I-care, a Belgium-based company specializing in AI-driven predictive maintenance solutions, announced the completion of a $23.2 million fundraising and refinancing operation reserved for existing shareholders and employees. The transaction raises the company’s valuation to $1.16 billion, officially making I-care a unicorn.
“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,” said Fabrice Brion, CEO of I-care.
The fundraising marks the first step in a three-phase development plan aimed at accelerating growth and increasing market share. Following the 2022 “Eau Rouge” operation that established I-care as a global leader in predictive maintenance, the second phase, planned for 2026, will seek external investors, while the third phase will involve a postponed initial public offering.
In twenty years, I-care has evolved from a startup in Mons, Belgium, into an international group with over $116 million in annual revenues, an order book exceeding $232 million, and more than 1,000 employees. Strategic acquisitions over the past eight years have expanded the company’s global footprint, integrating eight additional firms.
I-care has scaled production of its next-generation sensors and launched the Wi-care as a Service model, a subscription-based all-in-one solution. Its Industry 4.0 facility enables production of up to 2,000 sensors per day, while the AI-powered I-see™ platform monitors more than 150,000 sensors to predict failures and optimize maintenance for clients.
“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,” said Arnaud Stiévenart, co-founder of the group.