Earlier this month, at the European Materials and Industry forum (EMIVF) in Ghent, over thirty start-ups and growth companies met with a leading group of international venture capitalists and corporate investors through an investment and growth academy.

Dirk De Boever, Finindus and President of the event: "This first edition of the European Material & Industry Venture Forum in Ghent evidenced a strong interest in innovations for a sustainable industry (materials, circular economy and industry 4.0). The two-day program offered a good balance of in-depth discussions, coaching sessions, pitches, one-to-one contacts and insightful keynotes and panels.  The event’s success is particularly attributable to the presence of strong entrepreneurs and most of the investors active in this field. I am confident that the intense interaction will result in investments and other forms of co-operation. Mission accomplished."

In the lecture program on materials processing, circular economy and industry 4.0, Karl Vrancken, Research Fellow Materials Science at VITO, shared his views on circularity as panelist and in the keynote "Innovation for Circular Economy, building on Industry 4.0".  Tim Op 't Eyndt of iFlux contributed a starters pitch.  Bart Dooms and Johan Geysen of the VITO Tech Transfer team coached the companies in preparing their final pitch to investors.