Overview
Holger Willems is co-founder and chief executive of relu, based in Leuven. He co-founded the company in October 2018 and has led it since. His stated areas of expertise are entrepreneurship, medical devices, finance and marketing.
He also worked as an energy engineer at Flexcity between October 2018 and July 2019, and was a teaching assistant at KU Leuven from September to December 2018. Earlier he spent August and September 2018 as a mechanical engineer at Materialise, worked as a research assistant at KU Leuven in August and September 2017, and was a 3D designer at Health House vzw in July and August 2016.
Willems studied at KU Leuven, taking a bachelor's degree in electrotechnical and mechanical engineering, a bachelor's degree in computer science, the honours programme in engineering science and a Master of Science in energy engineering. He also studied nanotechnology at Universidade de Aveiro, algorithmic information theory at Télécom Paris and biomedical imaging at ETH Zürich, and completed a postgraduate programme in innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering between September 2019 and June 2020. He attended secondary school at Sint-Albertuscollege Haasrode.
Career history
In the news
- Met ons innovatief product helpen we nu 1 miljoen tandheelkundige patiënten per jaar, en dat is voor ons nog maar het begin" - Holger Willems (Relu). 🦷 Een kroon, brug of beugel ontwerpen is precisiewerk dat tandtechnische labo’s traditioneel uren kost. Tegelijk stijgt de vraag naar tandzorg en is er een tekort aan tandtechnici. Het Leuvense Relu automatiseert dat ontwerpwerk met AI en helpt zo labo’s wereldwijd meer patiënten te bedienen. Die innovatie leverde het bedrijf de #VLAIOaward voor economische impact op 🎉. Ontdek
- Last Friday, we received the VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship Award for Economic Impact. The VLAIO Awards celebrate Flemish SMEs that make an impact in their domain through innovation, persistence, and entrepreneurship. This award belongs to everyone who built Relu with us: our team, our customers and our partners. As Holger Willems puts it below, for us, economic impact means real patient impact. A big thanks to VLAIO for the recognition and for encouraging entrepreneurship.
- That's Relu receiving the Vlaio Award for Economic Impact by Mark Andries Everything we do impacts patients worldwide. For us, economic impact means patient impact. ➕ Thank you, VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, for celebrating economic success stories & stimulating entrepreneurship! 💪
- Relu won zonet de VLAIO AWARD voor economische impact! 💪 Proficiat! ⬆️ De omzet van Relu groeide in korte tijd van 50.000 euro tot meer dan 2,5 miljoen euro, het team groeide van 4 naar 21, en de export ging van 0 naar 98%, met klanten in 82 landen. 🦷 De software van Relu helpt tegemoetkomen aan de stijgende vraag naar tandzorg en het tekort aan tandtechnici. Heb je een kroon, brug, implantaat of beugel nodig? Relu bouwt uit röntgenbeelden een digitale tweeling van de patiënt. Op die virtuele patiënt maakt de software een
- Relu ranked #17 in the Deloitte Fast50! 🎉 Thanks for celebrating the fastest growing tech companies in Belgium, Deloitte! 🇧🇪 #Fast50BE
- Digital security is tough work! 🔐 Our co-founder, Thomas Beznik , has been building many of our cyber & privacy systems from the ground up. We've chosen not only technical measures to meet privacy (HIPAA, GDPR, ...) and medical device requirements (FDA, MDR, ...), but also to address the rise of increasingly powerful AI systems that exploit vulnerabilities that standards and regulations haven't covered yet. Relu keeps leveling up defenses. And we're looking for someone willing to fight the good fight against digital intruders. ⚔️
- Antwerp, here we come 🚀 Team Relu is ready for Digital Dentistry Society State of the art 2026 conference at the Hilton Antwerp Old Town, on 16 & 17 October. We look forward to meeting the people shaping digital dentistry, swapping ideas and catching up with friends and partners close to home. If you're attending, come by our booth and say hi to Holger Willems, Daria Fesik or Benny Hermans. See you there. 🤝 #Relu #DDSAntwerp2026 #DigitalDentistry #AIDentistry #DentalTechnology
- Some say dental labs are conservative about adopting new tech. As a Deloitte Fast 50 nominee, we see the opposite: This industry is quite ready for AI. 🦷🤖
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