Review: Lemon: custom software voor digitale transformatie

Lemon Companies is een digitaal bureau (web & platform) met thuisbasis in Kontich. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 26 voltijdse equivalenten. Het aanbod is gericht op webdevelopment. Tot de publiek bekende klanten behoren VRT, Acerta, Remmicom en Recepten van Sandra.

ContinuityWatch3,8 months of wages without income · median 2,8

littlea lot

Team stabilityHigh churn51,5% a year, roughly 1 in 2 · median 28,0%

stablea lot

SenioritySenior profile€ 74.876 per FTE, € 6.240 a month · median € 59.310

juniorsenior

Price levelTop of market€ 55 per hour worked · median € 45

keentop

Business processen digitaliseren
Lemon implementeert software op maat in het kader van digitale transformatie. Daarmee helpen ze bedrijven bij het digitaliseren van business processen, in strategie, roadmap, ontwikkeling en implementatie, en innovatie.
Ze werken voor grotere KMO’s en corporates zowel projectmatig als in consultancy (‘team-as-a-service’).
Dat doen ze op dit moment met een 45-tal VTE’s, waaronder:

- 1 digitale strateeg
- 3 UX/UI designers
- 5 project managers / product owners
- 5 functioneel analisten
- 4 solution architects
- 27-tal full stack developers
Wat ze niet doen: marketing.
Zelf omschrijven ze hun cultuur als: ondernemend, ownership, engineering mindset, proactief.

Referentieklanten: Cobelpro, Fiberklaar, Linckr, DAS, Acerta, Olympus Mobility, De Lijn
Gepercipieerde concurrenten: ITP, Craftzing, AE
Tech stack: Angular, React (Native), Flutter, Java, Node.js, Webflow/Devlink, AWS
Ondernemingsnummer: 0634.604.286
Gemiddelde klantgrootte: 250k

Who do they see as competitors?

AE Craftzing

As indicated by the agency itself.

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: € 2,06 mln gross margin, growth +0,2% against a sector median of +0,9%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Lemon CompaniesSector median

EBITDA margin 8,7%, sector median 18%. Value-added coverage 1,11 (median 1,16). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Below sector level

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 91.462

Median (2024) € 74.603

Against a payroll cost of € 74.876 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 55

Median (2024) € 45

37.188 hours worked, 1.653 per FTE. Against that sits € 45 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 10 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Above 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: 5,9 months (median 4,9 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 834.346.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 533.584. Liquidity ratio 1,43: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 34,3%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 119 days of supplier credit, sector median 47. The accounts were filed 203 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays slower than average

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

1 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Two consecutive loss-making years · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
The agency closed two financial years in a row at a loss. That is structural and weighs heavier than a single bad year.
Loss-making year · 31 Dec 2024 · 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

Gross margin grew 3 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,43)
Comfortable cash position: 116 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.

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

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 213.330	€ 94.488-55,7%	€ 2,04 mln+2.060,5%	€ 2,05 mln+0,6%	€ 2,06 mln+0,2%
EBITDA	€ 97.017	€ 39.510	€ 292.179	€ 98.347	€ 178.791
EBITDA margin	45,5%	41,8%	14,3%	4,8%	8,7%
Staff
FTE	2,2	1,9-13,6%	11,6+510,5%	25,5+119,8%	22,5-11,8%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 96.968	€ 49.731	€ 175.982	€ 80.524	€ 91.462
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 50.582	€ 56.402	€ 138.142	€ 64.125	€ 74.876
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 305.389	€ 400.397	€ 423.823	€ 939.900	€ 834.346
Cash	€ 164.652	€ 68.471	€ 238.680	€ 398.455	€ 533.584
Liquidity ratio	0,94	0,96	1,56	1,49	1,43

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 22/07/2026. 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 7 Aug 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 1 services

Digital Experience & Tech

Website development

Sector focus

Automotive & mobilityHealth & pharmaMedia & entertainmentEnergy & utilitiesRetail & e-commerce

Publicly known clients

Sparkx, GPC Ireland, Energreen, Olympus Mobility, VRT, De Lijn, Acerta, Remmicom, Royal Antwerp FC, Bebat, VAR, DAS, Fiberklaar, Easix, Bevoy

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

1

People 3 people mapped

One strategist on board — enough to hold the direction, not to fill meetings. A small team: short lines, little noise between you and the makers.

S

Sven

Managing Partner

I

Iris

Product Owner

V

Vincent

Business Analyst

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

€ 74.876

+26% versus the median

Team composition

22,5 FTE

27% women
73% men

€ 74.876

Median Digitaal bureau (web & platform) (2024) € 59.310All agencies (2024) € 59.090

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

48,0%

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

Inflow 2025

26,7%

6,0 FTE in, 10,8 FTE out

Net team change

-4,8 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 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.