CHF 40,000 for sustainable sportswear materials, CO2 removal producing H2, and sustainable enzyme design
12.11.2025
Billoba, DeltaSpark, and Hephaistos were selected at Venture Kick's second financial and entrepreneurial support stage. Their projects offer high-performance, plant-based rubber alternatives tailored for the sportswear industry; enable the local and economic removal of CO2 emissions while simultaneously producing affordable, clean H2 and building materials; and develop peptide-based inhibitors that deliver targeted, highly specific cancer treatments while avoiding toxicity in healthy tissue.
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 Billoba: CPO Ashley Reese, CEO Jonathann Magne, and CTO Benoit Schnell
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 DeltaSpark: CEO Dr. Luc Bondaz and CTO Dr. Suhas Nuggehalli Sampathkumar
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 Hephaistos: from left to right, CEO Ilya Schneider, Arthur Theuer, Jannik Neumann, CTO Lucas Merlicek, Lukas Radtke, and Moritz Ullhofen
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Billoba: High-performance sustainable sportswear materials
Traditional rubber materials like neoprene are derived from petroleum or limestone, contributing heavily to environmental degradation. Today, sportswear brands are forced to choose between sustainability and performance.
Founded by Jonathann Magne (CEO), Ashley Reese (CPO), and Benoit Schnell (CTO), Billoba is developing high-performance, plant-based rubber alternatives tailored for the sportswear industry. The first innovation is a proprietary, plant-based alternative to neoprene that delivers on both sustainability and technical performance without compromise. The elastomer market exceeds USD 100B globally, with a USD 10 B serviceable market in sportswear alone. Billoba is positioned to become the premium sustainable material partner for forward-thinking brands.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to scale production from lab to industry, including the first large-scale foam sheet samples and end-product prototypes. Funds will also support marketing and customer engagement to validate product-market fit. billoba.com
DeltaSpark: From CO2 removal to clean H2 production
Record-high CO2 emissions are driving rapidly rising global temperatures, creating an urgent need for large-scale reductions.
Recognizing that waste consists of compounds that cannot be harvested or reused, DeltaSpark tackles this challenge by transforming CO2 into valuable social and economic opportunities.
DeltaSpark is a spinoff from EPFL, founded by CEO Dr. Luc Bondaz and CTO Dr. Suhas Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, who met during the PhD Excellence Programme. A group of expert advisors supports the team: Prof. Jan Van Herle, a scale-up specialist; Prof. François Maréchal, our process engineering specialist; and Dr. Rafael Castro Amoedo, our business mentor.
DeltaSpark’s compact, multi-patented electrocatalytic process enables the local, cost-effective removal of CO2 emissions while simultaneously producing affordable, clean H2 and building materials.
Venture Kick Funds will support the demonstration of DeltaSpark’s solution at scale, with an initial target of removing 1 kg of CO2 per day.
Hephaistos: Sustainable chemical manufacturing with novel enzymes
The current way of producing chemicals is flawed in many ways. It is costly in terms of energy and reagents and is heavy on the environment. An emerging alternative is enzymes: They save 30% in production cost and 50% in CO2 emissions. But there is no suitable enzyme for every production process yet. Hephaistos addresses this need by designing them from scratch.
The founders team formed during the ETH Biotech Master's and is obsessed with enzyme design and its implications for industry. They unify expertise in the disciplines of chemistry, biotech, and machine learning. The advisory board to the team is serial biotech entrepreneur Andreas Meyer and enzyme expert Peter Stockinger. Hephaistos´ core tech is an end-to-end enzyme design pipeline, providing catalysts for previously unreachable industrial reactions. Focusing on Swiss pharmaceutical production first, they address a 740 Million CHF market. The company´s vision is to become the go-to for tailor-made enzymes, not only in the pharma market, but also in other niches: industrial chemicals, herbicides, and cosmetics.
The Venture Kick funds aid them in achieving their first industrial pilot project. Hephaistos.bio
Traditional rubber materials like neoprene are derived from petroleum or limestone, contributing heavily to environmental degradation. Today, sportswear brands are forced to choose between sustainability and performance.
Founded by Jonathann Magne (CEO), Ashley Reese (CPO), and Benoit Schnell (CTO), Billoba is developing high-performance, plant-based rubber alternatives tailored for the sportswear industry. The first innovation is a proprietary, plant-based alternative to neoprene that delivers on both sustainability and technical performance without compromise. The elastomer market exceeds USD 100B globally, with a USD 10 B serviceable market in sportswear alone. Billoba is positioned to become the premium sustainable material partner for forward-thinking brands.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to scale production from lab to industry, including the first large-scale foam sheet samples and end-product prototypes. Funds will also support marketing and customer engagement to validate product-market fit. billoba.com
DeltaSpark: From CO2 removal to clean H2 production
Record-high CO2 emissions are driving rapidly rising global temperatures, creating an urgent need for large-scale reductions.
Recognizing that waste consists of compounds that cannot be harvested or reused, DeltaSpark tackles this challenge by transforming CO2 into valuable social and economic opportunities.
DeltaSpark is a spinoff from EPFL, founded by CEO Dr. Luc Bondaz and CTO Dr. Suhas Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, who met during the PhD Excellence Programme. A group of expert advisors supports the team: Prof. Jan Van Herle, a scale-up specialist; Prof. François Maréchal, our process engineering specialist; and Dr. Rafael Castro Amoedo, our business mentor.
DeltaSpark’s compact, multi-patented electrocatalytic process enables the local, cost-effective removal of CO2 emissions while simultaneously producing affordable, clean H2 and building materials.
Venture Kick Funds will support the demonstration of DeltaSpark’s solution at scale, with an initial target of removing 1 kg of CO2 per day.
Hephaistos: Sustainable chemical manufacturing with novel enzymes
The current way of producing chemicals is flawed in many ways. It is costly in terms of energy and reagents and is heavy on the environment. An emerging alternative is enzymes: They save 30% in production cost and 50% in CO2 emissions. But there is no suitable enzyme for every production process yet. Hephaistos addresses this need by designing them from scratch.
The founders team formed during the ETH Biotech Master's and is obsessed with enzyme design and its implications for industry. They unify expertise in the disciplines of chemistry, biotech, and machine learning. The advisory board to the team is serial biotech entrepreneur Andreas Meyer and enzyme expert Peter Stockinger. Hephaistos´ core tech is an end-to-end enzyme design pipeline, providing catalysts for previously unreachable industrial reactions. Focusing on Swiss pharmaceutical production first, they address a 740 Million CHF market. The company´s vision is to become the go-to for tailor-made enzymes, not only in the pharma market, but also in other niches: industrial chemicals, herbicides, and cosmetics.
The Venture Kick funds aid them in achieving their first industrial pilot project. Hephaistos.bio