CHF 40,000 for AI culture, united generative AI tools for collaborative filmmaking, and underground pipes laying

Melior: Making museums enjoyable for everyone through personalized AI-powered experiences
Museums often present the same information to all visitors, which can be boring, confusing, or too time-consuming. This one-size-fits-all approach leaves many visitors disengaged and cultural institutions struggling to connect with diverse audiences.
Melior transforms smartphones into intelligent museum guides that adapt to each visitor's interests and knowledge level. Founded by ETH Zurich graduates, the startup creates interactive voice conversations that preserve curatorial vision while making exhibits accessible to everyone. The museum market alone represents USD 1.2 billion in total addressable market across 57,208 institutions worldwide, with expansion potential to cultural institutions, historical sites, and art galleries.
The Venture Kick Stage 1 funds will enable Melior to test and iterate on their MVP with pilot partners and prepare their platform for scale. This investment allows the team to validate their museum-first approach and establish the technical foundation for broader market expansion.

NARRAE: Uniting Generative AI Tools for Collaborative Filmmaking
Users can convert voice notes into personally styled films via the company's innovative "Voice Shorts" technology, embedded in WhatsApp, without any prompts, scripts, or filmmaking knowledge. 
Founded by CEO Pierre Esparsa, CTO David Souto, and CFO Mauro Riggio, NARRAE is currently being accelerated by EHL's Innovation Hub. The platform focuses on solving the Video Paradox: 70% of mobile traffic is video, yet it's created by only 12% of users. NARRAE makes filmmaking accessible to the remaining 88%, tapping into the 7 billion WhatsApp voice notes shared daily—a number that has doubled every year since 2020. A prepaid system charges CHF 2 per minute of film, with 50% profit margins. Built on proprietary AI models, NARRAE prioritizes mobile optimization, encryption, and data privacy. To drive growth, the platform will distribute free credits to influencers and community leaders, leveraging built-in virality.
Venture Kick funds will help connect the prototype with storytellers, artists, and community leaders who would otherwise not have been able to create films from their important but unheard stories, paving the way to build an ultra-specialized Small Language Model at the service of global stories.

Under Industries: An efficient and cost-effective way of laying underground pipes.
Under Industries addresses the growing need for efficient, sustainable, and non-disruptive methods to install underground utility pipes. Conventional open-trench construction is costly, space-intensive, and often impractical in dense urban environments.
Founders and board members of Under Industries include CEO Mr. Eugenio Valli, CTO Mr. Philippe Kientsch, CFO Mr. Stefan Kaspar, and COO Mr. Doré de Morsier. The startup is developing a novel Micro Tunnel Boring Robot (MTBR) capable of autonomously building and lining boreholes using in-situ pipe extrusion. This innovation eliminates the need for prefabricated pipes and reduces surface disruption. The solution targets the multibillion-dollar underground utilities market spanning water, gas, power, and telecom sectors.
With the funding from Venture Kick, Under Industries will conduct targeted customer interviews and validate key market assumptions to strengthen its business case ahead of pilot deployment.