A petroleum alternative, a modular miniaturized power system, and a learning and assessment platform each win CHF 150,000
15.06.2020
Meet the three promising startups that each win CHF 150,000 of Venture Kick support: Bloom Biorenewables, an EPFL spin-off, develops a petroleum-alternative from waste material; INERGIO, an EPFL and HEIG-VD spin-off, creates clean, lightweight, and efficient energy units; and SYLVA, a University of Zurich startup, develops an integrated learning and assessment platform for educators.
1.jpg) Venture Kick winners: Bloom, INERGIO, and SYLVA
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,-Remy-Buser-(CEO)1.jpg) Bloom co-founders Florent Héroguel (COO) and Remy Buser (CEO)
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 INERGIO team Mahmoud Hadad (founder and CEO), Cecilia Giovinazzo, and Luc Conti
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 SYLVA co-founders Jessica Sudo and Maik Meusel
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Bloom Biorenewables: The green alternative to petroleum.
Fribourg-based Bloom turns plants into renewable materials and energy to substitute detrimental petroleum-derived products. Bloom achieves this by isolating and selectively break down lignin, an abundant and largely unexploited constituent of plants, which resembles petroleum in many ways. Through the valorization of lignin, Bloom can harvest plant material, such as wood or agricultural waste, more efficiently and manufacture renewable materials, including plastics, packaging, food additives, or cosmetics. This patented, low-temperature process, therefore, offers an unprecedented solution to make bio-based materials sustainable and cost-competitive and subsequently allows the chemical industry to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The market potential for fossil fuel substitutes is virtually unlimited— in the CHF eight- to nine-digit range per category in Switzerland alone. In its first phase, the startup focuses on high-value market segments, where bio-based replacement of fossil-derived products are needed, such as fragrance and flavor, plastics, cosmetics, textiles. Co-founders Remy Buser, Florent Héroguel, and Jeremy Luterbacher and the Bloom team are currently raising a seed round to further scale up the process to validate both the technology and the market at an industry-relevant scale. “Venture Kick accelerated the transformation of our company by switching our focus from the technology to the customers,” said Florent Héroguel, co-founder and COO of Bloom Biorenewables.
INERGIO: Innovative modular miniaturized fuel cell power system
Lausanne-based INERGIO is developing and commercializing an innovative modular, lightweight, and efficient power system that delivers clean electricity wherever it is needed. INERGIO has taken a unique and patented approach to miniaturize one of the most efficient fuel cell technologies, solid oxide fuel cells, in a reliable and cost-effective way. This results in a miniaturized power plant that can extend autonomy by a factor of 10 or reduce the footprint by 90% compared to conventional power supplies. By delivering uninterrupted power 24/7 in a compact package, combined with no grid dependency, the solution offers a new quality of energy system based on commercially available and safely stored fuels such as butane, and natural gas. The startup’s fuel cell modular geometry allows unlimited scaling, making the technology suitable for applications ranging from IoT devices and consumer electronics to autonomous robotic systems and automobiles for range extenders. INERGIO aims to start the product commercialization with the off-grid market, with an estimated size of EUR 6.5 billion, and grow with the multi-billion market of autonomous robotic systems. Founder Mahmoud Hadad and the team, Cecilia Giovinazzo and Luc Conti, have already developed a working prototype, and they are focusing on the development of a minimum viable product, which is nearly completed, before starting their pilot project. INERGIO will use the CHF 150,000 Venture Kick support to advance business development, expand the team, and accelerate customer acquisition and sales. “Venture Kick for us was an amazing experience, not only for the financial support but also because of the whole training involved. It forced and pushed us to come out of our comfort zone and build a true business case out of a lab-born technology,” says INERGIO founder Mahmoud Hadad.
SYLVA: an integrated learning and assessment platform
Zurich-based SYLVA is an integrated learning and assessment platform that reinforces learning concepts through interactivity and provides intelligent auto-grading. Its automated grading and simple interface to create interactive course materials and individualized exams can save educators up to 570 hours a year and increases their time spent on teaching. The startup’s product is ready for market after piloting and testing across 20+ courses with more than 2,000 students at universities and business schools in Europe and the United States. It addresses a market of USD 7.3 billion for educators in science, technology, engineering, mathematic and business fields in higher education. To support the development of their product, SYLVA’s co-founders Jessica Sudo, Maik Meusel, and Karl Schmedders have partnered with Wolfram Research, which powers the computational engine behind Siri and Alexa’s answering intelligence. The team spent the last three months providing sales demos to professors. SYLVA will use the Venture Kick investment to further develop integration with other commonly used learning platforms, increase their digital marketing, and scale the IT infrastructure of the software. “Working with the other teams during the Venture Kick process was great,” says co-founder Jessica Sudo, “we could relate to each other’s challenges on many levels and received very thoughtful, critical feedback.”
Fribourg-based Bloom turns plants into renewable materials and energy to substitute detrimental petroleum-derived products. Bloom achieves this by isolating and selectively break down lignin, an abundant and largely unexploited constituent of plants, which resembles petroleum in many ways. Through the valorization of lignin, Bloom can harvest plant material, such as wood or agricultural waste, more efficiently and manufacture renewable materials, including plastics, packaging, food additives, or cosmetics. This patented, low-temperature process, therefore, offers an unprecedented solution to make bio-based materials sustainable and cost-competitive and subsequently allows the chemical industry to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The market potential for fossil fuel substitutes is virtually unlimited— in the CHF eight- to nine-digit range per category in Switzerland alone. In its first phase, the startup focuses on high-value market segments, where bio-based replacement of fossil-derived products are needed, such as fragrance and flavor, plastics, cosmetics, textiles. Co-founders Remy Buser, Florent Héroguel, and Jeremy Luterbacher and the Bloom team are currently raising a seed round to further scale up the process to validate both the technology and the market at an industry-relevant scale. “Venture Kick accelerated the transformation of our company by switching our focus from the technology to the customers,” said Florent Héroguel, co-founder and COO of Bloom Biorenewables.
INERGIO: Innovative modular miniaturized fuel cell power system
Lausanne-based INERGIO is developing and commercializing an innovative modular, lightweight, and efficient power system that delivers clean electricity wherever it is needed. INERGIO has taken a unique and patented approach to miniaturize one of the most efficient fuel cell technologies, solid oxide fuel cells, in a reliable and cost-effective way. This results in a miniaturized power plant that can extend autonomy by a factor of 10 or reduce the footprint by 90% compared to conventional power supplies. By delivering uninterrupted power 24/7 in a compact package, combined with no grid dependency, the solution offers a new quality of energy system based on commercially available and safely stored fuels such as butane, and natural gas. The startup’s fuel cell modular geometry allows unlimited scaling, making the technology suitable for applications ranging from IoT devices and consumer electronics to autonomous robotic systems and automobiles for range extenders. INERGIO aims to start the product commercialization with the off-grid market, with an estimated size of EUR 6.5 billion, and grow with the multi-billion market of autonomous robotic systems. Founder Mahmoud Hadad and the team, Cecilia Giovinazzo and Luc Conti, have already developed a working prototype, and they are focusing on the development of a minimum viable product, which is nearly completed, before starting their pilot project. INERGIO will use the CHF 150,000 Venture Kick support to advance business development, expand the team, and accelerate customer acquisition and sales. “Venture Kick for us was an amazing experience, not only for the financial support but also because of the whole training involved. It forced and pushed us to come out of our comfort zone and build a true business case out of a lab-born technology,” says INERGIO founder Mahmoud Hadad.
SYLVA: an integrated learning and assessment platform
Zurich-based SYLVA is an integrated learning and assessment platform that reinforces learning concepts through interactivity and provides intelligent auto-grading. Its automated grading and simple interface to create interactive course materials and individualized exams can save educators up to 570 hours a year and increases their time spent on teaching. The startup’s product is ready for market after piloting and testing across 20+ courses with more than 2,000 students at universities and business schools in Europe and the United States. It addresses a market of USD 7.3 billion for educators in science, technology, engineering, mathematic and business fields in higher education. To support the development of their product, SYLVA’s co-founders Jessica Sudo, Maik Meusel, and Karl Schmedders have partnered with Wolfram Research, which powers the computational engine behind Siri and Alexa’s answering intelligence. The team spent the last three months providing sales demos to professors. SYLVA will use the Venture Kick investment to further develop integration with other commonly used learning platforms, increase their digital marketing, and scale the IT infrastructure of the software. “Working with the other teams during the Venture Kick process was great,” says co-founder Jessica Sudo, “we could relate to each other’s challenges on many levels and received very thoughtful, critical feedback.”