CHF 40,000 for startups developing a new plant-based taste experience, a B2B software to enable confidential data collaborations, and augmented reality for geospatial data
29.09.2021
Luya Foods, Tune Insight, and V-Labs win Venture Kick's second financial and entrepreneurial support stage. Their projects offer a flavor-loaded plant-based alternative to meat that doesn’t try to be meat, enable organizations to make better decisions by extracting collective insights from confidential data collaborations; and provide a patented technology to help surveyors, contractors, and engineers increase their efficiency in the field, verify engineering plans and avoid costly errors during construction.
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 Luya Foods Co-founders: Flavio Hagenbuch, Michael Alistair Whyte, Christoph Denkel, and Tobias Kistler
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 Tune Insight: Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux, CEO Dr. Juan Troncoso-Pastoriza and Romain Bouyé
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 V-Labs' CEO Diemer Cohen and CTO Michele Curina
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Luya: Introducing a new plant-based taste experience
Tune Insight: Orchestrating collaborations on sensitive data
Today’s organizations are heavily data-centric. More than 56% of the companies in the enterprise data and analytics market acknowledge that their own data is not enough to make sound decisions, and they plan on expanding their ability to source external data. Nevertheless, their expansion and collaboration with others on sensitive or confidential data are prevented due to the risk of data leaks or because of data-privacy concerns and regulations.
Tune Insight B2B software enables organizations to make better decisions by extracting collective insights from confidential data collaborations, while each participating organization remains in full control of its own data. The data is never transferred or disclosed, thanks to Tune Insight's patent-pending Multiparty Homomorphic Encryption technology. Tune Insight serves companies in the enterprise data and analytics market, estimated at USD 100 billion, with strong ties into the machine learning and homomorphic encryption markets, respectively projected at USD 117 billion and USD 266 billion in 2027. Tune Insight's founding team is composed of CEO Juan Troncoso-Pastoriza, Romain Bouyé, and Jean-Pierre Hubaux. Dr. Juan Ramón Troncoso-Pastoriza is a senior researcher at the EPFL Laboratory for Data Security (lds.epfl.ch) led by Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux. Recently incorporated, Tune Insight has produced a health pilot and proof-of-concept prototypes paid by customers in cyber defense and insurance, and just announced the closing if its first financing round with Wingman Ventures.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to support the development and maturation of the ongoing prototypes and pilots, optimize the product-market-fit, and enable the engagement of the first recurring paying customer by the end of 2021, out of those with which they are working on PoCs and pilots. tuneinsight.com
V-Labs: Augmented reality for cm accurate geospatial data
Before civil engineering works take place, a surveyor has to go out to the field to spray the location of underground infrastructures on the street. This is not only time-consuming but also prone to human errors that can lead to costly damages to cables and pipes during excavation works. Furthermore, the construction sector is one of the least digitized industries in the world.
V-Labs' technology, developed by CTO Michele Curina, CEO Diemer Cohen Stuart together with Board members Armand Lumens and Anders Thostrup, brings construction plans to the field through AR and helps further digitize the work. They are part of the ESA BIC Switzerland program and have won several awards from for example the European GNSS Agency (currently European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)). V-Labs is a Swiss-based startup that has developed GNSS/RTK-integrated (cm accurate GPS) Augmented Reality solution for AR-glasses allowing their users to visualize, measure, and modify geospatial data with centimeters accuracy in the field. For example, users can visualize GIS-data of underground cables and pipes, but also BIM-data (3D models) for construction projects. Thanks to their patented technology, surveyors, contractors, and engineers can increase their efficiency in the field, verify engineering plans and avoid costly errors during construction. With their solution, the team targets a market of approximately USD 10 billion for GIS analytics and mobile GIS technology, including the US and European markets.
Venture Kick's funds will allow them to grow the team with software engineers and marketing & sales, further develop their product, and successfully roll out their go-to-market phase to prepare for scaling up the business. v-labs.ch
On one hand, consumer demand for new plant-based products is strongly growing, mostly driven by well-known meat alternatives, though often comprising many ingredients and requiring expensive, heavily refined protein isolates. On the other hand, in Switzerland alone nearly 1 million t/a of readily available, valuable food by-products remain unused in the food industry. Luya Foods' technology enables them to use such by-products to provide consumers with a new generation of tasty textured products, like meat alternatives, with a leading sustainability record, great taste and strong nutritional profile. Their first product, Luya, is the flavor-loaded plant-based alternative to meat that doesn’t try to be meat.
Michael Whyte, Flavio Hagenbuch, Tobias Kistler and Dr. Christoph Denkel are Luya's team of chefs, food technologists, and food lovers. They rescue organic okara - a by-product of tofu and soy milk production of which more than 14 million tonnes go to waste globally every year - and turn it into ready-to-cook slices, chunks and patties. Using traditional fermentation methods and modern technology, they can skip all the additives and highly processed ingredients, and offer 100% natural, organic deliciousness made in Switzerland. The Swiss meat alternatives market is growing strongly by +25% sales p.a. 2014-19 and is expected to continue to claim market share from the traditional meat market. On a global scale, the alternative protein market is expected to reach USD 140 billion by 2029 according to Barclays Research in 2019.
The Venture Kick Stage 2 funds will be routed into brand, design, and packaging development. enjoyluya.com
Tune Insight: Orchestrating collaborations on sensitive data
Today’s organizations are heavily data-centric. More than 56% of the companies in the enterprise data and analytics market acknowledge that their own data is not enough to make sound decisions, and they plan on expanding their ability to source external data. Nevertheless, their expansion and collaboration with others on sensitive or confidential data are prevented due to the risk of data leaks or because of data-privacy concerns and regulations.
Tune Insight B2B software enables organizations to make better decisions by extracting collective insights from confidential data collaborations, while each participating organization remains in full control of its own data. The data is never transferred or disclosed, thanks to Tune Insight's patent-pending Multiparty Homomorphic Encryption technology. Tune Insight serves companies in the enterprise data and analytics market, estimated at USD 100 billion, with strong ties into the machine learning and homomorphic encryption markets, respectively projected at USD 117 billion and USD 266 billion in 2027. Tune Insight's founding team is composed of CEO Juan Troncoso-Pastoriza, Romain Bouyé, and Jean-Pierre Hubaux. Dr. Juan Ramón Troncoso-Pastoriza is a senior researcher at the EPFL Laboratory for Data Security (lds.epfl.ch) led by Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux. Recently incorporated, Tune Insight has produced a health pilot and proof-of-concept prototypes paid by customers in cyber defense and insurance, and just announced the closing if its first financing round with Wingman Ventures.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to support the development and maturation of the ongoing prototypes and pilots, optimize the product-market-fit, and enable the engagement of the first recurring paying customer by the end of 2021, out of those with which they are working on PoCs and pilots. tuneinsight.com
V-Labs: Augmented reality for cm accurate geospatial data
Before civil engineering works take place, a surveyor has to go out to the field to spray the location of underground infrastructures on the street. This is not only time-consuming but also prone to human errors that can lead to costly damages to cables and pipes during excavation works. Furthermore, the construction sector is one of the least digitized industries in the world.
V-Labs' technology, developed by CTO Michele Curina, CEO Diemer Cohen Stuart together with Board members Armand Lumens and Anders Thostrup, brings construction plans to the field through AR and helps further digitize the work. They are part of the ESA BIC Switzerland program and have won several awards from for example the European GNSS Agency (currently European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)). V-Labs is a Swiss-based startup that has developed GNSS/RTK-integrated (cm accurate GPS) Augmented Reality solution for AR-glasses allowing their users to visualize, measure, and modify geospatial data with centimeters accuracy in the field. For example, users can visualize GIS-data of underground cables and pipes, but also BIM-data (3D models) for construction projects. Thanks to their patented technology, surveyors, contractors, and engineers can increase their efficiency in the field, verify engineering plans and avoid costly errors during construction. With their solution, the team targets a market of approximately USD 10 billion for GIS analytics and mobile GIS technology, including the US and European markets.
Venture Kick's funds will allow them to grow the team with software engineers and marketing & sales, further develop their product, and successfully roll out their go-to-market phase to prepare for scaling up the business. v-labs.ch