

What this factsheet does not know

How good the work is. Figures do not measure creativity, strategy or chemistry.
How the client portfolio is spread. Concentration is not in the accounts.
Freelancers and subcontractors are not in the FTE figures. An agency with 40 staff may in practice run with 70 people.
The figures cover financial year 2025, filed on 27/07/2026. At a fast-moving agency reality today may differ.

Based on publicly filed annual accounts (NBB) and official records (CBE, Belgian Official Gazette). An indication, not financial advice. Sector medians calculated on 2 Nov 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 1 services

Digital Experience & Tech

Website strategy & UX

Sector focus

Brede innovatie/digitale projecten

From our own research. The agency hasn't listed its sectors yet.

Based on IKAg research and public sources. Incomplete or outdated? Let us know.

1

Seniors or juniors?

Payroll cost per FTE is the best public proxy for a team's experience level. Higher is not automatically better, but it says something about who sits at the table.

Payroll cost per FTE

€ 72.150

+20% versus the median

Team composition

6,3 FTE

20% women
80% men

€ 72.150

Median Full-service bureau (2025) € 60.368All agencies (2025) € 62.294

Read with care. Directors and partners invoicing through a management company are not in the payroll cost. At small agencies this skews the picture downwards considerably.

2

Will your team stay?

Inflow and outflow from the social report. This series only counts people on the payroll: freelancers who invoice do not appear in it. A low figure therefore means two very different things, a stable permanent team or a small core with heavy outsourcing. A high figure usually points to short contracts. Compare only within the same type of agency.

Exits 2025

138,1%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 31,1%

Inflow 2025

15,9%

1,0 FTE in, 8,7 FTE out

Net team change

-7,7 FTE

20212022202320242025

Exits are clearly above what is usual for this type of agency. That may reflect project-based staffing, but it is a reason to ask in the pitch how much of the proposed team was already here two years ago, and to contractually fix your permanent contacts.

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2025. Calculations by IKAg; an indication, not financial advice. Sector medians based on financial year 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.