Dalton, a Belgian startup turning static websites into self-improving growth engines, today announced it has raised a €1 million pre-Seed round to expand its team and bring its AI-powered optimisation platform to more e-commerce and SaaS businesses.
Investors include Syndicate One and a roster of entrepreneurs such as Stijn Christiaens (Collibra), Matthias Geeroms (Lighthouse), Jorn Vanysacker (Henchman), Gilles Mattelin (Henchman), Wouter Van Respaille (Henchman), Joris De Wit (Teamleader), Roeland Delrue (Aikido), Louis Jonckheere (Wintercircus), Bruno Vandegehuchte (Wintercircus), Alexander Stevens (Greenomy), Christophe Morbee (NewSchool VC), and other e-commerce leaders.
“One of our customers increased conversions by 40% in just weeks – fully automated,” said Vincent Declercq, Co-founder and CEO of Dalton. “Company websites should be as smart and dynamic as digital ads. Dalton acts like a digital worker obsessed with turning more visitors into customers – 24/7.”
Founded in 2024 by Vincent Declercq and Ward Van Laer, Dalton’s platform analyses websites, runs continuous experiments, and personalises user experiences to maximise conversion automatically.
Declercq, now CEO, brings a blend of athletic discipline and academic rigour, having been a Belgian swimming champion and a student-athlete at Cornell University where he studied Operations Research Engineering – an intersection of applied mathematics, data science, and game theory. His professional journey includes VC experience at Volta Ventures and operational roles at StuDocu and itsme.
Meanwhile, CTO Van Laer complements the team with a strong foundation in AI, backed by a degree in Computer Science and AI from UGent. He spent a decade as an award-winning magician and launched three side-businesses, including a Shopify venture during the COVID-19 pandemic that scaled to 15,000 customers – a key inspiration for their current startup.
Robin Wauters, founding member of Syndicate One, added: “Dalton demonstrates a well-defined problem, impressive early traction, and a highly capable, fast-acting team. These qualities are exactly what investors look for in an early-stage company. Additionally, the widespread support from prominent Founders across Belgium indicates strong external validation and confidence in Dalton’s potential.”
Unlike traditional A/B testing, Dalton claims to use advanced algorithms and personalisation to deliver faster results and requires no developer or design resources.
Two early customers have already seen tangible impact from working with Dalton.
Sunday, a merchandise platform, faced the challenge of limited traffic and team capacity, which made traditional A/B testing impractical. With Dalton, they were able to quickly test and deploy high-performing copy without adding headcount.
As CEO and owner Niels Vandecasteele put it: “Classic A/B testing wasn’t realistic: not enough traffic, and no team to manage it. Dalton made it simple to run smart & fast experiments at scale without new hires. In 1 week we already found a tagline that converts 10% better that we now use in all marketing assets”
Dexxter, an accounting SaaS, integrated Dalton into their performance marketing strategy to optimise website messaging in parallel with ad testing. Bypassing the need for developers, designers or third-party tools, they were able to iterate quickly.
“We’re scaling performance marketing so we are testing messaging non-stop in ads. With Dalton, we’re doing the same for the website – without slow A/B tests and pulling in design, dev, or extra tools. It felt like adding a 24/7 CRO specialist, without hiring a single person,” said the team at Dexxter.
With customers including Sunday, Dexxter, Aikido and klimaatshop.nl, Dalton is expanding quickly.
Backed by the new investment, the team will focus on product development from its base at Wintercircus Ghent, while adding engineering and product talent to keep pace with growth.
Louis Jonckheere, Founder of Wintercircus and backer of Dalton, said: “Where Dalton sits at the intersection of AI, marketing, and product is exactly the kind of frontier we look for in Wintercircus. These Founders are building smart and delivering tangible results for real customers.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/09/ghents-dalton-raises-e1-million-to-turn-websites-into-ai-powered-growth-engines/
