Cedric Spillebeen

Overview

Spillebeen founded Heftig, a website-as-a-service company set up in 2013 in Izegem and later continued from Wingene. By late 2018 the software carried more than 6,000 web pages for more than 500 users, with customers including Barco, Ghent University, Unizo, HAAS, Economisch huis Oostende and the city of Roeselare. Growth came partly from buying other web agencies: Websites voor KMO in 2018 was the third acquisition in under three years, Acoma of Aalter in 2019 the fourth, and 2 Trees of Beernem in 2021 the fifth, after Vizion design and Netcode. Maarten De Block, who had founded Websites voor KMO in Oostkamp in 2014, joined the Heftig board as CTO after the 2018 deal and later took the company over from Spillebeen. In 2018 Heftig was picked for Scale-up Vlaanderen, a programme run by Agoria and Sirris, with Omar Mohout and Isabel Michiels as mentors. In May 2019, with Spillebeen as CEO, Heftig won the final of The Birdhouse accelerator after being selected from more than 650 companies. In 2020 Heftig and SBB Accountants & Adviseurs organised Online Coffee Break networking sessions in every Flemish province, the first West Flanders edition drawing 55 participants.

Cedric Spillebeen is a co-founder of Air Eu, an AI-assisted website builder made for freelancers, small businesses and organizations. The platform has a free plan and paid plans from 37 euro per month, an AI assistant that helps with site structure, content and translations, and app and expert marketplaces. Spillebeen has described Air.eu as a low-threshold European alternative to Wix and Squarespace for a European SME market of more than 23 million businesses, with the concept to be launched in all 27 EU countries. He works with the team of The Harbour in Ghent on a financing round meant to bridge the first 18 months after launch, and is coached by tech entrepreneurs from Amsterdam and Ghent. Ahead of the launch Air.eu ran an Early Access programme for interested SMEs. He is based in Wingene.