Innovation Fund

Chairman François Cornélis leads the investment process, supported by Principal Pol-Henry Bonte and the Innovation Circle, a standing advisory body of 13 former CEOs and academics from the chemicals and life-sciences sector. The Circle has evaluated over 100 projects since 2013 and identifies which portfolio companies are mature enough for the Fund’s capital.

Nearly all pipeline originates from the Innovation Circle, which was launched in 2013 as an essenscia initiative to mentor winners of the annual Innovation Award. The Circle’s corporate members — including Solvay, Total, and Janssen Pharma — channel proprietary R&D spin-offs and academic collaborations into the mentoring program. Only projects that have progressed through this pre-investment screening reach the Fund’s capital committee.

essenscia, Belgium’s chemical and life-science industry federation, incubated both the Innovation Circle and Innovation Fund. The Fund’s registered office sits at the essenscia headquarters in Schaerbeek, and General Secretary Yves Verschueren serves both entities. The Fund operates as a legally separate sa/nv (public limited company), but its governance and origination are deeply tied to the federation’s membership.

The Fund’s mandate targets projects that emerge from the Belgian chemical and life-science cluster — a regionally anchored but globally connected industry. The corporate backers are multinational groups (Total, BASF, Solvay), and the Fund’s charter does not restrict portfolio companies to Belgian legal entities, though its sourcing mechanism is demonstrably local.

The Fund targets early-stage opportunities — after academic R&D is proven and intellectual property is protected, but before traditional venture capital typically enters. This post-proof-of-concept, pre-Series A window is where the Circle’s technical mentors provide the commercial diligence that conventional investors often lack in deep-science verticals.

SFPI-FPIM, Belgium’s federal holding and investment company, participated as an investor, adding a public-policy dimension to the Fund’s capitalization. Its presence signals a federal mandate to strengthen the domestic chemicals innovation ecosystem, pairing state-backed patient capital with the technical networks of the corporate LPs.

The Fund’s own disclosures cite a final capital increase in October 2019 that brought total committed capital to €35 million, up from an initial €13 million in February 2015. The consortium has not publicly announced a further raise, suggesting the existing pool is sized to match the pipeline of projects graduating from the Innovation Circle rather than scaling toward a generalist venture mandate.