MedTech Accelerator 2026
Turn your idea into a solution and launch your start-up.
Our intensive 6-month program is designed to boost your startup, enhance your visibility and integrate you into a top-tier ecosystem.
Registrations for the 2026 edition are closed.
The Cohort 2026
BIPSO
The Team
- Jurian Cuppen: Founder
- Looking for a co-founder: CTO with expertise in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Decentralized Identity (eIDAS 2.0/EUDI Wallet), or Cryptographic Systems.
The Challenge
Digital health systems often trap people with functional limitations into over-disclosing sensitive medical diagnoses just to access basic services such as transport, education, care, or workplace accommodations.
Today’s solutions rely on static disability cards or certificates that must be physically presented to service providers. This disclosure either reveals too much (leaking the medical diagnosis), fails to work across borders and sectors, or cannot translate medical conditions into real time functional needs. This creates major privacy risks for individuals, significant GDPR liability and legal exposure for organizations, and ultimately discourages people from seeking the support they need.
The Solution
Functional Dignity through Privacy by Design. BIPSO lets people prove what they need, without revealing why they need it. We make access to services fairer and safer across Europe.
Instead of disclosing their health data, individuals can securely show practical needs such as “step‑free access,” “ergonomic desk adjustment,” or “extended time for exams.” Behind the scenes, BIPSO uses the WHO ICF taxonomy and a cryptographic “Specialist Handshake,” and converts medical diagnoses into verified functional attributes that work seamlessly for citizens, healthcare providers, and service operators.
Maturity
Non-Functional Protocol Prototype (TRL3)
ORION
The Team
- Ioana-Teodora Ouatu: Founder
- Johan Stiens: Scientific Advisor
- Christophe Blockeel: Medical Advisor
- Pasquale Petrone: Medical Advisor
The Challenge
Oocyte retrieval in IVF still depends on rigid, decades‑old needle designs that lack adaptability, exposing patients and clinicians to unnecessary risk and discomfort. These passive, fixed‑tip tools cannot adjust to patient anatomy, making navigation during oocyte pick‑up inherently challenging.
While existing innovations focus on marginal improvements like suction or ergonomics, they fail to address the core problems of procedural safety, anatomical variability, and clinician control during the most critical phases of the procedure.
The Solution
ORION introduces the Smart Oocyte Retrieval Needle to bring active control into a procedure that has long relied on passive tools.
By allowing clinicians to adapt the needle configuration in real time, it enables safer navigation tailored to each patient’s anatomy during oocyte retrieval. This approach reduces the risk of pain and tissue damage, establishing a new safety standard for IVF procedures.
Maturity
Non functional prototype
ORIOSTIM
The Team
- Aurore Nieuwenhuys: Co-founder
- Yohan Botquin: Co-founder
The Challenge
Moderate‑to‑severe peripheral pain, especially postoperative pain, remains difficult to manage effectively, creating a heavy burden for patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems.
Drug‑based treatments, particularly opioids, carry significant side effects and dependency risks, while existing non‑drug alternatives are often cumbersome and restrictive in daily clinical use. Although temporary peripheral nerve stimulation has demonstrated strong clinical benefits, current devices still impose practical limitations such as discomfort, usability constraints, and follow‑up complexity—that hinder widespread, routine adoption.
The Solution
OrioStim introduces a next‑generation temporary peripheral nerve stimulation solution that keeps the proven clinical benefits of existing systems while removing the day‑to‑day constraints that limit their use.
By improving lead robustness, skin interface comfort, and the reliability of external components, it is designed to be easier for patients to live with and simpler for clinicians to manage. The result is a more discreet, durable, and user‑friendly therapy that fits seamlessly into real‑world postoperative care without adding operational complexity.
Maturity
Non functional prototype
POLYGEN.AI
The Team
- Nassim Versbraegen: Co-Founder
- Gabrielle Woronoff: Co-Founder
- Natalia Garcia Colin: Business Developer
- Tom Lenaerts: Scientific Advisor
The Challenge
Automated Identification of Oligogenic Causes of Rare Diseases addresses a major diagnostic gap for patients and healthcare professionals alike.
While current AI-powered diagnostic tools mainly focus on single-gene (monogenic) disorders, many rare disease cases involve complex interactions between multiple genes (oligogenic) and remain unexplained.
The Solution
POLYGEN.AI is an AI‑powered tool for identifying oligogenic causes of disease.
It supports patients and healthcare professionals in navigating complex and often unresolved diagnostic cases by automatically suggesting combinations of genes that may jointly contribute to a patient’s condition. This approach has the potential to accelerate diagnosis, improve clinical insight, and reduce the number of patients left without answers.
Maturity
Minimum Viable Product
ROM
The Team
- Andy Keymolen: Founder
- Antoine Marchal: Technical development
- John Lataire: Promoter & technical expert
- Joop Jonckheere: Promoter & medical expert
The Challenge
Respiratory diseases place a heavy global burden, yet effective care depends on monitoring the peripheral lung region where many conditions begin.
This “quiet zone” is hard to assess since there are no non‑invasive tools suitable for repeated use in ambulatory care, CT imaging is limited by radiation, and ICU monitoring either fails during spontaneous breathing or requires invasive techniques. As a result, clinicians lack reliable, continuous insight into lung function across the full patient journey.
The Solution
ROM, Respiratory Oscillometry Monitoring, offers a non‑invasive way to assess the peripheral lung region in both ambulatory patients and those receiving mechanical ventilation.
By applying barely perceptible pressure oscillations at the mouth during spontaneous breathing or ventilation, the technique safely captures data without burdening the patient. Advanced data‑driven modeling then translates these signals into clinically meaningful insights—such as tissue stiffness and airway resistance, enabling earlier detection of complications and more precise, timely treatment decisions.
Maturity
Minimum Viable Product, First stage clinical validation
SONARA by ShieldRock Technologies
The Team
- Valentin Dirken: Founder & Emergency Medical Responder
- Actively building the leadership team: Chief Medical Officer and Clinical Affairs Lead
The Challenge
Over 600.000 emergency interventions take place in Belgium every year, each generating critical clinical data from ambulance crews, PIT teams, SMUR physicians, and receiving hospitals.
Today, up to 40% of intervention time goes to manual documentation, and every crew member writes their own report separately. The opportunity: transform every intervention into structured, real-time clinical intelligence that extends the clinician’s awareness and reaches the hospital before the patient does.
The Solution
SONARA is an ambient clinical intelligence platform built by a practicing emergency responder for the full EMS ecosystem. From the moment an intervention begins, SONARA captures and structures clinical data in real time, giving clinicians continuous situational awareness: validated scoring, patient evolution tracking, and automatic triggering of protocols and standing orders. At handover, a complete structured report is ready for the receiving hospital, generated automatically.
Operational in four languages already (FR, NL, DE, EN) and running entirely on-device, SONARA guarantees full performance in any field condition, regardless of network coverage. Connects to any hospital EHR out of the box, built on global healthcare standards (FHIR, OMOP, LOINC, SNOMED) and GDPR-native by design. Real-world validation with Belgian emergency teams is already underway.
Maturity
Product operational, real-world validation underway with prehospital emergency teams.
TARC
The Team
- Taylor Frantz: Founder, Computer vision expert
- Jef Vandemeulebroucke: Founder, Scientific Expert
- Frederick Van Gestel: Clinical Expert
The Challenge
Complication rates in external ventricular drain (EVD) placement remain a significant challenge for both patients and care centers.
Despite the critical nature of the procedure, the current standard of care relies on free‑hand placement, which is highly operator‑dependent and prone to variability. This lack of precision contributes to avoidable risks, repeated procedures, and increased burden on patients and healthcare systems.
The Solution
TARC, The Augmented Reality Company, brings precise surgical navigation directly to neurosurgeons, wherever the patient is.
By delivering portable, AR‑based guidance at the bedside, it extends advanced navigation beyond the operating room. This enables faster, more accurate interventions while improving flexibility and access to image‑guided neurosurgical care.
Maturity
Minimum Viable Product
The coaches
The coaches of the MedTech Accelerator are distinguished by their leadership experience within innovative companies and their commitment to supporting start-ups in their journey.
Shahram Sharif
Visionary digital health and MedTech executive with 20 years of international experience. Passionate about harnessing technology, data, and entrepreneurial leadership to drive positive changes in healthcare across Europe, the UK, and the US.
Gaetan Van Wijck
CEO with 20 years of experience leading international marketing, sales, and general management teams across the Medical Devices industry. Proven track record in driving growth and leading transformations in both established corporations and scale-up ventures.
Enrique Vega
CEO with 25 years of international management experience in start-ups and global companies. Proven track record of raising funds, dealing with shareholders, introducing strategic partners and investors, and preparing for IPO.
Xavier Delcorps
Business development and management expert with 30 years of experience in medical technologies supporting start-ups, scale-ups, and SMEs in accessing and growing within their target markets.
Benjamin Mertens
CEO driving the strategic vision, securing vital funding and shaping the future of patient care. Experimented in business acumen with medtech, contributing to the development of industry leaders and bridging the gap between medicine and technology.
Gregory Miller
Marketing & commercial leader with a track record of driving long-term value and patient outcomes for multiple blockbuster brands, at the country, regional, and global levels, across therapy areas and lifecycle stages.
Why join our program?
Since 2016, the MedTech Accelerator has supported early-stage entrepreneurs providing value to patients and professionals.
The program brings together recognized experts and key players in the ecosystem.
Test, accelerate and realize your project
Join an exclusive healthcare innovation network in Brussels
Develop through contact with other project leaders
Become a pro at pitching to raise funds or win over partners
Win up to €5,000 in the final competition
Our community is changing the future of healthcare:
imagine what we can achieve together!
Advantages
A comprehensive support to identify and overcome any risks
Our lifetech cluster team, coaches and experts will help you through the initial, foundational stages of drafting your business plan.
When you leave the Accelerator, you will be able to:
- Present a credible business plan and roadmap.
- Pitch your idea to pre-seed investors.
- Activate Brussels grants and set up your own company.
- Join the lifetech cluster.
Over 6 months, you will benefit from:
- 20 workshops, theoretical and practical
- 20 hours of personalized business coaching.
- Continuous training in pitching.
- Days of targeted meetings with the ecosystem
Our focus
- Value proposition for your customers
- Market and competitor analysis
- Business plan, financial plan, funding
- CE marking and intellectual property
- Regional and European aid
To gain a detailed understanding of the program and determine if it aligns with your needs, we’ll arrange a one-on-one meeting.
For that purpose, you can contact us directly or sign up.
Our trackrecord since 2016
On the market
Access criteria
You will benefit greatly from this program if you are :
A healthcare professional with experience to build on.
An entrepreneur with an impactful vision.
A student or a researcher with an innovative technology.
Here are the program registration criteria
A solution that lies between a CRL2-CRL4 TRL2-TRL7 (check on the MatMax)
A startup or a spinoff that is established or willing to soon establish in Brussels.
A company about to be created or is less than 5 years old.
Previous participants
Curious to find out about some of our alumni?
Meet your MedTech Accelerator® team
The MedTech Accelerator® supports healthtech enthusiasts to accelerate the innovation potential of their solution in Brussels and beyond. We are an enthusiastic team ready to support you throughout your entrepreneurial journey, within the program and after!
The MedTech Accelerator® is an initiative of lifetech.brussels.
The MedTech Accelerator® is financially supported by the Brussels Regional Government.
”More for Brussels” This project was supported by the ERDF between 2016 and 2023.
