Deal of the Week: Belgian billionaires back blood test platform

As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies a group of Belgian billionaires have come together to back a revolutionary silicon-chip-based diagnostics startup, which is developing tests for pandemics like the coronavirus as well as for many other diseases. 

miDiagnostics, based in Leuven, Belgium, is making a so-called nanofluidic processor on a chip that aims to enable fast, comprehensive and cost-effective analysis of a wide range of health conditions and can be used to test for viruses in pandemic situations. 

VMF Invest, the family office of Urbain Vandeurzen, a serial entrepreneur and founder of investment firm Smile Invest, together with Benaruca, the investment office of Rudi Pauwels, a pharmaceutical billionaire who is also chairman of miDiagnostics, have committed €14 million to miDiagnostics.

It comes after early investments from Alychlo, the family office of Marc Coucke, another local pharma billionaire, and Pamica, the investment office of Michel Akkermans, a serial Belgian entrepreneur, seeded miDiagnostics.

Other early investors include a Belgian pension fund and Johns Hopkins University, which is in the headlines due to its development of its  Coronavirs Research Center and map in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.