Belgium’s FEops receives additional capital from EIC Fund to help treat structural heart disease patients

Gent, Belgium-based FEops, a digital health scale-up, announced on Friday, October 28th, that it has secured a convertible loan of €3.3M from its current investors and the EIC Fund, in preparation of a larger capital round. 

The funds will enable FEops to develop its technology further to help treat heart disease patients and expand its established digital twin technology in other indications.

“We were already very proud to be selected in the highly competitive EIC Accelerator programme in 2019 and to have received a grant of €3.2M. It is a seal of quality that the European Commission chooses to continue supporting us and is now taking the step to provide equity under the form of a convertible loan with the potential of becoming a shareholder,” says Isabelle Decroos, CFO of FEops.

FEops: What you need to know

Founded by Matthieu De Beule (CEO) and Peter Mortier (CTO), FEops has developed HEARTguide technology, a cloud-based procedure planning solution in the structural heart space, based on digital twin technology.

According to the company, HEARTguide technology provides clinicians and medical device manufacturers with insights into the interaction between transcatheter structural heart devices and specific patient anatomy – preoperatively.

As a result, it will help improve clinical outcomes in real-world hospital settings and accelerate research and development of novel device-based solutions.

FEops claims its technology is used globally in over 310 hospitals in 27 countries. FEops HEARTguide is available in the USA for use in LAAo with WATCHMAN, WATCHMAN FLX, Amplatzer Amulet, and in the E.U., UK, Canada, and Australia.

In April, the Belgian company received authorisation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for FEops HEARTguide.

EIC: What you need to know

Established in June 2020, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) is an initiative of the European Commission to make direct equity and quasi-equity investments (between €500.000 and €15M) in European high-impact and deep tech start-ups and scale-ups. 

The EIC Fund provides patient capital and invests in companies from any sector across all E.U. countries and countries associated with Horizon 2020.

Mr. José Fernando Figueiredo, the EIC Fund Advisory Committee member, adds, “We are glad to be part of FEops’ journey to improve and expand personalized management for patients with structural heart disease. Furthermore, EIC Fund support witnesses the E.U. commitment to helping innovators scale up and unlock their talent across all of Europe’s regions.”