Seed · Hardware & Semiconductors · Leuven, Belgium · Founded 2024 · 11–50 employees
Vertical Compute is a Belgian deep-tech semiconductor startup and imec spin-off, founded in 2024 by ex-Google CEO Sylvain Dubois and ex-imec CTO Sébastien Couet, developing vertically integrated memory chiplets to overcome the AI memory bottleneck. Their technology stacks memory directly on top of compute logic within a single wafer, reducing data movement from centimeters to nanometers for dramatically higher bandwidth, lower latency, and up to 80% energy savings. The chiplets are designed to integrate with existing CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators rather than replacing them, acting as an enabling layer. The company has raised a total of €57M in seed funding, with a €20M initial round led by imec.xpand and a €37M extension led by Quantonation, backed by a broad consortium including Eurazeo, XAnge, Vector Gestion, Flanders Future Techfund, Kima Ventures, and Drysdale Ventures.