CHF 10,000 for AI property management, interceptor drones, sustainable enzyme design, targeted cancer drugs, and 3D engineering tools
15.09.2025
Bewy, CDDS, Hephaistos, MedPEP, and nureo were selected in the first stage of Venture Kick’s support program. Their projects include an AI-powered property management platform that streamlines workflows, reduces costs by up to 50%, and provides landlords real-time transparency; autonomous interceptor drones with real-time vision, reinforcement learning, and ultra-low-latency control to detect and neutralize threats; an enzyme design pipeline enabling sustainable catalysts for previously unreachable industrial reactions; peptide-based inhibitors that deliver targeted, highly specific cancer treatments while avoiding toxicity in healthy tissue; and advanced 3D design tools that automate repetitive tasks and cut manual effort by up to 90%.
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 Bewy: Growth - Luca Serratore, Tech - Gilles Baumann, Product - Marcandrea Hunkeler
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 CDDS' interceptor drone
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 Hephaistos: from left to right, CEO Ilya Schneider, Arthur Theuer, Jannik Neumann, CTO Lucas Merlicek, Lukas Radtke, and Moritz Ullhofen
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 MedPEP: CEO Aaron Petruzzella
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 nureo: CEO Manuel Biedermann, CTO Patrick Beutler, and COO Urs Hofmann
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Bewy: AI-powered property management that cuts costs and boosts transparency
Property owners in the DACH region pay up to CHF 20B+ in property management fees each year, yet 9 out of 10 are unhappy with their property managers. Issues include poor communication, neglected maintenance, unexpected costs, and weak tenant service.
The founding team – Luca (growth/ops), Marcandrea (product), and Gilles (tech) – come from the University of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich and bring years of experience in startups, consulting, and real estate. Bewy is an AI-powered property management company (service provider) that automates internal workflows, reduces costs by up to 50%, and provides landlords with real-time transparency. With CHF 3B market potential in Switzerland alone and an early-mover advantage, Bewy is well-positioned to disrupt outdated incumbents.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to incorporate Bewy, integrate SaaS automation tools, onboard the founding property manager, and launch pilot mandates. This enables the startup to validate product-market fit, build the MVP, and prepare for scalable growth.
CDDS: Drones to protect life and infrastructure
The rapid spread of small, fast, and affordable drones creates urgent security risks for critical infrastructure and crowded urban spaces. Existing counter-UAS measures are too slow or intrusive to protect people and assets reliably.
CDDS AG, founded by experienced Swiss deep-tech entrepreneurs and robotics experts, develops autonomous, lightweight interceptor drones that detect, track, and kinetically neutralize hostile drones with real-time vision, reinforcement learning, and ultra-low-latency control. The global counter-UAS market is projected to exceed USD 3 billion within a few years, offering strong growth potential.
The company will utilize the Venture Kick funding to enhance CDDS’s visibility and recruit top engineers with expertise in drones, PX4, and/or ROS, thereby accelerating product development and preparing for large-scale field deployments.
Hephaistos: Sustainable chemical manufacturing with novel enzymes
The current way of producing chemicals is flawed in many ways. It is costly in terms of energy and reagents and is heavy on the environment. An emerging alternative is enzymes: They save 30% in production cost and 50% in CO2 emissions. But there is no suitable enzyme for every production process yet. Hephaistos addresses this need by designing them from scratch.
The founders team formed during the ETH Biotech Master's and is obsessed with enzyme design and its implications for industry. They unify expertise in the disciplines of chemistry, biotech, and machine learning. The advisory board to the team is serial biotech entrepreneur Andreas Meyer and enzyme expert Peter Stockinger. Hephaistos´ core tech is an end-to-end enzyme design pipeline, providing catalysts for previously unreachable industrial reactions. Focusing on Swiss pharmaceutical production first, they address a 740 Million CHF market. The company´s vision is to become the go-to for tailor-made enzymes, not only in the pharma market, but also in other niches: industrial chemicals, herbicides, and cosmetics.
The Venture Kick funds aid them in achieving their first industrial pilot project. Hephaistos.bio
MedPEP: A New Generation of Targeted Drugs to Treat Cancer.
Currently available therapies have a limited success in solid tumors like pancreatic cancer or lung cancer, especially in advanced or treatment-resistant cases. There is a strong need for novel therapeutic strategies with different mechanisms of action to improve outcomes.
Several proteases play central roles in the development of cancer, but have so far been difficult targets for drugs. The new peptide-based inhibitors developed by MedPEP overcome safety and bioavailability issues thanks to targeted delivery and their high specificity, thereby avoiding any toxicity on healthy tissues. The startup is incubating at EPFL, and its founding team includes Dr. Aaron Petruzzella, Prof. Elisa Oricchio, and Prof. Bruno Correia. Their non-natural peptide inhibitors hold great promise for cancer patients who do not respond to currently available therapies.
The team plans to use the Venture Kick funds to obtain a full analysis of their IP to examine the Freedom to Operate in strategic clinical areas as a part of their business development plan.
nureo: Next-generation of 3D design tools for engineering
Design tools for engineers have not really changed in decades. Today, the 3D design of products is still a manual and repetitive process, often taking several days to weeks. This drives up costs, slows rapid iterations, and delays time-to-market.
nureo develops the next generation of 3D design tools to automate repetitive design tasks and cut the manual effort by up to 90%. The startup was founded by Dr. Manuel Biedermann (CEO), Patrick Beutler (CTO), and Dr. Urs Hofmann (COO). Together, the team brings decades of expertise in the field of design automation, software, and manufacturing, and is collaborating with a number of industry leaders. The startup targets the global engineering software market, currently valued at around USD 15 – 25 B.
The Venture Kick Funds will be used to drive the business development and support the launch of nureo’s design tools, offered through their web-based platform and as add-ons for existing software.
Property owners in the DACH region pay up to CHF 20B+ in property management fees each year, yet 9 out of 10 are unhappy with their property managers. Issues include poor communication, neglected maintenance, unexpected costs, and weak tenant service.
The founding team – Luca (growth/ops), Marcandrea (product), and Gilles (tech) – come from the University of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich and bring years of experience in startups, consulting, and real estate. Bewy is an AI-powered property management company (service provider) that automates internal workflows, reduces costs by up to 50%, and provides landlords with real-time transparency. With CHF 3B market potential in Switzerland alone and an early-mover advantage, Bewy is well-positioned to disrupt outdated incumbents.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to incorporate Bewy, integrate SaaS automation tools, onboard the founding property manager, and launch pilot mandates. This enables the startup to validate product-market fit, build the MVP, and prepare for scalable growth.
CDDS: Drones to protect life and infrastructure
The rapid spread of small, fast, and affordable drones creates urgent security risks for critical infrastructure and crowded urban spaces. Existing counter-UAS measures are too slow or intrusive to protect people and assets reliably.
CDDS AG, founded by experienced Swiss deep-tech entrepreneurs and robotics experts, develops autonomous, lightweight interceptor drones that detect, track, and kinetically neutralize hostile drones with real-time vision, reinforcement learning, and ultra-low-latency control. The global counter-UAS market is projected to exceed USD 3 billion within a few years, offering strong growth potential.
The company will utilize the Venture Kick funding to enhance CDDS’s visibility and recruit top engineers with expertise in drones, PX4, and/or ROS, thereby accelerating product development and preparing for large-scale field deployments.
Hephaistos: Sustainable chemical manufacturing with novel enzymes
The current way of producing chemicals is flawed in many ways. It is costly in terms of energy and reagents and is heavy on the environment. An emerging alternative is enzymes: They save 30% in production cost and 50% in CO2 emissions. But there is no suitable enzyme for every production process yet. Hephaistos addresses this need by designing them from scratch.
The founders team formed during the ETH Biotech Master's and is obsessed with enzyme design and its implications for industry. They unify expertise in the disciplines of chemistry, biotech, and machine learning. The advisory board to the team is serial biotech entrepreneur Andreas Meyer and enzyme expert Peter Stockinger. Hephaistos´ core tech is an end-to-end enzyme design pipeline, providing catalysts for previously unreachable industrial reactions. Focusing on Swiss pharmaceutical production first, they address a 740 Million CHF market. The company´s vision is to become the go-to for tailor-made enzymes, not only in the pharma market, but also in other niches: industrial chemicals, herbicides, and cosmetics.
The Venture Kick funds aid them in achieving their first industrial pilot project. Hephaistos.bio
MedPEP: A New Generation of Targeted Drugs to Treat Cancer.
Currently available therapies have a limited success in solid tumors like pancreatic cancer or lung cancer, especially in advanced or treatment-resistant cases. There is a strong need for novel therapeutic strategies with different mechanisms of action to improve outcomes.
Several proteases play central roles in the development of cancer, but have so far been difficult targets for drugs. The new peptide-based inhibitors developed by MedPEP overcome safety and bioavailability issues thanks to targeted delivery and their high specificity, thereby avoiding any toxicity on healthy tissues. The startup is incubating at EPFL, and its founding team includes Dr. Aaron Petruzzella, Prof. Elisa Oricchio, and Prof. Bruno Correia. Their non-natural peptide inhibitors hold great promise for cancer patients who do not respond to currently available therapies.
The team plans to use the Venture Kick funds to obtain a full analysis of their IP to examine the Freedom to Operate in strategic clinical areas as a part of their business development plan.
nureo: Next-generation of 3D design tools for engineering
Design tools for engineers have not really changed in decades. Today, the 3D design of products is still a manual and repetitive process, often taking several days to weeks. This drives up costs, slows rapid iterations, and delays time-to-market.
nureo develops the next generation of 3D design tools to automate repetitive design tasks and cut the manual effort by up to 90%. The startup was founded by Dr. Manuel Biedermann (CEO), Patrick Beutler (CTO), and Dr. Urs Hofmann (COO). Together, the team brings decades of expertise in the field of design automation, software, and manufacturing, and is collaborating with a number of industry leaders. The startup targets the global engineering software market, currently valued at around USD 15 – 25 B.
The Venture Kick Funds will be used to drive the business development and support the launch of nureo’s design tools, offered through their web-based platform and as add-ons for existing software.