The kmo-portefeuille is ending: what's still open

If you were planning to put a training course or a cybersecurity adviser on the kmo-portefeuille, you can stop planning. VLAIO says the 2026 budget was fully used up on 15 October 2026, and new applications have not been possible since. The Flemish government has also decided to stop the scheme: from 1 January 2027 companies can no longer use it for training or cybersecurity advice. If you already have an application running, you can finish that trajectory until 31 December 2027.

One thing has not changed, because it was never true: the kmo-portefeuille did not pay for building a website or an app. If that is the project you had in mind, the end of the scheme changes nothing about its cost.

What VLAIO decided, and when

The scheme was wound down in steps over 2026. All dates below come from VLAIO's own announcements.

VLAIO has not announced a successor scheme. VLAIO's subsidies overview now lists it among the closed subsidies, and the kmo-portefeuille page keeps the login only so you can follow up running applications.

What the kmo-portefeuille paid for

It was a low-threshold scheme, and a popular one: in 2025, according to VLAIO, almost 55,000 companies filed more than 125,000 applications. A small or medium-sized company in Flanders, including a sole trader (eenmanszaak) or a liberal profession, bought training or advice from a service provider registered with VLAIO, and the scheme paid part of the bill.

The support rates were:

The conditions were strict about the form of the service. A training course had to cost at least €100 excluding VAT, with attendance signed per session. An advice project had to cost at least €500 excluding VAT and end in a written report with an analysis, the advice itself and an implementation plan. In both cases you applied online within fourteen days of the start.

It never paid for a website or an app

"Digitalisation" was one of the eight themes, so it is easy to assume a new website fell under it. It did not. VLAIO's digitalisation theme page lists what was never eligible:

• IT development trajectories;
• IT implementation trajectories without prior written advice;
• helpdesk costs;
• maintenance contracts.

Under that theme the scheme paid for learning and advice: a course in Excel or Photoshop, a course on protecting your systems against attacks, and until 31 January 2026 a written advice on digitalisation from a registered provider. Building the thing itself, whether a website, a web app or a mobile app, was always your own cost. Advice about subsidies was excluded too.

So if a provider told you your website would be "partly paid by the kmo-portefeuille", ask what exactly was being subsidised. If it was a training or an advice report delivered alongside the build, that part may have been eligible. The development was not.

If you already have an application running

You can finish it. VLAIO says companies with a running application can complete their trajectory until 31 December 2027. Follow it through the "toegang" button on the kmo-portefeuille page, where you log in as before.

Two practical points from VLAIO's rules:

• Under the scheme's conditions, the training or advice had to be paid by 31 December of the year after your application. For a 2026 application that is 31 December 2027, the same date as the end of the trajectory.
• If you stop an application, your own share is refunded according to the scenario on that page, but stopping the subsidy does not cancel your contract with the provider. Check that contract first.

What is still open for a digital project

VLAIO itself points to two things for training and advice. Training costs for your professional activity remain tax-deductible, and VLAIO's expertise database still lists training, advice and coaching, now without the subsidy.

Two VLAIO instruments relevant to digital work are listed as available on its subsidies page today:

• Cybersecurity improvement trajectories. A recognised provider analyses your cybersecurity and, depending on the package, helps you fix what it finds. VLAIO pays 50% for SMEs on trajectories between €7,100 and €39,000 excluding VAT. This is where cybersecurity advice went after the kmo-portefeuille.
• A development project (ontwikkelingsproject) subsidy, for an innovation in which your company has to acquire new knowledge, such as a new technology, a prototype or a pilot. VLAIO's summary says 25 to 50% of the project, minimum €25,000 and maximum €3 million. A standard company website does not fit this. A genuinely new product might, and VLAIO's business advisers are the people to ask.

The kmo-groeisubsidie, sometimes mentioned in the same breath, is also closed: no new calls since September 2025. For anything else, VLAIO's subsidy database lets you filter the remaining support by theme.

Before you plan around a subsidy

• Is the instrument open today? Check the instrument's own page on vlaio.be, not an article or a provider's brochure.
• Does it pay for what you are actually buying? Training, advice, an innovation project and a website build are four different things.
• Does the provider have to be registered or recognised by VLAIO? If so, check the provider in VLAIO's list before you sign.
• Do you apply before the work starts, or within a set number of days? Most schemes refuse applications filed late.
• Would you still do the project at the full price? If not, it may not be ready yet.

If you are building a website or app anyway

We are a software studio, not a subsidised training or advice provider, and we are not registered for the kmo-portefeuille. What we can offer is a price you know before you start.

Our websites start at €1,400 for the Starter package and go up to €6,000 for Business+, live 5 to 15 working days after we receive your content. A web-app MVP is €14,000 for 8 to 10 weeks. If the scope is not clear enough to price, the Product Decision Sprint (€2,500, 5 business days) writes it down first. All prices exclude VAT.

What each package includes, and what it never includes, is on the pricing page. More on how we work on website development and MVP development.