1.
Flanders : From WW1 Battlefields to
Global Leadership in Enterprise
Software, Semiconductors & Biotech
January 28, 2019
Dirk Wauters
Visiting Professor Innovation Management
KU Leuven
dirk.wauters@kuleuven.be
Former CEO: VRT, Siemens Networks Belgium
Software, Telecom, Media sectors
Angel Investor

2.
My personal journey
• Stanford MBA Seminar
- Steve Jobs: Prospectus of Apple (Fall 1980)
à Is Apple worth 22 $ /share ?
(After stock splits: = 0,4 $ today)
- Apple Stock today: 157 $
2
• Co-founder 1st KU Leuven Spin-off (1981)
- Silvar-Lisco: software for IC design
- IPO on Nasdaq in 1984
• 30+ years of industry experience
- Entrepreneur, Large Companies, CEO
- Alcatel, Siemens, VRT
• Visiting Professor at KU Leuven, Angel Investor

3.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration3
Belgium and Flanders
• Population: 11.3 mio (Flanders: 6.5 mio)
• GDP/Capita: $ 46.6 K (US: $ 59.8 k)
• Unique Location:
- 60% of Europe’s purchasing power within 500 km
• Economic Growth Drivers changing:
- 1950’s - : investment by multinationals
- 1980’s: ”Hidden Champions” – ‘Mittelstand’
- 2000 - : new entrepreneurial spirit
• Historically lower capital funding
- Vs Netherlands: private pension funding
- Risk averse citizens: safe investments
• Changing mindsets:
- Historically not entrepreneurial
- Role models, success stories
- 2nd generation entrepreneurs
- ‘02-’16: willingness to start own company X 3

4.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration4
1914: Belgium is the 5th
largest economy in the
world
Middle Ages: Textiles
1425: KU Leuven
1800’s à
Industrial Revolution
Textiles, steel, coal
mining, metals, railroad
ß 1950’s: Foreign Investment
Small & Medium
Enterprises:
“Hidden Champions”
(8% of SME’s)
Start-Ups
Scale-Ups
ß 2000 ß 1970’s
World War I
Depression
World War II

5.
Academic Spin-offs
• Universities: KU Leuven,
UGent
• Research Institutions:
- IMEC (1984), iMinds (2004)
- VIB (1996)
• “Invention” driven
• ‘Triple Helix’:
- Universities, Business,
Government
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration5
The Flanders innovation ecosystem: 3 waves
1980 à 2000 à 2010 à
“Idea” Start-Ups
• Idea, Business Model driven
• Proximity to talent sources
• Accelerators:
- iMinds iStart
Scale-Ups
• VC Funding: 2nd generation entrepreneurs
- Fortino, Smartfin
• Foreign Investors: now majority
- Iconiq, Insight VP, Spectrum Eqty
• Government Incentive: Tax Shelter
- Tax deduction: 45% of investment
• 2018:
- 728 mio € financing, 129 deals
- > 40% in biotech

6.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration6
Belgium Venture Funding
Source: Omar Mohout, European Tech Scaleups report 2017
https://www.slideshare.net/omohout/european-tech-scaleups-report-2017?from_action=save
Amount raised (mio €, 2017) Amount Per capita (2017)
Note: USA per capita is € 230

7.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration7
Private Equity Data for Belgium
80 144 89
439
207
170
395
1.339
649
913
1.696
931
0
200
400
600
800
1.000
1.200
1.400
1.600
1.800
2.000
Fundraising Investment Exits
(€Millions)
Private Equity Data for Belgium (2017)
Venture Growth Capital Buyout Total
Venture Investment by Sector (Annual Average '13-17)
€ Million # Deals
Agriculture 9 3
Business products and services 12 13
Chemicals and materials 3 2
ICT (Communications, computer and
electronics)
30 19
Construction 0 1
Consumer goods and services 4 9
Energy and environment 11 7
Financial and insurance activities 0
Real estate 3 3
Biotech and healthcare 35 22
Transportation
Other 3
Total investment 111 79

8.
• University Driven:
- Ghent: Biotech (VIB), Software
- Leuven: Health, engineering
• Ports: trade activity
- Antwerp: large chemical cluster
• Hidden champions:
- West-Flanders
- Antwerp/Limburg
• Brussels:
- Capital City
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration8
Flanders Regional Innovation Ecosystems
• 5 universities
- KU Leuven, Ugent: 70% of students
- Antwerp, Hasselt, Brussels

9.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration9
The Biotech ecosystem in Flanders

10.
• KU Leuven:
- #5 most innovative university in the world, #1 in Europe
- Early mover in Technology Licensing: LRD
- Hospital
- LCIE: student entrepreneurship
• IMEC (Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Research Center)
- #1 IC research center in the World
- > 100 spin-offs, 125 mio € value-added, 1.250 employees
• ‘City’ Ecosystem
- Leuven ‘Mindgate’: Triple Helix
- Health, High-Tech and Creativity
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration10
The Leuven Innovation ecosystem
KU Leuven IMEC
‘City’
Ecosystem

11.
• Founded in 1972: third mission of the university
• 95 employees
• Three activity areas:
- Contract & collaborative research:
- 2000 new agreements / year
- 70% of turnover
- Intellectual property:
- 200 invention disclosures / year
- 100 mio $ royalty income / year
- Spinning out companies:
- >120 spin-offs so far
- 7 IPO’s
- 6.700 direct employees
KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD)

12.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration12
Leuven Start-Ups & Spin-Offs
IMEC Spin-Offs
Year Company name Activities
2018 D-PAC Digital platform for assessment of competences.
2018 Spectricity Miniaturized spectral sensing solutions.
2018 Onera Next-Generation Sleep Diagnostic Device.
2018 Sentea Fiber optic sensors. Everywhere.
2017 ALOXY Industrial Internet of Things
2017 QRAMA The Big Data framework tailored to your needs.
2016 EUV RMQC Photoresist solutions for the semiconductor industry
2016 Indigo Diabetes Glucose sensor for diabetic patients.
2016 EYEco eyeCO Digital lenses for glasses
2016 BioSensource Measurement and data analysis technologies for drug discovery
2015 miDiagnostics Diagnostic devices and data for healthcare
2015 Zembro Smart monitoring watch for senior people
2015 sureCore Low-power memory IP.
2014 Bloom Wearable devices and services for pregnancy monitoring.
2014 Luceda Photonics Software and services for photonics designers.
2012 Atlas Neuroengineering Products and services for the brain research market
2010 EpiGaN GaN-on-Si and GaN-on-SiC epitaxial wafer materials
2010 Caliopa
Developing and marketing advanced silicon photonics based
optical transceivers for the data and telecommunications markets.
2010 MagCam Magnetic field camera measurement platform.
2009 Lumoza Printable electronics (electroluminiscent flexible panels).
2009 Pepric In-vivo molecular and functional imaging for pharma
Leuven Start-Ups
BINARTA binarta.com
CUMUL.IO cumul.io
DATACAMP DataCamp
EYECO eyeco-eyeco.com
GUARDSQUARE guardsquare.com
Happy Volcano happyvolcano.com
ICOMETRIX icometrix.com
Miaa Guard miaaguard.com
PickIt pickit3d.com
THEO Technologies theoplayer.com
TINKERLIST tinkerlist.tv
QAELUM qaelum.com
REIN4CED rein4ced.com
SOUNDTALKS soundtalks.com
XENOMATIX xenomatix.com
IMEC Spin-Off
KU Leuven Spin-Off

13.
• Almost all are not university spin-offs
• Gent(6) and Leuven (4) dominate the list
• Growth rates lower than US success stories
• Majority are SaaS companies
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration13
Scale-Ups Deloitte Fast 50 (2018)
# Company name City Growth %
1 GuardSquare Leuven 4714%
2 Mega Luik 3087%
3 Silverfin NV Gent 2842%
4 THEO Technologies Leuven 2076%
5 Teamleader Gent 1199%
6 iBanFirst Brussels 1149%
7 Nanopixel Roeselare 679%
8 ML6 Gent 654%
9 OncoDNA Gosselies 592%
10 EyeSee Gent 489%
11 Zentrick Gent 472%
12 CodaBox NV Heverlee 368%
13 Sync Solutions nv Sirault 357%
14 DX-Solutions Harelbeke 343%
15 Pitco Kessel 324%
16 Showpad Gent 317%
17 StepUp Consulting Leuven 310%
18 Monizze Woluwe-Saint-Piere 284%
19 AvioVision nv Hasselt 231%
20 Lansweeper Grembergen 228%

14.
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration14
Company Cases

15.
• Good news:
- Entrepreneurship is ‘Hip’ and growing
- Flourishing ‘Seed’ activity
- Increased local funding and foreign investment
- Technology Knowledge Centers
- B2B Strengths
• Challenges:
- Scaling-up from Series A round
- International expansion
- 2nd/3rd generation entrepreneurs
- Ambition & funding to become world leaders:
- “Do we exit too early?”
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration15
Challenges for Flanders
Major Exits
Technology
AVT
Cartagenia
Clear2Pay
Icos Vision
Layerwise
LMS
Metris
Trendminer
Biotech
Ablynx
Tigenix