Qbic III increases capital to 88.5 million euros to invest in spin-off companies of Belgian world-renowned knowledge institutions.
St-Denijs-Westrem, Belgium, July, 5th 2023 – Qbic, the Belgian interuniversity venture capital fund that catalyzes the translation of promising technological developments from research institutions to sustainable companies, closes a second and final investment round of its third fund, Qbic III, with an amount of 88.5 million euros. For this investment round, Qbic can count on the support of the European Investment Fund, existing shareholders and a number of new private investors. The resources of Qbic III will be used to invest in spin-offs of various partner institutions, thus building a strong and diverse portfolio of young, promising deeptech, software, biotech and medtech companies.
The money for this investment round was raised from the European Investment Fund (EIF), as well as a number of existing and new investors. The EIF will contribute €35 million to the fund, backed by the InvestEU programme. InvestEU aims to mobilise over €372 billion in additional investment for EU policy priorities over the period 2021-2027. The accession of EIF also confirms the importance of Qbic's strategic mission to further support and expand the university entrepreneurial landscape. With a fund of almost € 90 million, Qbic III is gaining strong financial strength to further support this ecosystem.
Just like its predecessors, Qbic III can continue to count on the strong ties with important Belgian universities (UGent, VUB, UAntwerp, Uhasselt and ULiège), research institutions (VITO and imec), and 8 innovative hospitals. Through this preferred relationship with leading European innovation centres, Qbic has visibility into and direct access to their deal flow.
Since the foundation of Qbic III, 5 companies have already invested in various sectors, ranging from new cancer therapies (Theratrame), AR/VR applications (Swave, Voxel sensors), alternatives to antibiotics for animals (Animab) to software development (Weave.ly). The fund also expects to be able to add a number of promising companies to its portfolio in the coming months.
Sofie Baeten, Qbic Managing Partner/CEO: "It is a privilege to continue to count on the trust of our existing investors and to welcome our new investors. With a fund that is 50% larger than our second fund, the attractiveness of our fund strategy is confirmed. With the EIF, we have an investor on board who 100% endorses our mission to model world-class companies from the world-class research taking place at our universities and pursues the same impact as us as a fund in terms of sustainability and gender equality."
EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt commented: "Universities play a fundamental role in fostering innovation, and the EIF is committed to supporting the development of promising technologies. We’re very excited about this fund, especially as it will channel European funding to scale up technologies that can really make a difference in their fields.”
Qbic is an interuniversity venture capital fund that focuses on the transformation of technological breakthroughs into sustainable companies. Qbic supports spin-offs and start-up companies that valorise research from the knowledge partners, with a special focus on deeptech, biotech and medtech. It is one of the largest spin-off funds in Europe and manages around 200 million euros in resources across the various funds. Qbic I started in 2012 and has completed its portfolio on 18 companies; Qbic II started in 2017 and has a portfolio of 19 companies. Qbic III started in 2022 and currently has 5 companies in its portfolio.
The EIF is part of the EIB Group. It supports Europe’s SMEs by improving their access to finance through a wide range of selected financial intermediaries, such as banks, guarantee and leasing companies, micro-credit providers and private equity funds. The EIF designs and offers equity and debt financing instruments fostering EU objectives in support of entrepreneurship, growth, innovation, research and development, the green and digital transitions and employment.
The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investments for the European Union's policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments currently available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
