CHF 40,000 for rebuilding coral reefs, making sustainable fishing bait, and targeting diseased microenvironment in fibrosis
10.08.2022
Capt'n Greenfin, rrreefs, and Tandem Therapeutics win Venture Kick's second stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects aim to revolutionize the sportfishing industry sustainably, empower brands and people to protect marine biodiversity, and decode complex matrix-disease biology to create breakthrough solutions for patients burdened with fibrosis and fibrotic cancers.
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 Capt'n Greenfin: from left to right: Serge Bart, Olivia Bolliger, and founders Jonas Urwyler, and Damian Urwyler
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 rrreefs: CEO and Head of Science and Development Dr. Ulrike Pfreundt
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 Tandem Therapeutics: from left to right: Prof. Viola Vogel, Dr. Mamta Chabria, Dr. Martin Behe
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Capt'n Greenfin: make fishing more sustainable
15 tons of plastic end up every year in our Swiss lakes and rivers through the loss of fishing baits. In the USA, it is ruffly 2'300 tons. After years underwater these baits turn into microplastic that ends up in our food chain. Fish and other animals can die by eating the toxic and indigestible plastic baits. This has to change! We as a fishing community have to change if we want to keep doing what we love.
Capt'n Greenfin's founders Jonas Urwyler and Damian Urwyler created a new material for sustainable fishing baits and aim to revolutionize the sportfishing industry in a sustainable way. They are supported by Serge Bart (prototype engineer), and Olivia Bolliger (sustainability expert).
Alone in Switzerland over 150'000 fishermen could benefit from using the new 100% organic material that completely biologically degrades underwater in a week. The developed material is so natural that humans and animals can eat it without any concerns. It has similar elasticity and strength as the plastic baits used so far. The potential is huge, and the impact it can have on our environment is priceless. The global sports fishing market is estimated at USD 12.6 billion in 2020, rising to 16 billion by 2027.
With the Venture Kick funds, they want to reach most Swiss fishermen within the first year and expand quickly to the EU marked and make fishermen around the world aware of the problem and minimize the plastic in the waters together. In addition, they will do more R&D in this sector to revolutionize other types of baits. A sustainable hard bait and alternatives to lead are being considered.
rrreefs: rebuilding coral reefs
The global loss of biodiversity is the biggest crises we face today, and coral reefs are home to more species per cubicmeter than anywhere else on Earth. They harbour a dazzling 25% of all biodiversity in the oceans. And this ecosystem, without action, will be gone in about 30 years. This means that restoring reefs is also the biggest opportunity to safeguard biodiversity in the ocean. A dying ocean affects us all; consumers and employees around the world become more aware of biodiversity loss and reward companies that care for a healthy planet, but innovative and tangible CSR and employer branding solutions in the biodiversity space are largely missing today.
ETH Spin-Off rrreefs takes the need of companies to act on the environmental crisis, and turns it into healthy reefs. The all-female founders' team around CEO Dr. Ulrike Pfreundt, previously PostDoc in Marine Science at ETH Zürich, rebuilds coral reefs by empowering brands to regenerate marine life. Their CSR solutions for corporates include tailored company reefs, a certificate to the company stating the size of reef rebuilt, and a corresponding amount of biodiversity credits, as well as tailored marketing material, and empowering employee experiences. Customers receive impact reports for their reef for 1 year, and can extend this service afterwards.
Ulrike Pfreundt, Marie Griesmar, Hanna Kuhfuss, and Josephine Graf have built a crowdfunded 15 m3 prototype reef in Colombia, and showed increased fish diversity, rivaling the natural reef, after only 3 months. Corals have doubled in size after 6 months, and the first baby corals settled after 9 months.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to increase biodiversity package sales to corporates, to build a strong and trusted brand, and assess patenting of the improved rrreef brick 2.0.
Tandem Therapeutics: Precision targeting pathological extracellular matrix in fibrosis & cancers
Extracellular matrix aberrations are common threads across fibrosis and several cancers and yet most drug development focuses on targeting cells, often overlooking the surrounding matrix. With no disease-reversing drugs available to help patients, it is urgently needed to chart a different course. The matrix not only acts as a barrier for these drugs but also actively drives the disease by providing physical and biochemical cues.
At Tandem Therapeutics, the goal is to precisely target this barrier and bring drugs to this disease's extracellular matrix thereby enhancing safety and efficacy. Using evolutionarily optimized peptides, Dr. Mamta Chabria, the primary inventor of the technology during her doctoral work at ETH, with the support of Prof. Dr. Viola VOGEL (ETHZ) and Dr. Martin BEHE (PSI), is decoding complex matrix-disease biology to create breakthrough solutions for patients burdened with fibrosis and fibrotic cancers.
Progressive idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one such matrix-driven disease. IPF has no cure and a survival rate like most aggressive cancers (2-5 years after diagnosis). It currently affects between 80,000 and 111,000 people in Europe. Every year, additional 30,000-35,000 new patients will be diagnosed with IPF. A lack of available disease-reversing therapeutics makes this an area of immense unmet medical need. The Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis market is expected to reach USD 6.2 billion by 2030 growing at a CAGR of 7% (until 2030).
The Venture kick stage II funds would be used towards reaching the preclinical proof-of-concept milestone and developing a business strategy for raising the seed financing.
15 tons of plastic end up every year in our Swiss lakes and rivers through the loss of fishing baits. In the USA, it is ruffly 2'300 tons. After years underwater these baits turn into microplastic that ends up in our food chain. Fish and other animals can die by eating the toxic and indigestible plastic baits. This has to change! We as a fishing community have to change if we want to keep doing what we love.
Capt'n Greenfin's founders Jonas Urwyler and Damian Urwyler created a new material for sustainable fishing baits and aim to revolutionize the sportfishing industry in a sustainable way. They are supported by Serge Bart (prototype engineer), and Olivia Bolliger (sustainability expert).
Alone in Switzerland over 150'000 fishermen could benefit from using the new 100% organic material that completely biologically degrades underwater in a week. The developed material is so natural that humans and animals can eat it without any concerns. It has similar elasticity and strength as the plastic baits used so far. The potential is huge, and the impact it can have on our environment is priceless. The global sports fishing market is estimated at USD 12.6 billion in 2020, rising to 16 billion by 2027.
With the Venture Kick funds, they want to reach most Swiss fishermen within the first year and expand quickly to the EU marked and make fishermen around the world aware of the problem and minimize the plastic in the waters together. In addition, they will do more R&D in this sector to revolutionize other types of baits. A sustainable hard bait and alternatives to lead are being considered.
rrreefs: rebuilding coral reefs
The global loss of biodiversity is the biggest crises we face today, and coral reefs are home to more species per cubicmeter than anywhere else on Earth. They harbour a dazzling 25% of all biodiversity in the oceans. And this ecosystem, without action, will be gone in about 30 years. This means that restoring reefs is also the biggest opportunity to safeguard biodiversity in the ocean. A dying ocean affects us all; consumers and employees around the world become more aware of biodiversity loss and reward companies that care for a healthy planet, but innovative and tangible CSR and employer branding solutions in the biodiversity space are largely missing today.
ETH Spin-Off rrreefs takes the need of companies to act on the environmental crisis, and turns it into healthy reefs. The all-female founders' team around CEO Dr. Ulrike Pfreundt, previously PostDoc in Marine Science at ETH Zürich, rebuilds coral reefs by empowering brands to regenerate marine life. Their CSR solutions for corporates include tailored company reefs, a certificate to the company stating the size of reef rebuilt, and a corresponding amount of biodiversity credits, as well as tailored marketing material, and empowering employee experiences. Customers receive impact reports for their reef for 1 year, and can extend this service afterwards.
Ulrike Pfreundt, Marie Griesmar, Hanna Kuhfuss, and Josephine Graf have built a crowdfunded 15 m3 prototype reef in Colombia, and showed increased fish diversity, rivaling the natural reef, after only 3 months. Corals have doubled in size after 6 months, and the first baby corals settled after 9 months.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to increase biodiversity package sales to corporates, to build a strong and trusted brand, and assess patenting of the improved rrreef brick 2.0.
Tandem Therapeutics: Precision targeting pathological extracellular matrix in fibrosis & cancers
Extracellular matrix aberrations are common threads across fibrosis and several cancers and yet most drug development focuses on targeting cells, often overlooking the surrounding matrix. With no disease-reversing drugs available to help patients, it is urgently needed to chart a different course. The matrix not only acts as a barrier for these drugs but also actively drives the disease by providing physical and biochemical cues.
At Tandem Therapeutics, the goal is to precisely target this barrier and bring drugs to this disease's extracellular matrix thereby enhancing safety and efficacy. Using evolutionarily optimized peptides, Dr. Mamta Chabria, the primary inventor of the technology during her doctoral work at ETH, with the support of Prof. Dr. Viola VOGEL (ETHZ) and Dr. Martin BEHE (PSI), is decoding complex matrix-disease biology to create breakthrough solutions for patients burdened with fibrosis and fibrotic cancers.
Progressive idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one such matrix-driven disease. IPF has no cure and a survival rate like most aggressive cancers (2-5 years after diagnosis). It currently affects between 80,000 and 111,000 people in Europe. Every year, additional 30,000-35,000 new patients will be diagnosed with IPF. A lack of available disease-reversing therapeutics makes this an area of immense unmet medical need. The Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis market is expected to reach USD 6.2 billion by 2030 growing at a CAGR of 7% (until 2030).
The Venture kick stage II funds would be used towards reaching the preclinical proof-of-concept milestone and developing a business strategy for raising the seed financing.