Leuven MindGate and Start it @KBC join forces to attract hardware startups to Leuven
Leuven MindGate and Start it @KBC
Are one of the five winners of the Leuven Entrepreneurs Fund, or LEF for short, of the city of Leuven. Through LEF, Leuven entrepreneurs, knowledge institutions and non-profit organizations could apply for support for an innovative project that addresses a societal challenge. With the winning dossier, Leuven MindGate and Start it @KBC are responding to the growing interest of hardware startups in the Leuven Innovation Region. Besides intensive guidance in the search for talent, expertise and space, both organizations also have the ambition to attract ten promising hardware startups to the Leuven region.
Jan Paesen, Managing Director at Leuven MindGate, explains, “The Leuven Innovation Region is increasingly becoming the epicenter of the Belgian hardware world. By 'hardware' is meant all tangible product development. Appliances or products that many people use every day. Think of pacemakers, speed pedelecs, respirators or even circular ski slats... These kinds of products are invented and optimized here in the region."
"We have built up a complete ecosystem in the meantime. Just think of Siemens, Comate, Materialise, Voxdale, Dott Achilles, RAAK, SEW Eurodrive, ... and so many more companies. Add to that the knowledge institutions that work with hardware every day, such as imec, KU Leuven, Sirris, Flanders Make... The Leuven region is already a hotbed of hardware innovation, just look at what happened during Flanders Technology & Innovation, which we organized with Leuven MindGate at the beginning of this year. With this winning dossier, we want to attract even more such pioneers and world players to Leuven.”
To make that happen, Leuven MindGate wants to call on the experience and expertise of Start it @KBC, the country's largest startup accelerator. Over the past ten years, Start it @KBC has already helped more than 1,500 startup companies grow into an established player in their field. In Antwerp, a dedicated program was developed in this way to put the fashion industry on the map. This concept is now also coming to the Leuven Innovation Region, but specifically aimed at hardware startups.
Dirk Lievens, Community Manager Leuven at Start it @KBC: “We want to attract national and international hardware startups to Leuven with the promise of ‘tailor-made’ guidance. Start it @KBC will coordinate this guidance, and thanks to the broad ecosystem of Leuven MindGate - which already counts 400 companies - we will be able to combine local expertise with international experience. We are therefore looking for Leuven experts who want to act as coaches or mentors for hardware startups. Or for companies from the Leuven Innovation Region who want to act as 'godfather' for these young and creative entrepreneurs. Moreover, we also want to link the program to the provision of specialized spaces where these startups can develop their R&D or production. In this way, we anchor a lot of value in terms of jobs, space and investment in the region.”
In the medium term, both organizations plan to mentor ten promising hardware startups in their quest for innovation. Three of the ten startups are being sought abroad, even as far away as India.
Jan Paesen, Leuven MindGate: “The unique aspect of this project is that we will effectively be able to provide a physical location for these startups to develop. After all, hardware startups require very specific modalities. Just think of a warehouse, a welding station, R&D space, ... It is thanks to the extensive and effective network of Leuven MindGate that we can effectively offer different locations where these companies can develop."
"We also welcome national and international startups. We have already started discussions with Indian organizations, but also with Brainport Eindhoven (Netherlands) and the innovation regions around Cork (Ireland) and Espoo (Finland). We are therefore very happy that, thanks to the support of the LEF fund of the City of Leuven, we can accelerate these ambitions.”