imec.istart Fund
Miriam Makebaplein 2, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, 9000, Belgium
Overview
The first investor and supporting partner to scale your tech startup, ranked the no.1 university-linked accelerator in Europe by UBI Global.
- Total investments
- 4
- Lead investments
- 1
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 1
Sector focus
- Incubators
Investment portfolio
- IntelliProve
Participated · Seed · Jan 2025
IntelliProve develops a smartphone-camera software that obtains physiological metrics—heart rate, respiratory rate and stress—using optical face scans, marketed as "digital biopsies." The product is offered as a plug-in solution for digital platforms and apps across digital health, corporate wellbeing and health insurance. It holds CE marking as a medical device and ISO27001 certification. The company works with partners including Het Wit‑Gele Kruis, TU Delft, vzw Zorg‑Saam and imec.istart, and serves clients such as Helan and Neutraal Ziekenfonds Vlaanderen. IntelliProve was founded in 2021 and now operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Italy, France, Germany and Denmark. Management says the company will refine the solution further and roll it out across Europe. IntelliProve builds a platform that lets doctors and mental-health practitioners assess patient condition using a conventional smartphone camera and a standard finger pulse oximeter. The software extracts embedded biomarkers — mental state, blood oxygen, respiratory rate and blood pressure — from facial expression, body language and pulse readings using signal processing and computer-vision driven AI. It offers a smartphone app and API to enable readings without wearable connected devices. IntelliProve positions its technology as an initial step toward “digital biopsies” to improve preventative healthcare and patient engagement. The company is still finishing product testing and its software has not yet launched. IntelliProve is led by co-founder and CEO Joeri Tulkens.
- DEO
Participated · Equity · Oct 2021
DEO offers an AI-backed data platform that captures and analyzes data inside the operating room to quantify efficiency, team ergonomics, material usage, and financial performance. The platform generates first-of-its-kind OR datasets and delivers actionable insights to hospitals and medical-device partners. After years serving orthopaedics and collaborating with companies like Johnson & Johnson, DEO plans to scale its offering to additional surgical specialties. The company intends to accelerate business development, build more commercial partnerships in Europe and the US, and develop new software applications and automated technologies on top of its existing platform. DEO also plans to ramp up hiring across all areas to support growth. The company announced a €3.65 million financing round to support these initiatives.
- Venly
Participated · Seed · Apr 2021
Arkane Network is a Belgian-based blockchain technology company founded in 2018 that offers blockchain-agnostic wallet services, NFT management (including minting APIs) and the Arkane Market peer-to-peer NFT marketplace on Polygon. Its REST-API solutions enable developers and blockchain games to build products and integrate wallets and NFT functionality without deep blockchain expertise. Clients and partners named in the article include The Sandbox, Bondly, Atari, Binance, Polygon, Aavegotchi, CoinStats and NFTBank. Operational metrics cited include more than 100,000 wallet users and having helped projects sell over $3M worth of NFTs in 2021; the team was described as six people including the four founders. Arkane provides custody services and supports primary and secondary NFT sales, positioning itself as a one-stop-shop for NFT lifecycle needs. The company plans to use growth capital to expand its team, hire into leadership roles and set up an independent branch in Berlin to accelerate scale and mainstream adoption.
Team
Sven De Cleyn
Managing Director
LinkedIn