Qbic Fund

Who they are

Qbic Fund is a Ghent-based seed and early-stage VC — founded in 2012 to back spin-offs from Belgian universities, research institutions, and hospitals, with Qbic III's recent co-lead of the VoxelSensors seed round as its latest public move.

Person

Qbic Fund is an investor, not an individual — the brief covers the fund itself. Founded in 2012 and based in Ghent, Belgium, Qbic backs seed and early-stage companies spun out of Belgian universities, research institutions, and hospitals. Its third fund, Qbic III, has been the active vehicle, with recent investments including a co-led seed round in VoxelSensors, pre-seed funding to Weave.ly, and pre-seed funding to Innocens. The fund publishes actively at qbic.be/nieuws — announcements, portfolio milestones, and themes around science-to-market entrepreneurship, ESG, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The through-line across the portfolio is translating deep research — deeptech, life sciences, university IP — into funded companies.

Company

Qbic III, the fund's current vehicle, has been deploying capital into seed and pre-seed rounds: it co-led VoxelSensors' seed round (and participated in a seed extension), and provided pre-seed funding to both Weave.ly and Innocens. The fund announced a first close of Qbic III at EUR 49 million. Qbic's focus remains spin-offs from world-class knowledge partners — Belgian universities, research centres, and hospitals — placing it at the science-to-market end of the VC spectrum. The fund publishes regularly at qbic.be/nieuws, keeping portfolio milestones and fund news visible to founders and co-investors.

Market

Qbic operates in the Belgian and broader European deeptech and life sciences seed VC market, where competition comes from other university-linked funds and pan-European early-stage investors. Its differentiated position is the explicit mandate to back spin-offs from Belgian academic and hospital institutions — a narrower, research-anchored deal flow than generalist seed funds. Associated vehicles like Newton BioCapital I and incubator partnerships such as Biotope Incubator sit alongside Qbic in the same ecosystem, suggesting a collaborative rather than purely competitive local dynamic.

Network

Danny Gonnissen is associated with the Newton BioCapital I Fund, a connected vehicle managed alongside Qbic. Qbic also maintains formal partnership relationships with Biotope Incubator and portfolio company Aloxy. No individual partner names beyond Gonnissen are surfaced in the available claims.

  • Danny Gonnissen· Manager, Newton BioCapital I Fund (associated fund alongside Qbic)

How they likely show up

  • Founded in 2012 and still active on a third fund → long institutional horizon; decisions are made with a portfolio-construction mindset, not deal-by-deal opportunism.
  • Mandate restricted to Belgian university, research institution, and hospital spin-offs → highly thesis-driven; founders outside that deal-flow profile are unlikely to fit.
  • Active publisher at qbic.be/nieuws on portfolio milestones and fund news → values transparency with the ecosystem; comfortable being visible to co-investors and founders.
  • Co-led VoxelSensors alongside other investors → operates as a collaborative syndicate partner, not a solo-lead-or-pass investor.
  • Content themes include ESG and UN Sustainable Development Goals → impact framing matters alongside financial return; portfolio companies with SDG alignment get extra signal.
  • Possibly — long-tenure signal on fund management suggests a small, stable team where individuals carry multi-year relationships with founders rather than cycling through deal teams.

Conversation tips

  • → Come in knowing which Belgian university or research institution your company (or deal) connects to — that institutional anchor is the primary filter, not the market size slide.
  • → Reference a specific Qbic III portfolio company (VoxelSensors, Weave.ly, or Innocens) to show you've tracked their recent activity, not just their Wikipedia entry.
  • → If your work touches ESG or SDG themes, name the specific goal — they publish on this explicitly and it's a real part of their framing, not a checkbox.
  • → Treat them as a syndicate partner first: ask who else they typically co-invest with rather than pitching them as a solo lead.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on the VoxelSensors co-lead — Qbic III led both the seed round and the seed extension, which signals conviction on the company; asking what drew them to that deal reveals their investment thesis in concrete terms.
  • Reference the EUR 49 million first close of Qbic III — it's the freshest fund-level milestone in their public record and a natural anchor for a conversation about deployment pace and portfolio priorities.
  • Mention qbic.be/nieuws and a specific post — they publish actively on science-to-market entrepreneurship; referencing a named piece signals you've done more than a LinkedIn scan.

Discovery questions

  1. Qbic III has backed VoxelSensors, Weave.ly, and Innocens at seed and pre-seed — how do you decide which stage to enter for a university spin-off that still has significant technical risk?
  2. With a mandate anchored to Belgian academic institutions, how do you think about a spin-off's path to international scale from a Belgian research base?
  3. You publish on ESG and the UN SDGs alongside deal announcements — how much does SDG alignment actually move the needle in your investment decisions versus being a reporting lens after the fact?

Avoid

Don't pitch or discuss companies that have no clear link to a Belgian university, research institution, or hospital — the academic spin-off mandate is the filter, and skipping past it signals you haven't read their thesis.

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Sources

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Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on June 15, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →