Imec.istart Future Fund

Imec.istart Future Fund operates as the venture investment arm extending from the imec.istart accelerator program in Leuven, capitalizing alumni and other deep tech founders who have come through the broader imec ecosystem. The fund’s structure provides natural deal flow from one of Europe’s most respected deep tech research institutions, with healthcare exposure concentrated in digital health and AI/ML applied to medical and life sciences problems. Nuclivision is among the portfolio companies that exemplifies this profile.

The thesis rests on the institutional advantage of imec, which combines a research powerhouse, a sizeable accelerator pipeline, and an investment arm under one ecosystem. The fund focuses on technology founders building deep tech and healthcare AI companies that benefit from imec’s research infrastructure, deep technical advisory bench, and connections into European corporate partners. Healthcare investments tend to share a strong technical foundation, often involving medical imaging, computational biology, or AI applied to clinical workflows, where the imec research network can provide meaningful diligence and ongoing technical support.

The fund writes pre-seed and seed checks generally between $250k and $1M, with the ability to follow on as companies mature. Geographically, the focus is Belgium and the broader Benelux and European deep tech corridor, with particular density in companies with imec connections. The check size is calibrated to extend the runway of companies emerging from the accelerator and to provide initial institutional capital for other deep tech founders the fund identifies independently. The accelerator-fund structure means founders may engage with the program before formal investment, which gives both sides time to develop conviction.

The team operates within the broader imec institutional context, which means founders can expect access to a deeper bench of technical advisors than at a typical seed firm of similar size. That structural advantage is most relevant for healthcare AI companies whose technology requires meaningful research-grade validation before reaching the market.

In working with companies, the fund’s most distinctive value is the imec ecosystem itself, including research collaborations, corporate partnerships, and access to deep tech engineering talent. The firm helps with follow-on rounds and has connections into Series A leads in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the UK that can lead subsequent financings. For healthcare founders, the fund is most useful when the company has a strong research or technical core that benefits from the imec network, rather than for purely commercial digital health products where the moat is distribution. The fit is weaker for founders without a research-oriented technology base or those who want a primarily commercial-focused investor. Founders considering the fund should plan to engage substantively with the imec network, understand how their technology connects to its research strengths, and welcome a relationship with a strong institutional dimension.