Cultivation of gut bacteria and solar as a service at the Venture Kick final
14.06.2016
The ETH Zurich spin-off PharmaBiome and the Lausanne based startup Younergy are starting a new era in the treatment of intestinal infections and the financing of roof-top solar projects – two burning issues in today’s society. By winning Venture Kick, both startups have secured the total funding amount of CHF 130.000 each.
 The team of PharmaBiome (right, Tomas de Wouters)
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 The team of Younergy (in the middle, Pedro Miranda)
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Increasing antibiotic resistances make intestinal infections like Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) unresponsive to standard antibiotic treatment and thereby life-threatening. With a constant increase in antibiotic-resistant CDI it has become a major burden to the developed world with an estimated cost of EUR 4.5 billion. Over the last two years, the microbiome industry has raised nearly USD 1 billion on multiple approaches to develop the market of microbiota therapy. Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT), i.e. the transplant of feces from a healthy donor to the infected patient, is currently the only life-saving therapy for antibiotic-resistant CDI with success rates of over 90%. Nevertheless, this promising therapeutic success harbors the risk of transmission of unknown contaminants and other unexpected reaction with the host.
Dramatic improvement of safety and quality of patient’s life
The ETH Zurich spin-off PharmaBiome is developing a scalable, controllable and efficient alternative to the use of fecal material in microbiota therapy. Eliminating the risk of fecal transplants, the startup will make this highly effective therapy the treatment of choice for intestinal infections. The goal is to assemble the gut bacteria artificially in order to regenerate the gut microbiota with a controlled set of bacteria and to use this as a cleaner and safer way of treating patients. This new biotechnology approach is revolutionary given the very specific conditions gut bacteria thrive under. PharmaBiome CEO Tomas de Wouters is currently in Boston for a business development week with the venture leaders Life Sciences program to accelerate the innovation on the US market. He adds: „Venture Kick has accelerated our venture by giving us the key ingredients and network to successfully develop an innovative start-up company.”
Swiss homeowners can go solar for less than a coffee a day
Finding an efficient way to finance and operate decentralized power production systems is key for a post-carbon world. This is the market opportunity Younergy is tapping into: the company allows residential customers, corporations and other public and private property owners to benefit from affordable solar electricity (cheaper than grid rates) with no upfront investment. The Lausanne based startup designs and installs a solar photovoltaic system on the roof of their costumers at no cost; in exchange of the solar electricity produced, the customers pay a price per kWh that includes insurance and maintenance for the duration of the contract.
Younergy has developed their innovative technology to efficiently sell, manage the installation and monitor the production of a large number of solar projects. Thanks to Venture Kick, the company can now accelerate the deployment of resources in the Swiss German market: "Venture Kick is an extremely well organized support program. In addition to the much needed financial support the kicking coaching sessions were essential for us to improve the way we think and communicate our business," remarks Pedro Miranda, CEO of Younergy.
Learn more about the innovative startup in their latest video:
Dramatic improvement of safety and quality of patient’s life
The ETH Zurich spin-off PharmaBiome is developing a scalable, controllable and efficient alternative to the use of fecal material in microbiota therapy. Eliminating the risk of fecal transplants, the startup will make this highly effective therapy the treatment of choice for intestinal infections. The goal is to assemble the gut bacteria artificially in order to regenerate the gut microbiota with a controlled set of bacteria and to use this as a cleaner and safer way of treating patients. This new biotechnology approach is revolutionary given the very specific conditions gut bacteria thrive under. PharmaBiome CEO Tomas de Wouters is currently in Boston for a business development week with the venture leaders Life Sciences program to accelerate the innovation on the US market. He adds: „Venture Kick has accelerated our venture by giving us the key ingredients and network to successfully develop an innovative start-up company.”
Swiss homeowners can go solar for less than a coffee a day
Finding an efficient way to finance and operate decentralized power production systems is key for a post-carbon world. This is the market opportunity Younergy is tapping into: the company allows residential customers, corporations and other public and private property owners to benefit from affordable solar electricity (cheaper than grid rates) with no upfront investment. The Lausanne based startup designs and installs a solar photovoltaic system on the roof of their costumers at no cost; in exchange of the solar electricity produced, the customers pay a price per kWh that includes insurance and maintenance for the duration of the contract.
Younergy has developed their innovative technology to efficiently sell, manage the installation and monitor the production of a large number of solar projects. Thanks to Venture Kick, the company can now accelerate the deployment of resources in the Swiss German market: "Venture Kick is an extremely well organized support program. In addition to the much needed financial support the kicking coaching sessions were essential for us to improve the way we think and communicate our business," remarks Pedro Miranda, CEO of Younergy.
Learn more about the innovative startup in their latest video: