Review: Aaltra

Aaltra is een digitaal bureau (web & platform) met thuisbasis in Melle. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 20 voltijdse equivalenten. De opgegeven expertise is webdevelopment en ux/ui design. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: iot/connected products, industrie & machinebouw, consumer devices en energie.

ContinuityWatch2,0 months of wages without income · median 2,8

littlea lot

Team stabilityLittle churn28,7% a year, roughly 1 in 3 · median 28,0%

stablea lot

SeniorityMixed profile€ 68.144 per FTE, € 5.679 a month · median € 59.418

juniorsenior

Price levelMarket rate€ 40 per hour worked · median € 45

keentop

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

2022202320242025

Latest year: € 1,35 mln gross margin, growth -7,6% against a sector median of +1,3%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2022202320242025

AaltraSector median

EBITDA margin -8,1%, sector median 17,6%. Value-added coverage 0,92 (median 1,16).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 66.276

Median (2024) € 74.559

Against a payroll cost of € 68.144 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 40

Median (2024) € 45

33.709 hours worked, 1.661 per FTE. Against that sits € 41 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -1 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: 4,7 months (median 4,9 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 559.192.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 228.723. Liquidity ratio 1,73: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 42,8%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 46 days of supplier credit, sector median 48. 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

Warnings active

Signals in the last 24 months

Low value-added coverage · 30 Jun 2025 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. The team is not fully earning itself back.
Loss-making year · 30 Jun 2025 · NBB
A financial year closed at a loss. On its own that need not be alarming (investments, a lost client); watch for repetition.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation.

What this agency does well

Team grew (+26,9% FTE in the latest year)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,73)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 68,9× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 60 days of payroll

Each point is a fact from the filed annual accounts, measured against the same thresholds and sector medians as the signals above.

4

All the figures

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

4 financial years, 2022 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 740.000	€ 877.266+18,5%	€ 1,46 mln+66%	€ 1,35 mln-7,6%
EBITDA	€ 107.000	€ 147.471	€ 339.202	€ -108.505
EBITDA margin	14,5%	16,8%	23,3%	-8,1%
Staff
FTE	12,2	12,1-0,8%	16,0+32,2%	20,3+26,9%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 60.656	€ 72.501	€ 91.009	€ 66.276
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 50.000	€ 57.654	€ 53.464	€ 68.144
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 453.000	€ 506.367	€ 718.383	€ 559.192
Cash	-	€ 213.516	€ 226.273	€ 228.723
Liquidity ratio	-	1,91	2,04	1,73

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 24/01/2026. 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 27 Jul 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 2 services

Digital Experience & Tech

Website development Website strategy & UX

Sector focus

IoT/connected productsindustrie & machinebouwconsumer devicesenergiesmart home/building techstartupskmo's en corporates

Publicly known clients

Atlas Copco, Daikin, Engie, GE, Locinox, Novy, Colruyt Group, Qbus, Smappee, Quatra, CSC, Nexxtlab, Specter, Sumura, Ontracx

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

1

People 21 people mapped

This is first a build crew — 11 of 21 are developers. Within that core, Full Stack, Mobile and Frontend stand out. Notably, no declared strategists in sight — this agency would rather make than philosophise.

P

Pieter-Paulus

Founder, CEO

S

Sara

COO

A

Alexandra

Full-stack developer

A

Andrew

iOS developer

A

Arthur

Digital product designer

B

Bauke

Full-stack developer

B

Bert

Project manager

G

Gillis

Back-end developer

J

Jeroen

Project manager

J

Johanna

Full-stack developer

L

Liza

HR

M

Mara

Administration

N

Nadav

Front-end developer

R

Rob

Digital product designer

R

Robbe

iOS developer

S

Stijn

Android developer

T

Tijl

Front-end developer

T

Tim

Front-end developer

T

Timothy

Project manager

V

Vic

Business developer

W

Wouter

Digital architect

Based on public profiles. Something wrong? Let us know.

2

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

€ 68.144

+15% versus the median

Team composition

20,3 VTE

33% women
67% men

Training per FTE

3,3 u

Many agencies fill this field in incompletely.

€ 68.144

Median Digitaal bureau (web & platform) (2024) € 59.418All agencies (2024) € 59.129

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.

3

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

42,4%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 28,0%

Inflow 2025

52,2%

10,6 FTE in, 8,6 FTE out

Net team change

+2,0 VTE

2022202320242025

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 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.