Review: Lunar

Lunar is een ux- & designstudio met thuisbasis in Antwerpen. Er werken ongeveer 14 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten. Het bureau is toegespitst op ux/ui design en webdevelopment. De ervaring zit vooral in brede digitale producten / b2b.

ContinuityUnder pressure0,2 months of wages without income · median 1,9

littlea lot

Team stabilityLittle churn33,7% a year, roughly 1 in 3 · median 30,9%

stablea lot

SeniorityMixed profile€ 57.490 per FTE, € 4.791 a month · median € 64.792

juniorsenior

Price levelKeenly priced€ 28 per hour worked · median € 42

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

2021202220232024

Latest year: € 612.907 gross margin, growth -26,7% against a sector median of -3,8%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2021202220232024

LunarSector median

EBITDA margin -31,5%, sector median 7,5%. Value-added coverage 0,75 (median 1,06).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 45.067

Median (2024) € 72.330

Against a payroll cost of € 57.490 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 28

Median (2024) € 42

21.618 hours worked, 1.590 per FTE. Against that sits € 36 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -8 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: -2,5 months (median 3,2 mo). Equity in the latest year: € -165.997.

Critical buffer

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

Cash € 14.451. Liquidity ratio 0,64: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency -52,2%.

Not covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 45 days of supplier credit, sector median 48. The accounts were filed 234 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Filed late

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

3 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Late filing · 22 Aug 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
Two consecutive loss-making years · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
The agency closed two financial years in a row at a loss. That is structural and weighs heavier than a single bad year.
Low value-added coverage · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. The team is not fully earning itself back.
Negative equity · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Debts exceed assets. A serious signal: the agency is running on other people's credit.
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. Watch whether the trend continues.
Critical buffer · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Equity covers less than one month of payroll. Very little reserve to absorb a setback.
+ 1 older signals within 24m

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation.

4

All the figures

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

4 financial years, 2021 to 2024Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024
Result
Gross margin	€ 777.000	€ 932.691+20%	€ 835.991-10,4%	€ 612.907-26,7%
EBITDA	€ 86.000	€ 61.980	€ -104.960	€ -192.765
EBITDA margin	11,1%	6,6%	-12,6%	-31,5%
Staff
FTE	13,3	15,5+16,5%	15,7+1,3%	13,6-13,4%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 58.421	€ 60.174	€ 53.248	€ 45.067
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 51.353	€ 55.052	€ 58.904	€ 57.490
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 113.000	€ 149.331	€ 10.130	€ -165.997
Cash	-	€ 9.607	€ 19.004	€ 14.451
Liquidity ratio	-	1,32	0,99	0,64

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 2024, filed on 22/08/2025. 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

Brede digitale producten / B2B

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

€ 57.490

-11% versus the median

Team composition

13,6 VTE

26% women
74% men

€ 57.490

Median UX- & designstudio (2024) € 64.792All 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.

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 2024

58,8%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 30,9%

Inflow 2024

14,7%

2,0 FTE in, 8,0 FTE out

Net team change

-6,0 VTE

2021202220232024

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 2024. 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.