CHF 40,000 for innovative cycling technology, an AI-driven flat hunting app, and the first surgical device for measuring valve leakage during heart surgery
20.10.2025
CycloWatt, Flatable, and TightValve were selected at Venture Kick's second stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects provide pro-level insights for amateur cyclists; reimagine the entire process of flat hunting; and develop a simple and fast measuring device to quantify valve leakage during surgery directly.
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 CycloWatt: Co-founders Levi Luder & Victor Luder
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 Flatable: Owner Safras Rawfal
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 TightValve: CEO Silje Jahren, CTO Lukas Glaus, CMO Emmanuel Zimmer, and CSO Dominik Obrist
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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.
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.
TightValve: First surgical device for measuring valve leakage during heart surgery
One treatment option for aortic root diseases is valve-sparing aortic root replacement, which repairs the valve and replaces the aortic root with a graft. The valve's tightness can only be assessed after surgery, and in 20% of the cases, reoperation is required. This is harmful, costly, and may prevent treatment for fragile patients due to the high risk.
TightValve has developed a simple and fast measuring device to directly quantify valve leakage during surgery. In the western world (EU, USA, CAN), 25k David procedures/year are conducted, a number that can be increased if the high re-operation risk can be reduced. The funding team of TightValve is composed of a CEO Silje Ekroll Jahren, a biomedical engineer, CTO Lukas Glaus a mechanical engineer and heart surgeon, CMO Emmanuel Zimmer a heart surgeon, and scientific advisor Prof. Dominik Obrist.
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to building a quality management system to be used on the regulatory path towards FDA/CE approvals.
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.
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.
TightValve: First surgical device for measuring valve leakage during heart surgery
One treatment option for aortic root diseases is valve-sparing aortic root replacement, which repairs the valve and replaces the aortic root with a graft. The valve's tightness can only be assessed after surgery, and in 20% of the cases, reoperation is required. This is harmful, costly, and may prevent treatment for fragile patients due to the high risk.
TightValve has developed a simple and fast measuring device to directly quantify valve leakage during surgery. In the western world (EU, USA, CAN), 25k David procedures/year are conducted, a number that can be increased if the high re-operation risk can be reduced. The funding team of TightValve is composed of a CEO Silje Ekroll Jahren, a biomedical engineer, CTO Lukas Glaus a mechanical engineer and heart surgeon, CMO Emmanuel Zimmer a heart surgeon, and scientific advisor Prof. Dominik Obrist.
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to building a quality management system to be used on the regulatory path towards FDA/CE approvals.