Didier Vermeiren

Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)

2024 - Current

We are a Singapore-based materials company that leverages green chemistry to synthesize superior bioactive biopolymers. Our products are designed to mass replace fossil fuel-derived synthetics (microplastics) and are manufactured with 90% less CO2 emissions. At this moment we target the personal care and cosmetics sectors, but we have future applications in food, packaging, and agriculture in the pipeline.

Founding Partner

2023 - 2024

Empowering purpose-driven founders from ideation to realization, with a focus on sustainable material innovations. Focus on sustainable material innovations.

Talent Investor | EiR

2022 - 2023

* Provided strategic leadership and advisory to over 700 founders (consistent high NPS), contributing to the inception of nearly 100 funded deep tech startups. Interviewed thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs, meticulously selecting the best candidates, and shaping the program's strategic direction. * Worked with all top quartile ventures of the Singapore portfolio, exceeding $1.2 billion in cumulative portfolio value in less than 5 years, a testament to the transformative startups we created; * Program Leadership: Led the program with a focus on content creation, planning, and delivery, equipping startups and founders with essential knowledge on all foundational skills crucial in the early stages of their ventures.

Programme EiR / Advisor

2019 - 2021

Form EiR

2018 - 2019

Founder & CEO

2015 - 2018

- Led the development of a pan-European collaborative sales and marketing platform (SaaS) to meet the growing demand for flexible leasing options and improve leasing operations. - Led commercial enterprise sales, serving institutional intl. accounts with Mitsubishi Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield, and Triuva, as well as a diverse long tail of smaller regional commercial property developers and agents. Grateful for the support of top investors in the proptech industry. - Exited the company through MBO.

Founder

2012 - 2016

- Led the development of a tablet and cloud-based property inspection platform (SaaS), leading its successful European roll-out and expansion into Germany, supported by ImmobilienScout, the largest online real estate group in Europe. - International clients base with over >1000 accounts in Europe. - The journey concluded with a trade sale exit.

Director

2012 - 2015

The Founder Institute is the world’s premier idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program. - Served as program director for the chapters in Brussels and Berlin. - Graduated more than 30 tech companies and recruited top startup CEOs as mentors, enriching the program's ecosystem. - The Founder Institute boasts a global presence, having launched over 3,000 companies in 55+ cities across 6 continents.

Founder

2011 - 2012

Created Shall I Buy, a mobile social platform facilitating product reviews, recommendations, and discovery. The app empowered shoppers to receive instant feedback on their intended purchases through image and video sharing.

eCommerce Strategist

2011 - 2012

For one of the largest offline retailers in Belgium with more than €8Bln in revenue, helping them define and implement a strategy towards a sustainable ecommerce representation based on existing business requirements and future needs and with emphasis on generating demand (consumers, product portfolio, traffic & channels, pricing, user experience, conversion, competition).

Founder

2009 - 2012

- Pitch Arena (Founder): Founded and managed a pitching platform that showcased top pre and seed-stage tech companies from Belgium and the Netherlands, including early-stage companies that later achieved unicorn status, such as Collibra. - BetaList (Executive Advisor): Early contributor and advisor to BetaList, which has evolved into the largest startup discovery platform.

Founder

2009 - 2011

CashCollie.com was my first technology company. It was social payment solution helping groups of friends manage purchases for gifts without the organizational and money hassle. CashCollie matches the ease of online shopping with the power of social networks. - Managed a remote development team of 5 developers; - 3x nominated by Seedcamp as a European startup finalist; - Product suite consisted of an e-commerce engine, flash deal platform, mobile & desktop wallet app, web app, inventory and back-end platform;