1 million euros growth capital for Qviro

The Belgian start-up Qviro is raising 1 million euros in growth capital from investment funds LRM, Industrya and imec.istart to further roll out their online marketplace for Industry 4.0. Based on an intelligent search platform, Qviro helps industrial users make informed purchasing decisions. The company is located at Thor Park in Genk, the site for companies active in the energy sector or in the smart manufacturing industry. 

The fresh capital confirms the potential of the start-up of Sven De Donder and Jorg Hendrikx. Qviro previously received financial support from organizations such as Vlerick Business School Entrepreneurship Fund, Vlaio and Digital Attraxion. Thousands of engineers use the platform every month to buy technology. In addition, Qviro is already working with industrial companies such as ABB (Switzerland), Doosan (Korea) and Kinova (Canada).

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Driven by online reviews

"User reviews are already used a lot today on webshops and consumer review platforms like Tripadvisor," says co-founder Jorg Hendrikx, "but what makes Qviro so unique is that we use reviews in a professional context. We are the first company worldwide to collect reviews for the purchase and sale of industrial automation technology. Those reviews not only make it possible to make a good choice for a buyer, but they are also a source of market insights. We sell those data and insights to large industrial companies."

"As an investment company, LRM has been actively looking for companies that capitalize on Industry 4.0 for years," says Tom Vanham, general manager at LRM. "Qviro's intelligent business model pushes all existing boundaries and responds perfectly to the trend of user reviews where buyers fall back on online user experiences. In combination with the driven management team, their trajectory at imec.istart and the confidence of Industrya, we believe enormously in the further growth of Qviro."

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Global mindset

Qviro is based in Genk and the team also works from The Beacon in Antwerp thanks to imec.istart.

"But the culture is 'remote-first', we started during Covid so we worked from home from the start. In addition, our colleagues are in Paris, Kuala Lumpur and Skopje," says co-founder Sven De Donder. "The users and customers of our review platform are located all over the world, so it is crucial that we also find that global culture in our team."

"Qviro was the first start-up to go through our incubation program in 2021. We were immediately impressed with how their innovative business model is providing an evolution in the buying process of technology such as robots and industry 4.0," said Alexandre Braconnier, Chief Investment Officer of Industrya. "Qviro was nurtured by a powerful ecosystem in Belgium and is now ready for the world. Together with management and co-investors, Industrya looks forward to supporting Qviro's international growth."

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