A good vintage

For this 8th edition, we were delighted to support the solutions of the future.

It’s been a few years since “hard medical device” solutions took precedence over connected solutions. And we were delighted to welcome projects from young entrepreneurs from universities and colleges (ULB, KUL, UClouvain, ECAM, Solvay Business School).

The therapeutic fields were varied: cardiology, orthopedic surgery, learning disabilities, femtech, laparoscopic surgery.

Among the 5 outstanding startups, two received awards:

• STELLAR CLOSURE received the Jury Prize for the most advanced solution.
• AETECH received the Audience Award for the best pitch.

Discover all the solutions here: https://lifetech.brussels/en/medtech-accelerator-2/

Accelerate, yes, but why?

The Accelerator helps innovative MedTech project leaders de-risk the development of a socially desirable, technically feasible and economically viable medical device. This has been made possible thanks to the 2014-2020 ERDF programming to the tune of over 3 million euros in financial support, in order to develop an inclusive healthcare sector in the Brussels-Capital Region.

The program aims to propel solutions from medium level CRL/TRL 3 to medium level CRL/TRL 5, which are the entry levels to integrate other support and investment programs with Innoviris.brussels, finance&invest.brussels or imec.istart. Companies continue to receive individual support from the lifetech.brussels cluster.

Results that make you blush

Since its creation in 2016, the Medtech® Accelerator has :

• 8 editions
• 64 solutions supported, 68% from universities and colleges
• 30% of startups are on the market and 20% are expected to be in the near future
• 26% of projects dedicated to prevention
• At least 125 jobs created

And among our famous alumni : Moveup became the first medical app to be reimbursed by the INAMI in 2022; Lys Medical won the Galien Medtech prize in 2023; the co-founders of Spentys feature in the 30under30 Forbes Europe Science & Healthcare 2023 ranking.

A word from the Chairman of hub.brussels

“Do I still need to stress the importance of this sector at a time when our population is ageing, the prevalence of chronic diseases is increasing and we are witnessing an explosion in costs?

And this at a time when we absolutely must maintain a high level of quality and accessibility to care for all. And this at a time when we are unfortunately facing a serious shortage of healthcare personnel.

It also shows that the entrepreneurs we support are not only developing solutions that will improve and save the lives of hundreds of patients, but are also creating much-needed jobs in the Brussels region.

So that’s Hub’s mission too: to capitalize on innovation in the healthcare sector, improve the quality of care and certainly invest in prevention.”

Evelyne Huytebroeck, October 19, 2023