Bert Gyselinckx

Who they are

Bert Gyselinckx is a Partner at imec.xpand — he co-founded Holst Centre in 2006, imec's joint R&D lab with TNO for wireless sensor technologies and flexible electronics.

Person

Bert joined imec.xpand in May 2023 when the fund was still building toward its second-fund close — before the $320M raise that followed. His background is deep imec: he spent more than a decade as Managing Director of Holst Centre, the joint lab he co-founded with TNO in 2006 focused on wireless sensor technologies and flexible electronics. From there he moved to VP & General Manager of imec US (Florida), running imec's American operation and speaking at ITF Photonics 2020 in that role. He also held a VP of Business role at Crossbar, the RRAM memory startup, giving him a rare operator-side view of what it actually takes to commercialise deep-tech IP. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA completed in 2005. The through-line is moving a single research institution's technology outward — from founding a lab, to running a US beachhead, to now writing venture cheques into the next generation of semiconductor and nanotech startups. He speaks publicly on semiconductor investment, photonics, and Europe-Japan innovation — panels at the Inpho Venture Summit 2024 and The Next Web Conference 2025 — but does not appear to keep a regular written publication.

Company

imec.xpand closed a $320 million fund in 2026 to back semiconductor and nanotechnology startups globally, explicitly excluding China due to U.S. geopolitical restrictions — a deliberate positioning that narrows the field but sharpens the fund's Western-alliance thesis. The most recent portfolio action is a May 2026 lead on a €40 million round for eyeo, a nanoscale color-splitter company targeting smartphone camera sensors. That same month, imec.xpand participated in the Series A of Optalysys and expanded its operations into the United States. The standout exit from the prior cycle came in December 2025, when Marvell acquired portfolio company Celestial AI in a multi-billion dollar deal. Earlier in 2026, portfolio company VerticalCompute — an imec spin-off — raised €57 million for advanced AI memory technology, and Axithra brought in a new CEO in April 2026 as its founding CEO moved to a CSO/COO role.

Market

imec.xpand sits at the intersection of deep-tech venture capital and one of the world's most connected semiconductor research networks — imec itself counts over 600 industry partners and signed a strategic partnership with ASML in March 2025 to install ASML's High NA EUV scanner (EXE:5200) in its cleanroom. The fund competes with other deep-tech and semiconductor-focused VC funds in North America and Europe, though none share the direct pipeline from a non-profit research institute of imec's scale. Geopolitical dynamics — U.S.-China tensions and export control regimes — are actively shaping the fund's investment universe, pushing deal flow toward the U.S., Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

Network

Bert's immediate peer group at imec.xpand includes co-founders and partners Peter Vanbekbergen, Tom Vanhoutte, Frank Bulens, and Cyril Vančura — all of whom were publicly involved in welcoming him to the team in 2023. His broader network runs through imec's institutional leadership, including imec CEO Luc van Den Hove, and through the deep-tech conference circuit where he engages with photonics and semiconductor investors.

Peter Vanbekbergen· Co-founder and Partner, imec.xpand
Tom Vanhoutte· Co-founder and Partner, imec.xpand
Frank Bulens· Partner, imec.xpand
Cyril Vančura· Partner, imec.xpand
Luc van Den Hove· CEO, imec

How they likely show up

Eleven-year tenure as Managing Director of Holst Centre (2006–2017) → thinks in decade-long institution-building arcs, not short-cycle fund dynamics.
Co-founded Holst Centre rather than just running it → high agency; comfortable initiating structures from scratch, not just inheriting them.
Moved from R&D leadership (Holst Centre) to commercial operator (imec Florida, Crossbar VP of Business) before becoming a VC → likely evaluates founders on commercialisation readiness, not just technology depth.
Conference appearances skew toward specialist deep-tech venues (ITF Photonics, Inpho Venture Summit) rather than generalist tech stages → prefers substance-dense rooms over broad-audience panels.
Electrical Engineering degree plus an MBA completed in 2005 → straddles technical credibility and business fluency; probably expects both in the conversations he takes seriously.
Possibly — no sustained public writing practice → ideas more likely to surface in conversation and panel settings than in published essays; better to draw him out than to reference written positions.

Conversation tips

→ Lead with a specific portfolio company or deal — he's operating at the portfolio level now (eyeo, VerticalCompute, Celestial AI) and will engage faster on specifics than on fund strategy.
→ Ask about the Holst Centre years — he co-founded it, ran it for over a decade, and it's the origin of his model for lab-to-market translation; it's likely a point of genuine pride.
→ If you're in photonics or sensors, surface that early — his public speaking trail (ITF Photonics, eyeo lead) signals these are areas of personal depth, not just portfolio coverage.
→ Don't skip the geopolitical angle — imec.xpand's explicit China exclusion and Western-alliance thesis is a live strategic choice, and he's had to articulate it publicly; he'll have a view.
→ Match his register: he's a former research director and operator, not a generalist VC. Avoid pitching by analogy to consumer software; anchor to hardware, materials, or systems complexity.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Celestial AI exit — imec.xpand's portfolio company was acquired by Marvell in December 2025 in a multi-billion dollar deal, and he was a Partner through that outcome. It's a natural entry point into how the fund thinks about exit paths for deep-tech companies.
Reference the eyeo €40M round he led in May 2026 — a nanoscale color-splitter for smartphone cameras is an unusually concrete photonics bet, and leading that round signals a conviction position worth exploring.
Mention the Holst Centre founding — he co-founded the joint imec-TNO lab in 2006 and ran it for over a decade. It's the clearest window into how he thinks about institution-building and research commercialisation, and most people don't know he started it.

Discovery questions

You built Holst Centre from scratch and ran it for over a decade before moving to the US operation and then into venture — what does that operator arc change about how you evaluate a founding team's ability to cross the lab-to-market gap?
imec.xpand has explicitly ruled out China investments because of U.S. geopolitical restrictions — how is that constraint reshaping where the most interesting semiconductor deals actually are right now?
The fund backed Celestial AI early and it exited to Marvell in December 2025 — what did that company do in its early stages that signalled it could reach that kind of outcome in a hardware-heavy category?

Avoid

Don't treat him as a generalist VC — his entire career is inside one technology ecosystem (imec, nanoelectronics, deep hardware); generic venture-capital framing or software-world analogies will signal you haven't done the work.

Make it yours