About
About Expantec
Expantec is the new name of HeatLift Dynamics. Same company, same team, same technology — a name that says what the product does: expansion technology for industrial heat pumps and refrigeration.
Why the name changed
HeatLift Dynamics was the name we founded with. Two years and one working pilot later, the product is an expander, and the name should say so. The legal entity is being renamed from HeatLift Dynamics to Expantec; the Chamber of Commerce number (97325031), the address, the team and the technology are unchanged. Existing contracts, e-mails and links keep working.
Our story
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September 2024
Sake Smits asks Ryan Dillmann to co-found the company. HeatLift Dynamics is founded in Delft to commercialise a new kind of pressure exchanger for heat pumps.
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Oct 2024 – Mar 2025
Proof-of-concept of the Multiphase Pressure Exchanger built and successfully tested.
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5 June 2025
Winner of the TU Delft Impact Contest, with a €10,000 prize.
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September 2025
Office at the Yes!Delft incubator; both co-founders full-time.
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7 October 2025
Patent application filed with Arnold & Siedsma.
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18 November 2025
€240,000 raised from ASIF Ventures and TN Ventures.
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Winter 2025 – July 2026
Seven-month pilot on a retrofitted office heat pump at The Green Village, with installer Warmtebouw and heat pump specialist IBK. The case.
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September 2026
HeatLift Dynamics becomes Expantec.
The team
Four people, one test rig, and a shared dislike of throwing energy away.
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Sake Ivo Smits
Co-founder & CTO
Chemical engineer (MSc, TU Delft) with a focus on thermodynamics and energy efficiency. Sake conceived the Multiphase Pressure Exchanger and leads its technical development.
LinkedIn -
Ryan Dillmann
Co-founder & COO
Graduated with honours in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics (University of Amsterdam) and in Crisis and Security Management (Leiden University). Ryan runs operations, finance and partnerships.
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Martijn Oortwijn
Control Systems Engineer
Aerospace engineer specialised in control system design and programming. Martijn is responsible for the electronic control of the Multiphase Pressure Exchanger.
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Govert Leijdens
Fluid Dynamics Physicist
Physicist with expertise in fluid dynamics. Govert works on the physics of multiphase pressure exchange and the geometry of the mechatronic design.
Supporters
Expantec is backed by ASIF Ventures and TN Ventures, and supported by Yes!Delft, Delft Enterprises (Student Entrepreneurship Voucher), the TU Delft Impact Contest and the Philips Innovation Award, where the team reached the Rough Diamond League semi-finals in 2025.
Careers
There are no open positions at the moment. If you are a thermodynamics, control or mechanical engineer who would rather build the hardware than model it, we still want to hear from you: info@expantec.com.
