I-care said it has completed a €20 million fundraising and refinancing operation that values the Belgian predictive maintenance company at €1 billion, pushing the group into unicorn territory. The transaction was structured as a round reserved for existing shareholders and employees.
Based in Mons, I-care said the new valuation follows years of investment in artificial intelligence, research and development, and manufacturing capacity. The company described the milestone as the latest step in a longer-term development roadmap that it intends to execute in multiple stages.
I-care said the €20 million operation marks the first step in a three-phase plan to accelerate growth and increase market share. The company said it expects to launch the second phase in 2026, with the goal of attracting external investors. A third phase is planned to culminate in an initial public offering, which I-care said it decided to postpone earlier this year.
The company said it has grown over two decades from a local venture in Belgium into an international group. I-care reported consolidated annual revenue of more than €100 million, an order book exceeding €200 million, and a workforce of more than 1,000 employees. Over the last eight years, it has pursued an acquisition strategy and said it has bought and integrated eight companies, including several outside Belgium.
I-care attributed recent momentum to the production rollout of its new-generation sensors and the expansion of its Wi-care as a Service model, which it described as an all-in-one subscription offering. The group said its Industry 4.0 manufacturing facility is designed to ramp output quickly, with stated production capacity of up to 2,000 sensors per day. I-care also said its AI-based I-see platform monitors more than 150,000 sensors to help anticipate failures and optimize maintenance operations for customers.
KEY QUOTES:
“Becoming a unicorn is a symbolic milestone. To achieve this, we chose to invest before reaping the rewards: we bet on AI when few believed in it, we prioritized R&D, and we built our own production unit. These choices were sometimes difficult, but they were essential to staying ahead of the game. Today, our results confirm that this strategy was the right one,”
Fabrice Brion, CEO, I-care
“The predictive maintenance sector is growing at double-digit rates worldwide. I-care now has everything it needs to play a leading role in this market.”
Arnaud Stiévenart, Co-founder, I-care
