ImmuneWatch

What ImmuneWatch does

ImmuneWatch is a Belgian biotechnology spin-off from the University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital, founded in June 2022. The company develops machine learning software that predicts the epitope specificity of T-cell receptors (TCRs), converting raw TCR sequencing data into clinically actionable information for vaccine developers, cell therapy developers, and academic immunology researchers. Its core offerings are ImmuneWatch DETECT (TCR-epitope annotation software that extracts therapy-, vaccine- or pathogen-specific TCRs from TCR repertoires in under two minutes) and ImmuneWatch DESIGN (a reverse vaccinology pipeline that ranks immunogenic epitopes and antigens from protein or genome inputs), supported by a full-service Immunoinformatics offering that runs FASTQ-to-report pipelines for customers lacking in-house bioinformatics capability.

ImmuneWatch monetizes through software licensing/subscription for DETECT, professional services for the Immunoinformatics pipeline, and royalties/licensing related to its technology licensed from UAntwerp and UZA. The platform is compatible with single-cell and bulk TCR sequencing workflows, and integrates with QIAGEN's QIAseq TCR sequencing chemistry, MiLaboratories' Platforma.bio, Single Cell Discoveries, and Singleron. DETECT was commercially launched in June 2024 and achieved top performance in the IMMREP23 international TCR-epitope prediction benchmark later that year. In 2025-2026 the company added HLA-binding preference annotation and made DETECT available as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, enabling LLM-mediated programmatic access.

The company is small (1-10 employees), headquartered in Antwerp, and to date has financed operations through non-dilutive grants (€130K VLAIO in 2022, €94K Antwerp Innovation in 2023) and Horizon Europe consortium funding rather than institutional equity. Its commercial footprint is global, with named customers and active conference presence spanning the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The competitive moat rests on the proprietary TCR-epitope database, patent-pending reverse vaccinology algorithms, and the founding team's academic standing in computational immunology.

Name

ImmuneWatch

Legal name

ImmuneWatch BV

Website

https://immunewatch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ImmuneWatch is a Belgian university spin-off that builds machine learning software (DETECT and DESIGN) to predict T-cell receptor epitope specificity and design vaccine antigens, serving vaccine developers, cell therapy companies, and academic immunology researchers globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Computational Immunology Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro primary industry

Personalized Therapeutic Design (neoantigen vaccines, individualized cell/gene therapies) (HLAAANAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

CAR-T & TCR-T Therapies (HLAAABAC), Therapeutic Vaccines (e.g., Cancer/Chronic Infection) (HLAIAEAG)

Keywords

• TCR epitope prediction
• Immunoinformatics software
• Reverse vaccinology pipeline
• T-cell receptor analytics
• Vaccine antigen design

Headquarters

HQ city

Antwerp

HQ country

Belgium

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software Licensing (DETECT): ImmuneWatch DETECT is offered as a downloadable software platform that customers run on their own infrastructure or access through partnerships. The platform provides TCR epitope annotation services.
2. Immunoinformatics Services: Expert services providing complete analysis from raw TCR sequencing data (FASTQ) to interactive reports and actionable insights.
3. Technology Licensing: Technology developed at University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital has been licensed to ImmuneWatch for commercialization.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

ImmuneWatch develops and sells machine-learning software for T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire analysis, anchored by ImmuneWatch DETECT (TCR-epitope specificity annotation) and ImmuneWatch DESIGN (reverse vaccinology epitope prediction). The company also delivers an Immunoinformatics Service that runs complete pipelines from raw TCR sequencing data (FASTQ) to interactive reports for biotech, pharma, and academic customers.

Product overview

ImmuneWatch offers a platform of specialized tools for T-cell receptor (TCR) analysis. The core products are ImmuneWatch DETECT for TCR epitope specificity annotation and ImmuneWatch DESIGN for reverse vaccinology epitope prediction, supported by an Immunoinformatics Service providing end-to-end analysis pipelines. The platform enables researchers and biotech companies to turn TCR sequencing data into clinically actionable insights for vaccine development, immunotherapy development, and immune monitoring.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ImmuneWatch DETECT: TCR-epitope prediction tool that annotates the epitope specificity of T-cell receptor sequences, extracting therapy-, vaccine- or pathogen-specific TCRs from TCR repertoires.
• ImmuneWatch DESIGN
• Immunoinformatics Service

Products and services

• ImmuneWatch DETECT Machine learning platform that extracts therapy-, vaccine-, or pathogen-specific TCRs from TCR repertoires to annotate the epitope specificity of T-cell receptor sequences, completing annotation in less than 2 minutes using an extensive TCR-epitope database. For cell therapy developers, vaccine developers, and academic immunology researchers.
• ImmuneWatch DESIGN Reverse vaccinology pipeline that identifies suitable T-cell epitopes and antigens for vaccine development, starting from a protein or genome and producing a ranked list of immunogenic epitopes or antigens. For vaccine developers and immunology researchers.
• Immunoinformatics Service Full-service immunoinformatics pipeline delivered by ImmuneWatch's team of immunology and bioinformatics experts, taking raw TCR sequencing data (FASTQ) through to interactive reports and actionable insights. For research groups and biotech companies without in-house bioinformatics capabilities.

Quantifiable outcome

• TCR epitope annotation completed in less than 2 minutes
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability5 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, strategic and secondary.

• Singleron BiotechnologiescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2026Combined forces to offer an integrated workflow linking single-cell immune profiling with DETECT-powered TCR epitope annotation for enhanced immunology research.
• dIscOverNETstrategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network dedicated to immunotherapy for neuroendocrine tumors. ImmuneWatch is an associated partner providing expertise in immune-driven therapies.
• Single Cell DiscoveriescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 September 2025Strategic partnership to bring TCR-epitope annotations to single-cell services. Integrates DETECT into Single Cell Discoveries' single-cell sequencing solutions workflow.
• iRepertoiresecondaryGTM or Marketing Partner · 8 August 2025Joint webinar on decoding TCR specificity using predictive ML models, featuring iRepertoire's TCR sequencing technology combined with DETECT analysis.
• MiLaboratoriescoreTechnology or Integration · 28 April 2025Partnership to integrate ImmuneWatch DETECT into Platforma.bio, a user-friendly computational biology platform. This enables biologists to independently analyze their sequencing data with powerful TCR-epitope annotation capabilities.
• QIAGENcoreTechnology or Integration · 23 March 2025QIAGEN published a customer story highlighting how ImmuneWatch uses machine learning to predict T cell receptor specificity, showcasing synergy between QIAseq TCR sequencing and ImmuneWatch DETECT.
• Yellow4FLAVIstrategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024EU-funded project to uncover immunity mechanisms of Yellow Fever vaccine YF17D and develop more effective flavivirus vaccines. Partners include Institut Pasteur, LMU München, KU Leuven, Charité, and others.
• Quantoom BiosciencesstrategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 March 2023Public-private partnership with Quantoom Biosciences (Univercells) and University of Antwerp to explore in vitro and in silico assays predicting T cell responses in vaccines, under Pandemic Preparedness call.
• CAPTIVATEstrategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023EU-funded Horizon Europe partnership tackling hurdles in malaria vaccine development. Mission to create next-generation malaria vaccine targeting multiple stages of P. falciparum parasite.
• AUDACIS ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Research consortium at University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital where ImmuneWatch technology was pioneered. Led to 30+ publications in computational immunology.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• CytoReason: CytoReason builds AI models of the immune system for pharma drug discovery and development. Comparable as an AI-driven immunology platform targeting pharma R&D budgets, though focused on disease-level modeling rather than TCR-epitope prediction.
• Immunai: Immunai uses AI on single-cell immune data to map immune profiles for drug discovery and cell therapy programs. Targets the same biopharma and academic customers with overlapping immunology AI use cases, though broader in scope than TCR-epitope prediction.

Direct peers

• iRepertoire: iRepertoire provides TCR and BCR sequencing reagents and analysis pipelines for immune repertoire studies. ImmuneWatch has run joint webinars with iRepertoire, signaling overlapping customer bases in academic and biotech TCR analytics.
• Singleron Biotechnologies: Singleron provides single-cell immune profiling products and services and now integrates DETECT into its workflow. Comparable in scope (single-cell TCR/BCR analytics) and customer base (immunology researchers, cell therapy developers).
• Single Cell Discoveries: Single Cell Discoveries is a Dutch single-cell sequencing services provider that has integrated DETECT for TCR-epitope annotation. Comparable in targeting immunology and cell therapy researchers needing TCR analytics alongside single-cell workflows.
• MiLaboratories: MiLaboratories builds Platforma.bio, a computational biology platform for immune repertoire analysis that now embeds ImmuneWatch DETECT. It is the most direct peer in TCR/bcr analytics software and the closest competitor as well as distribution partner.

Broad incumbents

• BostonGene: BostonGene offers AI-driven molecular and immune profiling for oncology research and clinical decision support. Overlaps with ImmuneWatch in computational immunology for cancer and cell therapy applications, but at much broader scope.
• QIAGEN: QIAGEN offers QIAseq TCR sequencing kits and bioinformatics; ImmuneWatch's DETECT is positioned to consume QIAGEN-generated data. They are adjacent infrastructure/scale incumbents that ImmuneWatch both depends on and competes with for immunology informatics.
• Adaptive Biotechnologies: Adaptive Biotechnologies operates a leading commercial TCR sequencing and immune profiling platform (immunoSEQ, Adaptive Diagnostics) and runs its own TCR-antigen mapping program. It competes with ImmuneWatch on TCR repertoire analytics, but at much larger scale across pharma, clinical diagnostics, and research.

Regional players

• Quantoom Biosciences: Quantoom Biosciences (Univercells group) is a Belgian partner developing vaccine production technology with which ImmuneWatch collaborates on in silico and in vitro T-cell response assays. Comparable in targeting vaccine developers, with regional European overlap.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ImmuneWatch
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@ImmuneWatch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/immunewatch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ImmuneWatch