Mervyn Jespers
Founder & CEO of ImmoTecto
Nearly 20 years of entrepreneurship in hospitality and gardening. Six years ago, the idea for IMMOTECTO, then called Ultipay, was born. A year later, I was incubated at the 1Kubator centre in Bordeaux, a partner of the Sud-Ouest press group. The project didn’t go all the way, but the idea never left my mind.
Back in Belgium in 2023-2024, I kept working as a gardener without ever stopping thinking about it. It was the fear of regretting it that made me take the leap. With no technical background, I taught myself, searching for and learning the tools to build the platform on my own.
Today, I master all the tools that run IMMOTECTO, and artificial intelligence in particular, which truly helped me throughout development. My CTO Xavier and I work with these tools to move faster and better.
I’m 41 and I’ve been a tenant for over 20 years, by choice. Along the way, I made a simple observation: proving your reliability as a tenant was nearly impossible. You had to provide a mountain of documents full of sensitive data, without ever really reassuring the other side. I haven’t always had a stable contract. I went through transition periods, without work, through my many moves. And yet I never missed a rent payment. Today, proving that reliability is possible thanks to IMMOTECTO.
Even today, my rule of life is simple: I pay the rent, the loans and the bills first, no exceptions. I don’t take sides, neither with tenants nor with landlords and agencies. I’m neutral, in between. And my mission is to reconcile these two worlds.
My entrepreneurial path, especially in hospitality, helps me every day to weather the ups and downs of such a project. I also want to raise awareness, especially among young people, because the rental market is already very tight and will become even tighter tomorrow.
A dad of two daughters and the partner of a caring woman, I’m a joyful and sensitive person. In 2023, I finished an Ironman 70.3. Building a platform like this is comparable: it takes mental strength and endurance. The road is long, but I’m going the distance.