Luxembourg to open a HealthTech start-up incubator

It will guide 10 enterprises towards growth starting this spring

At a press conference held on Thursday, the Economy Minister of Luxembourg Franz Fayot announced the upcoming creation of an incubator in the field of health technologies. The incubator is expected to open this spring at Esch-Belval and become home to up to 10 companies of start-up and spin-off type.

Enhancing research and development in the health sector

Luxembourg earmarks an investment worth 850,000 euros for the development of its HealthTech sector. A new laboratory space is set to open in a couple of months’ time, helping companies flourish, while accelerating the economic impact of public biomedical research.

There, the starting enterprises, and those who split from parent companies, will benefit from professional support in terms of business development specific to the HealthTech sector.

The future incubator will occupy 350 square metres, as an extension to the House of Biohealth in Esch-sur-Alzette, second-largest city in Luxembourg. The location could not be better, given that the “House” already employs 450 people working in the sector of health technologies.

The facility built in 2015 offers offices and lab spaces, for both established and start-up companies in the field of biotech, clean-tech and information and communication technologies. It is already home to nine enterprises and two research laboratories – the Luxembourg Institute of Health and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine.

Franz Fayot, quoted in a ministerial press release, said on the occasion that "The health technology sector is a pillar of our economic diversification strategy in which the House of Biohealth plays a key role in ensuring sustainable growth. Such an offer of infrastructure adapted for the hosting of companies in the HealthTech sector constitutes an asset in terms of attractiveness and sustainability for the national economic ecosystem.

Eventually also housing an incubator, the House of Biohealth will be able to respond even better to the specific needs of start-ups and spin-offs, which will thus be able to benefit from specific support to successfully move from the world of research to the world of business."

The CEO of House of Biohealth Jean-Paul Scheuren added that: "Thanks to the infrastructures offered by the House of Biohealth, new activities in the field of health technologies have been generated. The development of the company Fast Track Diagnostics is a real 'success story' in this context, and I hope there will be many more."

According to data released by the Government of the Grand-Duchy, the economic contribution of the private sector of health technologies added a value of 180 million euros in 2017. Half of the companies are rather new, and most of them are based outside of the capital city.