CHF 40,000 for disruptive photonics modules, innovative drilling robot, and crowdsourced data labeling using the mobile ad market
26.01.2023
Borobotics and Cassio-P win Venture Kick's second stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects develop an innovative drilling robot enabling more buildings to become geothermally heated, and design and manufacture innovative compact photonic modules for industrial, medical, and scientific system integrators.
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 Borobotics: Dr. Hans-Jörg Dennig
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 Cassio-P's Dr. Antoine Delgoffe (CTO)
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Borobotics: innovative drilling robot
Cassio-P: Disruptive photonics modules
Cassio-P s envisioned as an OEM, designing and assembling femtosecond laser modules to enable systems employed in laser manufacturing, medical imaging, and other scientific applications. The founder Dr. Antoine Delgoffe, was hired in April 2021 as a post-doc at EPFL Microcity Galatea Lab, and is now involved in venturing out the Cassio-P spin-off, thanks to the support of Innosuisse/SNF Bridge Proof-of-Concept and EPFL’s start-up innovation programs. The Galatea Lab developed a disruptive approach to micro-optical assembly, with which they can make very compact (footprint of a hard drive), lightweight (< 1kg), and maintenance-free complete femtosecond laser sources. The first planned product is ideally suited for reliable integration in other laser systems and multi-photon microscopy used in biomedical applications. There is a growing demand, estimated at >100 units/year, representing a potential for more than CHF 3 million in annual revenue, based on CHF 30,000 per unit, a price potential customers are ready to pay today, based on interviews.
The second Kick will support the development of a robust industry-grade casing to protect our first laser module and help further reduce our time to market.
Heat generation through geothermal energy is a key factor for the successful heat transition worldwide. However, the production of the borehole for the geothermal probe is energy-intensive, expensive, inaccurate, causes noise as well as massive landscape damage, and requires a lot of space. As a result, many buildings cannot benefit from geothermal heat.
Borobotics is developing an innovative drilling robot, which eliminates the above-mentioned disadvantages. In particular, construction costs are drastically reduced due to an autonomous and energy-efficient mode of operation. The business consists of providing this drilling robot to drilling companies worldwide. Revenue is generated through the sale of the drilled borehole, including the geothermal probe. The project has been based at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences as a research project. The initiator and driving force behind it all is Dr. Hans-Jörg Dennig, a mechanical engineer, lecturer, and experienced founder. There are also two other co-founders: Aradhna Sethi (Marketing and Communications) and Philipp Ganz (Engineering).
There is huge potential for this worldwide. In Switzerland and Germany, for example, the number of geothermal probes is to be increased by 6.5 Mio. by 2035.
The funding from Venture Kick will be used to build up core components of the drilling robot and make the tests to 20 and 50 m depth.
Cassio-P s envisioned as an OEM, designing and assembling femtosecond laser modules to enable systems employed in laser manufacturing, medical imaging, and other scientific applications. The founder Dr. Antoine Delgoffe, was hired in April 2021 as a post-doc at EPFL Microcity Galatea Lab, and is now involved in venturing out the Cassio-P spin-off, thanks to the support of Innosuisse/SNF Bridge Proof-of-Concept and EPFL’s start-up innovation programs. The Galatea Lab developed a disruptive approach to micro-optical assembly, with which they can make very compact (footprint of a hard drive), lightweight (< 1kg), and maintenance-free complete femtosecond laser sources. The first planned product is ideally suited for reliable integration in other laser systems and multi-photon microscopy used in biomedical applications. There is a growing demand, estimated at >100 units/year, representing a potential for more than CHF 3 million in annual revenue, based on CHF 30,000 per unit, a price potential customers are ready to pay today, based on interviews.
The second Kick will support the development of a robust industry-grade casing to protect our first laser module and help further reduce our time to market.