CHF 10,000 for innovative cycling technology, adaptable endoscopes, an AI-driven flat hunting app, smart instrumentation for life sciences, AI-driven protein optimization, and next-gen robotic inspection
21.08.2025
CycloWatt, Dexterous Endoscopes, Flatable, Labli Automation, Latentfusion.ai, and Raven Robotics were selected at Venture Kick's first stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects provide pro-level insights for amateur cyclists; empower doctors to achieve optimal patient outcomes; reimagine the entire process of flat hunting; develop compact instrumentation and easy-to-use software to enable digital-biological interfaces for high-throughput cell culture assays; optimize protein-based therapeutics to unlock innovative treatments; and offer next-generation robotic inspections for safer worksites.
 |
 |
 CycloWatt: Co-founders Levi Luder & Victor Luder
|
|
 Dexterous Endoscopes: CTO Yi Sun & CEO Yegor Piskarev
|
|
 Flatable: Owner Safras Rawfal
|
|
 Labli Automation: CEO Samuel Balula, Scientific Advisors Mustafa Khammash and Stephanie Aoki
|
|
 latentfusion: CEO Elias Hagmann & CSO Dieter Schiegg
|
|
 Raven Robotics: CEO Kagan Erünsal
|
|
CycloWatt: Providing pro-level insights for amateur cyclists
Power is the gold standard in cycling performance: it’s the most objective measure of how hard you are working, making it essential for effective training and pacing strategies. Yet most hobby cyclists ride without a power meter because of the prohibitive cost and deployment complexity. CycloWatt changes that by harnessing AI-driven technology to deliver an accurate and affordable power meter.
The co-founders, Victor Luder and Levi Luder, are passionate amateur cyclists who have experienced the problem firsthand. Combining Victor’s technical expertise with Levi’s entrepreneurial drive, they have positioned CycloWatt to innovate and disrupt the cycling technology market. CycloWatt reinvents power measurement and provides an affordable and user-friendly solution. They introduce a cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) device that seamlessly integrates force signals with inertial sensor data while leveraging the power of edge machine learning techniques.
The amateur cycling powermeter market is worth well over 1 billion USD. The team aims to use Venture Kick financing to boost business development and prepare for market entry.
Dexterous Endoscopes: Empowering doctors to achieve optimal patient outcomes
Millions of endoscopic procedures are performed annually using rigid or flexible instruments to access internal sites. Rigid endoscopes cannot bend into confined spaces. Flexible ones reach further but lack the force and precision for effective tissue dissection. Surgeons are therefore forced to choose between reach, precision, and control.
Dexterous Endoscopes has developed a variable-stiffness scope engineered to overcome existing limitations. Its ability to switch between rigid and soft modes on command is key. In the soft state, the scope can safely navigate complex organ anatomy to the target zone. In the rigid state, it resists buckling. It provides additional stability, enabling concentrated force with instruments passed through the working channel for high-quality tissue dissection or delivering greater stability for laser surgeries.
The Venture Kick funding will support preclinical trials, demonstration of the technology, and advancement of business development activities.
Flatable: Becoming the global leader in flat hunting by reimagining the entire process
Flatable addresses the frustration of finding a shared flat or roommate. Current platforms are inefficient, filled with unresponsive listings, scams, and little personalization — leading to wasted time and mismatched living situations.
Founded by ETH Zurich graduate Safras Rawfal, Flatable is an AI-driven mobile app that uses personality-based matching to connect users with compatible roommates and shared flats. It offers a fully integrated journey, from matching and viewing scheduling to digital contract signing, all in one secure platform. The startup targets students, young professionals, and landlords, starting in Switzerland and expanding into a global shared housing market worth over CHF 7.7 billion.
The Venture Kick funding will be used for targeted marketing campaigns to acquire early users. Funds will go into online and offline outreach, building strong network effects from day one.
Labli Automation: Smart instrumentation for life sciences
Workflows in wet labs are labour-intensive, a bottleneck that slows scientific progress. Current automation solutions lack the efficiency and ease of use for widespread adoption.
Founded by Dr. Samuel Balula (CEO), with scientific advisors Prof. Dr. Mustafa Khammash and Dr. Stephanie Aoki, Labli Automation develops compact instrumentation and easy-to-use software to enable digital-biological interfaces for high-throughput cell culture assays. Integrating seamlessly with existing experimental workflows, Labli automation offloads time-consuming tasks and brings automation to the hands of scientists, one protocol at a time.
The Venture Kick funds will enable the production of customer-ready hardware to satisfy its first orders, as well as on-site customer validation.
latentfusion.ai: Optimizing protein-based therapeutics to unlock innovative treatments
97% of all protein-based therapeutics fail before approval, after millions of US dollars and a large effort have been invested into their development. Up to 50% of those failures could be avoided with optimized protein candidates.
latentfusion.ai provides AI-driven protein optimization, helping biotech partners fix critical issues in lead candidates. This accelerates research, boosts licensing potential, and avoids dead-end projects. Most importantly, it increases the chances of life-changing treatments reaching patients.
latentfusion.ai was founded by CEO Elias Hagmann, with a background in computer science from ETH Zürich, and CSO Dieter Schiegg, with a background in Biochemistry from the University of Zürich. Together, they bring over 25 years of experience in the biotech industry. The core market consists of 3,000+ therapeutic biotech companies that currently spend over USD12 billion on protein lead optimization.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to reach potential customers, establish strategic partnerships, and accelerate market entry.
Raven Robotics: Next-generation robotic inspections for safer worksites
Industrial environments such as construction sites, power plants, and manufacturing facilities are large, congested, and dynamic, posing severe risks and causing numerous fatal and non-fatal injuries. Safety inspections are essential to prevent accidents, yet conventional methods remain costly, labour-intensive, infrequent, and error-prone.
Raven Robotics’ first product, “InspectNet,” tackles these challenges with a next-generation automated inspection system of compact, collaborative Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) featuring safe autonomous navigation, self-charging, and AI-powered visual analytics for hazard detection, generating regulation-compliant safety reports tailored to the needs of different worksites.
Currently incubated at EPFL, the company is led by CEO Dr. Kagan Erünsal, with collaborators Lucas Waelti, Donia Gasmi, and advisors Prof. Alcherio Martinoli, Innosuisse coach Caroline Coquerel, innovation manager Dr. Frédéric Dreyer, and HSE professional Evren Sener.
Venture Kick funding will support market research, go-to-market strategy, and team-building efforts.
Power is the gold standard in cycling performance: it’s the most objective measure of how hard you are working, making it essential for effective training and pacing strategies. Yet most hobby cyclists ride without a power meter because of the prohibitive cost and deployment complexity. CycloWatt changes that by harnessing AI-driven technology to deliver an accurate and affordable power meter.
The co-founders, Victor Luder and Levi Luder, are passionate amateur cyclists who have experienced the problem firsthand. Combining Victor’s technical expertise with Levi’s entrepreneurial drive, they have positioned CycloWatt to innovate and disrupt the cycling technology market. CycloWatt reinvents power measurement and provides an affordable and user-friendly solution. They introduce a cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) device that seamlessly integrates force signals with inertial sensor data while leveraging the power of edge machine learning techniques.
The amateur cycling powermeter market is worth well over 1 billion USD. The team aims to use Venture Kick financing to boost business development and prepare for market entry.
Dexterous Endoscopes: Empowering doctors to achieve optimal patient outcomes
Millions of endoscopic procedures are performed annually using rigid or flexible instruments to access internal sites. Rigid endoscopes cannot bend into confined spaces. Flexible ones reach further but lack the force and precision for effective tissue dissection. Surgeons are therefore forced to choose between reach, precision, and control.
Dexterous Endoscopes has developed a variable-stiffness scope engineered to overcome existing limitations. Its ability to switch between rigid and soft modes on command is key. In the soft state, the scope can safely navigate complex organ anatomy to the target zone. In the rigid state, it resists buckling. It provides additional stability, enabling concentrated force with instruments passed through the working channel for high-quality tissue dissection or delivering greater stability for laser surgeries.
The Venture Kick funding will support preclinical trials, demonstration of the technology, and advancement of business development activities.
Flatable: Becoming the global leader in flat hunting by reimagining the entire process
Flatable addresses the frustration of finding a shared flat or roommate. Current platforms are inefficient, filled with unresponsive listings, scams, and little personalization — leading to wasted time and mismatched living situations.
Founded by ETH Zurich graduate Safras Rawfal, Flatable is an AI-driven mobile app that uses personality-based matching to connect users with compatible roommates and shared flats. It offers a fully integrated journey, from matching and viewing scheduling to digital contract signing, all in one secure platform. The startup targets students, young professionals, and landlords, starting in Switzerland and expanding into a global shared housing market worth over CHF 7.7 billion.
The Venture Kick funding will be used for targeted marketing campaigns to acquire early users. Funds will go into online and offline outreach, building strong network effects from day one.
Labli Automation: Smart instrumentation for life sciences
Workflows in wet labs are labour-intensive, a bottleneck that slows scientific progress. Current automation solutions lack the efficiency and ease of use for widespread adoption.
Founded by Dr. Samuel Balula (CEO), with scientific advisors Prof. Dr. Mustafa Khammash and Dr. Stephanie Aoki, Labli Automation develops compact instrumentation and easy-to-use software to enable digital-biological interfaces for high-throughput cell culture assays. Integrating seamlessly with existing experimental workflows, Labli automation offloads time-consuming tasks and brings automation to the hands of scientists, one protocol at a time.
The Venture Kick funds will enable the production of customer-ready hardware to satisfy its first orders, as well as on-site customer validation.
latentfusion.ai: Optimizing protein-based therapeutics to unlock innovative treatments
97% of all protein-based therapeutics fail before approval, after millions of US dollars and a large effort have been invested into their development. Up to 50% of those failures could be avoided with optimized protein candidates.
latentfusion.ai provides AI-driven protein optimization, helping biotech partners fix critical issues in lead candidates. This accelerates research, boosts licensing potential, and avoids dead-end projects. Most importantly, it increases the chances of life-changing treatments reaching patients.
latentfusion.ai was founded by CEO Elias Hagmann, with a background in computer science from ETH Zürich, and CSO Dieter Schiegg, with a background in Biochemistry from the University of Zürich. Together, they bring over 25 years of experience in the biotech industry. The core market consists of 3,000+ therapeutic biotech companies that currently spend over USD12 billion on protein lead optimization.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to reach potential customers, establish strategic partnerships, and accelerate market entry.
Raven Robotics: Next-generation robotic inspections for safer worksites
Industrial environments such as construction sites, power plants, and manufacturing facilities are large, congested, and dynamic, posing severe risks and causing numerous fatal and non-fatal injuries. Safety inspections are essential to prevent accidents, yet conventional methods remain costly, labour-intensive, infrequent, and error-prone.
Raven Robotics’ first product, “InspectNet,” tackles these challenges with a next-generation automated inspection system of compact, collaborative Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) featuring safe autonomous navigation, self-charging, and AI-powered visual analytics for hazard detection, generating regulation-compliant safety reports tailored to the needs of different worksites.
Currently incubated at EPFL, the company is led by CEO Dr. Kagan Erünsal, with collaborators Lucas Waelti, Donia Gasmi, and advisors Prof. Alcherio Martinoli, Innosuisse coach Caroline Coquerel, innovation manager Dr. Frédéric Dreyer, and HSE professional Evren Sener.
Venture Kick funding will support market research, go-to-market strategy, and team-building efforts.