Voxdale, the Innovation Factory: “We do what Elon Musk does: shoot something into the air and see what goes wrong”
What feels routine to us can look remarkable from the outside, and when De Tijd walked through our doors, they captured that perspective perfectly, describing Voxdale as a blend between a tinkerer’s lab, an industrial hall, and a dream factory.
22 September 2025
Voxdale BV
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From Antwerp’s earplug maker Loop to the Saudi oil giant Aramco, they all knock on the door of Voxdale, the innovation factory in Wijnegem. “Making one product is easy; producing one million is incredibly difficult.”
Hardware is hard
In the manufacturing world, the motto is: hardware is hard. Mistakes are expensive. “In software, if something goes wrong you adjust the code — at worst, a customer might refuse to pay for a month. In hardware, a small production error can bankrupt you.”
Take Loop, the earplug company that came to Voxdale. “Those earplugs don’t look complex, but you need to make hundreds of decisions: how to produce, what scale — 100,000 or 10 million units — which mold, which material? Every material deviates in shape, but the 15 components must always click together within less than a tenth of a millimeter. If the product doesn’t meet expectations, customers don’t return.”
Another example: a finger-prick device for blood samples, developed with Antwerp’s Institute of Tropical Medicine for use in remote regions. “In our first rough prototype, the size didn’t fit women’s hands. Now we’re working with three sizes. Because we adjusted quickly, it won’t end up as an unused product.”
Top secret tests
Inside Voxdale, workshops are filled with 3D printers, CNC milling machines, laser cutters, and boxes of components, wires, and screws. Some prototypes are hidden behind black curtains: “Top secret.”
One is for Defense: drones suspended by ultrathin glass fiber cables. “We managed to save a few grams of weight, allowing drones to fly several kilometers further or carry extra payload. At the front line, that makes a real difference.”
Why big companies struggle with innovation
Tim Dieryckx, Voxdale’s CEO, is often asked why large corporations struggle to innovate.
“Because innovation rarely sits at the top. It’s buried three or four layers down. Those people’s horizon is two to three years — far too short to drive real change. So big companies mostly repeat what has been done and try to improve it.”
Radical innovation only comes in a crisis or with a CEO who relentlessly pushes it. “Some big companies succeed — even in Belgium — but they’re exceptions. Turning a tanker into a speedboat is hard. Too much red tape.”
From Saudi Aramco to European scale
That’s why companies looking for “speedboats” end up in Wijnegem. Even Saudi Aramco came.
“They know oil will run out one day. They want to diversify, but realized they can’t innovate quickly enough themselves. That’s why they came to us.”
Voxdale’s competitors include Verhaert (East Flanders) and Comate (Leuven, backed by Marc Coucke). Both are larger, but Voxdale nearly doubled revenue in five years to around €4 million. “Good competitors are a blessing,” says Dieryckx. “The next step is to compete with European players. We want to be the best.”
Test, fail, repeat
The 38-strong team advances by constant testing. “Test, fail, try again. Only then do you move forward. The human brain learns faster by seeing results than by working on endless hypotheses. That’s why SpaceX launches rockets: fire it up and see what goes wrong. If we test something and nothing fails, we probably waited too long to test.”
Examples abound: Tesla lost years (and money) mastering car production. Medtech prototypes that work in the lab at €10,000 each may fail 70% of the time in preproduction, suddenly costing €35,000 per working device. “Catching errors quickly requires a diverse team. The faster you remove a flaw, the cheaper it is.”
From academic labs to the battlefield
Voxdale increasingly converts academic research into real products or spin-offs. Clients include VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute.
One project with UGent: a soil analysis device that attaches to a tractor to measure nitrates. “Farmers often overfertilize because under-fertilisation is riskier for crops. But too much harms water quality. Our device could cut CO₂ and pollution per field significantly.”
Another: packaging for biomedical tests with Argenx and lab partner Cerba, aiming to reduce medical waste. The biomedical sector is a steady client — Voxdale has already spun out startups like Novosanis (diagnostic devices, sold) and Idevax (needle-free vaccines tested with robotic injectors).
Balancing clients: startups, corporates, and institutes
When Dieryckx became CEO five years ago (joining with investors Neomis and Tilleghcm), Voxdale shifted strategy. Founder Koen Beyers stepped aside to focus on startups.
“We now take relatively fewer startups to reduce risk. Startups are fun, but too dependent on fundraising, which is tough in Europe right now. Research institutes are steadier. Corporates are clients too — from Airbus to Pfizer — but very sensitive to market cycles. After COVID, the energy crisis, inflation, and US tensions, we felt it all. In 2023, we dipped below zero, partly from client bankruptcies and our own fast growth. Today, we’re profitable again.”
The vision
Walking through Voxdale’s hall — part workshop, part dream factory — Dieryckx points proudly at Loop earplugs, Cowboy e-bikes, and countless prototypes.
His philosophy: “One product is easy. Making the right product and then producing one million is incredibly hard. That’s why we exist: to make sure the right product, with the right features, reaches the market faster.”
Originally published in De Tijd on 13 September 2025. Written by Sofie Vanlommel.
You can read the original article on the De Tijd website here.
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