Belgium: Deltaray raises €4.2 million in new funding

Deltaray, a laboratory spin-off from the Flemish Institute for Microelectronics and Components (Imec) and the University of Antwerp, has announced a new round of funding of €4.2 million from the investment fund Industrya, the historic Flemish investment company LRM and private investors. In January 2021, it had raised €1.3 million from LRM, Imec, the University of Antwerp and private investors. Previously, the company had been part of the imec.istart acceleration program and received grants from Vlaio, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agency of the Flemish government. Deltaray, a Belgian technology start-up founded in 2019, aims to become the market leader in Quality 4.0 inspection and operates in the field of quality control on production lines. It is located at the Greenville site in Houthalen-Helchteren, an LRM incubator, and has a worldwide patent exclusivity for its 3DAX technology for applications in industrial inspection. Tom Aerts, head of investments at LRM, states:

"As an investment firm, LRM has been actively seeking innovative companies for several years."

Deltaray's 3D Accelerated Xray (3DAX) technology

Deltaray's technology scans objects with X-rays and analyzes those scans in 3D using artificial intelligence (AI). The product is checked from all sides, inside and out, at very high speed, and production continues without being impacted. Dirk Hamelinck, CEO and co-founder explains:

"X-rays are already used today for random quality control, but what makes Deltaray so unique is the speed at which our technology can do this. It's 100 times faster than other solutions available on the market. We literally scan every product fully automatically on the production floor and at normal production speed. This way, unexpected errors become immediately visible."

Launch in 2022

Visual inspection of a product cannot provide information about the non-visible parts of the product. On the other hand, x-ray tomography (CT) can provide a 3D description of the internal structures of an object from a series of 2-dimensional x-rays, but this process is very time-consuming due to the amount of images to be processed. Deltaray performs non-invasive scanning and provides a 3D defect analysis that is generally 100 times faster than CT. The company already offers its customers fully automated inspection systems as a total solution and will soon introduce its new 3DAX imaging kit solution to machine builders and industrial automation players. The 3DAX Imaging Kit will be available in Europe starting in September 2022 and will be launched worldwide at the end of the year. This new round of funding brings Deltaray's total investment to €5.7 million. The company will use the money to further develop its technology and 3DAX kits. Tom Aerts, LRM's Head of Investments, noted:

"Deltaray's smart technology pushes all existing boundaries and fits perfectly with the trend of Industry 4.0, where flexible, connected and data-driven production is becoming the norm, and where data and control are becoming increasingly important. In combination with the experienced management team, the close link with knowledge institutions imec and the University of Antwerp and the confidence of Industrya, we have great faith in Deltaray's further growth."

Alexandre Braconnier, Chief Investment Officer of Industrya said:

"We have been impressed with the solutions Deltaray has developed to improve and digitize quality control in production environments. Deltaray has been fueled by a strong ecosystem in the province of Limburg and is now ready to play its cards internationally. Together with the management and all co-investors, Industrya looks forward to supporting Deltaray's international development."

Translated from Belgique : nouvelle levée de fonds de 4,2 millions d'euros pour la start-up Deltaray