I-Care: From the small town of Quaregnon to world leader in predictive maintenance
In 2004, two childhood friends, Fabrice Brion and Arnaud Stiévenart, set an ambitious goal for themselves: to establish a new international predictive maintenance brand in Mons. Fresh out of engineering and law school, the 25-year-olds left everything behind to develop I-Care in Fabrice’s grandmother’s attic in the Quaregnon housing estate. Twenty years later, I-Care has become the world leader in industrial machine health and continues to do most of its development work in Mons.
I-Care specializes in predictive maintenance and can anticipate industrial machine breakdowns months or even years before they occur. Thanks to its state-of-the-art Wi-Care 130 G23 sensors, I-Care collects and transmits data in real time.
By 2007, the team had grown from two founders to four, and they had just started earning their first salaries. That’s when they met IMBC. The concepts of artificial intelligence and fault prediction seemed very avant-garde at the time. However, IMBC was quickly convinced by their determination and expertise, and decided to invest €100,000 to support their ambitions.
“From the outset, IMBC has been a strategic partner, believing in our vision even before we had proven our potential. Their unwavering support, in both moments of doubt and success, has been essential to our growth. Their ability to understand our project, to support us through the most complex phases, and to provide us with the resources we needed to get through each stage have made all the difference. Today, our partnership with IMBC represents much more than financial support; it’s a genuine relationship of trust,” explains Fabrice Brion, Co-founder and CEO of I-Care.
In just a few years, I-Care experienced exceptional growth, transforming itself from a startup in Montagne into a multinational corporation. For its part, IMBC evolved as well, doubling its team and multiplying its customer portfolio and investments five-fold. In 2022, I-Care raised a record-breaking €50 million, which was met with widespread support, particularly from banks and private investors. Furthermore, the company’s employees became shareholders, demonstrating their confidence in its future.
At each stage, IMBC has renewed its support, raising its loan and equity commitments to almost €10 million.
Today, I-Care is responsible for monitoring approximately 300,000 industrial machines in 55 countries every day. The company has subsidiaries in 16 countries, in Europe, the United States, and Asia, and is continuing its international expansion, reinforced by six acquisitions over the last six years. Despite its 850 employees spread across the globe, I-Care remains firmly rooted in Mons, where the majority of its shareholders and staff are from.
