Bert Gyselinckx

Who they are

Bert Gyselinckx is Partner at imec.xpand — co-founded Holst Centre in 2006, a joint imec–TNO lab for wireless sensor technologies and flexible electronics that he ran for over a decade.

Person

Bert joined imec.xpand in May 2023, when the fund was an established deep-tech VC backed by imec and moving toward a major new fundraise. His career is almost entirely built inside the imec universe: he co-founded Holst Centre in 2006 — a joint lab with TNO focused on wireless sensor technologies and flexible electronics — and ran it as Managing Director through 2017. He then moved to the US as Vice President and General Manager of imec Florida, where he spoke at ITF Photonics 2020 on photonics and semiconductor themes. Between imec US and imec.xpand he served as Vice President of Business at Crossbar, a memory semiconductor company. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and added an MBA by 2005 — an operator-to-investor arc sharpened by both deep technical roots and formal business training. Possibly — the Holst Centre founding role signals he's comfortable building institutions from scratch, not just running them. His conference appearances — ITF Photonics 2020, INPHO Venture Summit 2024, The Next Web 2025 — track consistently to semiconductors, photonics, and deep-tech investment, with occasional posts rather than a prolific written presence.

Company

The most recent move: in May 2026, imec.xpand participated in the Series A round of Optalysys, and the fund closed a new $320 million vehicle targeting semiconductor and nanotechnology innovations — its largest to date. A portfolio exit came in December 2025 when Marvell acquired Celestial AI, a US-based venture imec.xpand had backed. The fund's earlier second-fund trajectory showed a first close of €150 million in 2024 on a target of $277 million, with the final $320 million close representing a strong outcome. Geopolitically, imec.xpand does not invest in China, aligning explicitly with US export restrictions and concentrating its portfolio in the US, Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

Market

Imec.xpand operates at the intersection of deep-tech VC and the global semiconductor supply chain, backing early-stage companies in nanoelectronics, photonics, and sensor technologies — a narrow but high-conviction lane. The parent organisation, imec, has over 600 industry partners and signed a strategic partnership with ASML in March 2025 to install a High NA EUV scanner (EXE:5200) in its Leuven cleanroom, underscoring the fund's privileged access to leading-edge process R&D. US–China tensions are a structural tailwind for the fund's Western-aligned portfolio thesis, as governments and corporates accelerate investment in non-Chinese semiconductor capacity.

Network

Bert's immediate partners at imec.xpand are Tom Vanhoutte and Peter Vanbekbergen, both co-founders of the fund who publicly welcomed him to the team in May 2023. His broader imec orbit includes Luc Van den Hove, CEO of imec, reflecting the tight institutional link between the research organisation and the fund.

Tom Vanhoutte· Co-founder and Partner, imec.xpand
Peter Vanbekbergen· Co-founder and Partner, imec.xpand
Luc Van den Hove· CEO, imec

How they likely show up

Long tenure at imec in successive senior roles (Holst Centre MD, imec Florida VP/GM) before moving to VC → likely thinks in institutional timescales and values long-term relationships over transactional deal flow.
Co-founded Holst Centre from scratch in 2006 and ran it for over a decade → comfortable building structures and teams where none exist, not just inheriting them.
Role-type pattern flagged as hybrid (operator + investor) → probably engages with portfolio companies at a technical depth most generalist VCs don't; expect detailed due diligence conversations.
Public speaking focused on photonics, semiconductors, and deep-tech investment (ITF Photonics, INPHO, TNW) rather than broad startup culture → signals a specialist identity; he goes deep, not broad.
Possibly — the move from Crossbar (a commercial memory startup) back into the imec ecosystem at imec.xpand suggests he values the credibility of institutional affiliation alongside operator experience.

Conversation tips

→ Reference the Celestial AI → Marvell acquisition specifically — it's a named portfolio exit and a natural entry point into how he thinks about exit paths for deep-tech companies.
→ Ask about Holst Centre by name — he co-founded it and ran it for over a decade; it's likely a point of genuine pride and will open a richer conversation than asking generically about his imec career.
→ He attends specialist conferences (ITF Photonics, INPHO), not general startup events — match his register: be technically specific, not pitch-deck generic.
→ Don't expect a prolific content trail to reference; his public voice is occasional. Come with questions, not references to his writing.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Marvell acquisition of Celestial AI in December 2025 — it's imec.xpand's most recent named portfolio exit and a concrete signal of how the fund's semiconductor thesis is playing out at scale.
Reference Holst Centre by name — he co-founded the imec–TNO joint lab in 2006 and led it for over a decade, a founding act that predates most of his VC career and shapes how he thinks about deep-tech institution-building.
Lead with the $320 million fund close and the Optalysys Series A in May 2026 — it's the freshest signal of where imec.xpand is deploying capital and opens a conversation about what the fund is looking for right now.

Discovery questions

The fund explicitly avoids China — how does that geographic constraint shape which semiconductor sub-sectors you can realistically back at the early stage?
You co-founded Holst Centre as an R&D institution and now you're backing startups commercialising similar technology — where do you see the biggest gap between what comes out of a lab and what survives the startup-to-product journey?
With the ASML High NA EUV partnership at imec, how much does access to that kind of process infrastructure actually move the needle for the early-stage companies in your portfolio?

Avoid

Don't treat imec.xpand as a generalist fund — Bert's entire career is in semiconductors, photonics, and sensor tech, and broad 'deep tech is hot' framing will signal you haven't done the work.

Make it yours