CHF 40,000 for an AI-assisted CRISPR protein engineering platform, smart cameras for automated quality control, and an innovative hardware project collaboration platform
26.03.2024
Nerai Bio, Sentinus, and TofuPilot were selected at Venture Kick's second financial and entrepreneurial support stage. Their projects develop a new set of CRISPR tools that unlock the full potential of CRISPR therapies; provide smart cameras that can detect manual assembly steps during live production; and redefine hardware project collaboration, centralizing and interconnecting specialized data to make it actionable, speeding up development cycles for hardware teams.
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 Nerai Bio: from left to right, Kim Marquart, Lukas Schmidheini, and Sasha Melkonyan
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 Sentinus: CTO Felix Schnarrenberger and CEO Jonas Conrad
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 TofuPilot: from left to right, CTO Félix Berthier, CEO Julien Buteau, and CCO Charlotte Evéquoz
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Nerai Bio: Unlocking the full potential of CRISPR therapies
Today, 1 in 10 people worldwide suffer from a genetic disease, caused by a mutation in their DNA. Only 10% of these diseases have a treatment option available and even then, these treatments are directed at managing the disease instead of curing the underlying genetic cause. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is poised to change that. It can be programmed to find a specific location in DNA and make an edit there, reverting the disease-causing mutation to its healthy state again. However, current CRISPR tools have major limitations around their targeting range, efficiency, and specificity.
During their research, Sasha Melkonyan, Lukas Schmidheini, and Kim Marquart have built a high-throughput, AI-assisted protein engineering platform using a combination of directed evolution, lab automation, and machine learning to screen billions of proteins per day for a specific function. They are now using this platform to develop a new set of CRISPR tools that unlock the full potential of CRISPR therapies.
Venture Kick Stage 2 funds will help them to develop the business case for their product, find potential clients, and design their IP portfolio.
Sentinus: Deep learning-based smart camera systems for automated quality control in manual assembly
Manual assembly is error-prone, especially in high-mix, low-volume production. Errors and error prevention create costs - costs that can be reduced by implementing deep-learning-based automated quality control.
Sentinus develops smart cameras that can detect manual assembly steps during live production, allowing for automated documentation, feedback on realized steps, and instructions on upcoming steps. The smart cameras are developed as add-ons to existing digital worker guidance systems, widening their application range. Around 50 million people are working in manual assembly. With some projections, the SOM is estimated at 500’000 workstations that would greatly benefit from camera-based support systems. The Sentinus founding team comprises CEO Jonas Conrad and CTO Felix Schnarrenberger. Jonas is currently finalizing his PhD at ETH Zurich, where he is researching deep-learning applications in manual assembly. With a focus on machine learning for computer vision applications, Felix is in the final steps of his Master's in robotics at ETH Zurich.
With the Venture Kick funds, they will realize pilot projects to gain early feedback and develop the first product version.
TofuPilot: Accelerating Hardware Innovation
The world needs hardware innovation now more than ever, but bringing new products to market remains too slow. Hardware product teams looking to innovate quickly find traditional industrial approaches limiting and agile methodologies inadequate for hardware's unique challenges.
The TofuPilot platform redefines hardware project collaboration, making project data actionable and speeding up development cycles. Founded by hardware veterans—Julien Buteau, Charlotte Evéquoz, and Félix Berthier—TofuPilot has met its early growth goals from Venture Kick Stage I and is gaining traction with hardware teams across Switzerland, Germany, and the United States.
With the support of Venture Kick Stage II funding, TofuPilot is on track to significantly cut time-to-market for new technologies, establishing itself as a crucial tool in the rapidly evolving hardware industry.
Today, 1 in 10 people worldwide suffer from a genetic disease, caused by a mutation in their DNA. Only 10% of these diseases have a treatment option available and even then, these treatments are directed at managing the disease instead of curing the underlying genetic cause. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is poised to change that. It can be programmed to find a specific location in DNA and make an edit there, reverting the disease-causing mutation to its healthy state again. However, current CRISPR tools have major limitations around their targeting range, efficiency, and specificity.
During their research, Sasha Melkonyan, Lukas Schmidheini, and Kim Marquart have built a high-throughput, AI-assisted protein engineering platform using a combination of directed evolution, lab automation, and machine learning to screen billions of proteins per day for a specific function. They are now using this platform to develop a new set of CRISPR tools that unlock the full potential of CRISPR therapies.
Venture Kick Stage 2 funds will help them to develop the business case for their product, find potential clients, and design their IP portfolio.
Sentinus: Deep learning-based smart camera systems for automated quality control in manual assembly
Manual assembly is error-prone, especially in high-mix, low-volume production. Errors and error prevention create costs - costs that can be reduced by implementing deep-learning-based automated quality control.
Sentinus develops smart cameras that can detect manual assembly steps during live production, allowing for automated documentation, feedback on realized steps, and instructions on upcoming steps. The smart cameras are developed as add-ons to existing digital worker guidance systems, widening their application range. Around 50 million people are working in manual assembly. With some projections, the SOM is estimated at 500’000 workstations that would greatly benefit from camera-based support systems. The Sentinus founding team comprises CEO Jonas Conrad and CTO Felix Schnarrenberger. Jonas is currently finalizing his PhD at ETH Zurich, where he is researching deep-learning applications in manual assembly. With a focus on machine learning for computer vision applications, Felix is in the final steps of his Master's in robotics at ETH Zurich.
With the Venture Kick funds, they will realize pilot projects to gain early feedback and develop the first product version.
TofuPilot: Accelerating Hardware Innovation
The world needs hardware innovation now more than ever, but bringing new products to market remains too slow. Hardware product teams looking to innovate quickly find traditional industrial approaches limiting and agile methodologies inadequate for hardware's unique challenges.
The TofuPilot platform redefines hardware project collaboration, making project data actionable and speeding up development cycles. Founded by hardware veterans—Julien Buteau, Charlotte Evéquoz, and Félix Berthier—TofuPilot has met its early growth goals from Venture Kick Stage I and is gaining traction with hardware teams across Switzerland, Germany, and the United States.
With the support of Venture Kick Stage II funding, TofuPilot is on track to significantly cut time-to-market for new technologies, establishing itself as a crucial tool in the rapidly evolving hardware industry.