Review: Sparklink

Vanuit Antwerpen werkt Sparklink als softwarebureau. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 53 voltijdse equivalenten. De opgegeven expertises zijn webdevelopment, ai & automatisering en crm & marketing automation. Het zwaartepunt ligt bij opdrachtgevers uit cultuur & events (concertzalen, sport), logistiek en foodservices.

ContinuityWatch1,0 months of wages without income · median 2,6

littlea lot

Team stabilityNot available13,4% a year, roughly 1 in 7

SeniorityMixed profile€ 73.112 per FTE, € 6.093 a month · median € 61.978

juniorsenior

Price levelMarket rate€ 44 per hour worked · median € 47

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: € 3,73 mln gross margin, growth +2,8% against a sector median of +30,4%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2021202220232024

SparklinkSector median

EBITDA margin -5,7%, sector median 18,8%. Value-added coverage 0,95 (median 1,23). 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

€ 70.207

Median (2024) € 72.152

Against a payroll cost of € 73.112 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Around the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 44

Median (2024) € 47

84.292 hours worked, 1.584 per FTE. Against that sits € 46 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -2 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Around 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: 3,5 months (median 5,6 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 1,12 mln.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 318.893. Liquidity ratio 1,60: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 40,5%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 40 days of supplier credit, sector median 45. The accounts were filed 261 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

Warnings active

Signals in the last 24 months

Late filing · 18 Sep 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
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.
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.
Late filing · 30 Aug 2024 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation.

What this agency does well

Gross margin grew 3 years in a row
Team grew (+24,0% FTE in the latest year)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,60)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 59,4× the capital contributed)
Invests in training (31 hours per FTE)

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, 2021 to 2024Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024
Result
Gross margin	€ 2,22 mln	€ 2,38 mln+7,1%	€ 3,63 mln+52,7%	€ 3,73 mln+2,8%
EBITDA	€ 513.000	€ 377.371	€ 471.449	€ -212.512
EBITDA margin	23,1%	15,9%	13%	-5,7%
Staff
FTE	25,9	30,9+19,3%	42,9+38,8%	53,2+24%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 85.792	€ 76.992	€ 84.678	€ 70.207
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 65.792	€ 58.181	€ 73.053	€ 73.112
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 1,12 mln	€ 1,36 mln	€ 1,59 mln	€ 1,12 mln
Cash	-	€ 676.107	€ 536.847	€ 318.893
Liquidity ratio	-	1,76	2,16	1,60

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 18/09/2025. 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 4 services

Strategy & Insights

AI & innovation strategy

Digital Experience & Tech

Website development

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Marketing automation

Sector focus

Cultuur & events (concertzalensport)logistiekfoodservicesKMO en multinationals

Publicly known clients

be.at (Sportpaleis/AFAS Dome), HCI, DE SINGEL, Foodbag, Royal Antwerp FC, Ancienne Belgique, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Orange

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

€ 73.112

+18% versus the median

Team composition

53,2 VTE

26% women
74% men

Training per FTE

31,3 u

Many agencies fill this field in incompletely.

€ 73.112

Median Softwarebureau (2024) € 61.978All 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

20,5%

Inflow 2024

15,0%

8,0 FTE in, 10,9 FTE out

Net team change

-2,9 VTE

2021202220232024

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.