Press release 23/06/2021
AI specialist on the lookout for data-minded talent for further expansion
Kwarts celebrates fifth anniversary with venture round of 1.2 million euros
Hasselt, june 23th 2021 - AI specialist Kwarts is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a considerable financial injection. The Belgian start-up was able to win the trust of several investors for its AI-driven customer data platform A-Inside. With this platform, Kwarts focuses mainly on companies within life sciences. The most recent venture round raised no less than 1.2 million euros and marks the definitive turnaround from consultancy to product-oriented company. This makes it possible for Kwarts to recruit new data-minded talent.
A-Inside, the AI-driven customer data platform developed by Kwarts, helps companies to centralise and analyse data streams and thus map out the customer journey. "A major advantage is that our system can be integrated into an existing CRM system," explain CEO Bart Van Proeyen and CCO Ruben De Moor of Kwarts. "We link data flows from the existing CRM and ERP system together with third-party data to our platform. A-Inside analyses the data and makes suggestions about customer needs. This is done in a very clear, workable way. We remove the silos between different teams within a company. In this way, A-Inside maps out the needs of customers such as care providers, and makes recommendations on how to meet their needs," say Bart and Ruben.
Confidence from complementary investors
The two childhood friends met again in the summer of 2020 and joined forces to develop the platform. The consultancy role of Kwarts disappeared into the background in order to develop the A-Inside platform. Through online calls, Bart and Ruben were able to win the trust of investors. They raised 1.2 million euros from Volta Ventures, Imec.istart, BlueHealth Innovation Fund, LRM, Belfius and experienced business angels Jean-Marie Vliegen, Wouter Reggers and Wim Van Cappellen.
"The combination of industry experience, the scientific foundation as well as the co-created approach with customers strengthens our confidence in a successful go-to-market strategy for Kwarts," says Koen De Waele, Venture Partner at Volta Ventures. "The A-Inside platform will seamlessly add intelligence and insight to existing CRM systems in the life sciences sector."
Know-how
The A-Inside platform was developed within the framework of a VLAIO project in cooperation with the BIARU cell at Hasselt University and is based on scientific research. Moreover, Bart and Ruben together have almost twenty years of experience in life sciences. "We approach the industry with expertise. Because of that background knowledge, there is an affinity for life sciences. Therefore, we work mainly with and for companies within the pharma and biotech sectors, both in Belgium and abroad. From our experience, we can come up with pragmatic solutions that work for our clients. But A-Inside is an agnostic platform, which means it can be perfectly implemented in other sectors,” Bart assures.
On the lookout for data-minded profiles
Kwarts has already completed projects in Europe and Asia and has a trade mission to the United States planned. To anticipate the expected growth, the company is expanding further. "With the current seven-person team, we are very strong in the field of AI. We are now looking for strong profiles in software development and data science, on top of commercial profiles. Together with them, we want to make Kwarts grow further and become a household name,” Ruben concludes.
