About
Vision
Indigo provides an answer to the pressing need for accurate and affordable diabetes management by providing innovative high-tech solutions for advanced biomarker sensing characterized by the best possible user experience and highest product quality.
Indigo is committed to lighting up the life of millions of people living with diabetes through innovative medical technologies.
Mission
This is Indigo’s mission, to provide an innovative, accurate and convenient monitoring solution to light up the life of millions of people living with diabetes.
The Company
Indigo Diabetes (Indigo) is a pioneer of continuous multi-metabolite monitoring and was founded by Danaë Delbeke and her team in 2016.
Today, Indigo is developing a next generation solution for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) – called a continuous multi-metabolite monitoring system (CMM). It is designed to provide people living with diabetes access to information on their glucose and other metabolite levels at any given time, without requiring them to wear an external device on their body.
Indigo exploits ground-breaking nanophotonics technology, which was responsible for revolutionizing the Internet, to transform diabetes management.
Indigo is based in Ghent, Belgium.
Indigo, the color
The color indigo owes its position in the color spectrum to Sir Isaac Newton, the 17th Century mathematician, physicist, astronomer and theologian, who established indigo as the 7th color.
Indigo is neither a primary nor a secondary color. The human eye is almost incapable of detecting indigo and it takes specific sensitivity to identify the color.
For reasons of perfection however, Newton added indigo to the set of six primary and secondary colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet) to have the spectrum in accordance with music (7 notes), the seven heavenly bodies (planets and sun and moon) known at the time, and the seven days of the week.
Indigo, the color of light that was missing from the spectrum, makes it perfect.
Indigo Diabetes’ technology relies on light to accurately sense metabolites in the patient.
Management
Danaë Delbeke
CEO and Founder
Barbara Freitag
VP Finance
Gijs Klarenbeek
VP CLINICAL AND MEDICAL AFFAIRS
Juan Ordonez
VP Technology
Tom Segers
VP UX/BD
Investors
Indigo has an international syndicate of highly respected investors, led by Fund+ and including Ackermans & Van Haaren, Thuja Capital, PMV, Capricorn Partners, imec.xpand, Qbic and private investors.
“We have been impressed by Indigo’s world class team and innovative approach. They have applied ground-breaking photonics technologies at miniature scale to develop an innovative product for people with diabetes around the world. This product has the potential to provide easier, continuous monitoring and provide a better quality of life to millions of people,” says Jan Van den Bossche, Partner at Fund+.
“We are delighted to be part of the further growth and development of Indigo Diabetes as a long-term investor. The company boasts an excellent management team that has grown from a unique ecosystem that combines UGent’s photonics expertise with imec’s nanoelectronics expertise. We are convinced that Indigo’s sensor can make a substantial difference for people with diabetes and see a broader application potential for this mini-spectrometer in the long run,” says An Herremans, Investment Manager at Ackermans & van Haaren.
“Clinical evidence has proven that CGMs are effective tools for people with diabetes to improve glycemic control. We strongly believe Indigo’s invisible sensor is the next stage. Not only will it allow better monitoring and treatment of diabetes, but the psychological impact of continuously painful finger-pricking or having to live daily with visible sensors will be a thing of the past thanks to this Indigo sensor,” says Dr Harrold van Barlingen of Thuja Capital.
Fund+ invests in innovative life sciences companies focussed on therapeutics as well as companies that are developing diagnostics and medical technology. Fund+ strives to contribute sustainably to improving the ecosystem for biotech companies.
Ackermans & Van Haaren is an independent group that aims to create shareholder value through long-term investments in select companies with growth potential on global scale. AvH acts as an ‘active owner’ and takes responsibility at the boards of directors and advisory committees of its companies.
Thuja Capital generally invests in private healthcare companies with a technology focus on medtech, nutraceuticals, biotech and digital health. Frequently, these companies have developed a specific product that needs clinical validation.
PMV is a do and dare company that provides funding for companies with growth potential, throughout their growth stages to operating globally. PMV works with and for the government and other partners and implements projects that contribute significantly to prosperity and wellbeing in Flanders.
Capricorn Partners is an independent European licensed manager of private and public equity investment funds which are sector focused and rate return orientated. Capricorn Partners’ mission is to create financial return for their client’s and support pioneering entrepreneurs that have developed impactful products.
imec.xpand is an independently managed venture capital fund with a focus on hardware-based nanotechnology innovations where imec technology, expertise, network and infrastructure will play a transforming role. imec.xpand targets entrepreneurs eager to be part of the next wave of nanoelectronics-based innovation.
Qbic Fund is sector-agnostic and emphasizes investment opportunities in life sciences, new materials and IT projects with a specific interest in multidisciplinary approaches. Qbic Fund focuses on academic research spin-offs from their partner universities and research institutes.
Partners
Indigo was founded by Danaë Delbeke and her team in 2016, as a spin-off of Ghent University and imec, Belgium’s global research centre, well known for its advances in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies including silicon photonics.
Support
Indigo has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research And Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 811792.
Indigo is supported by Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Vlaio).
