Four outstanding startup projects win the first stage of Venture Kick

08.11.2017

Four startups won CHF 10’000 each at the first stage of Venture Kick: Ensiplan, Rebels Technologies, thinkfield and Ultra Low Power GPS. They benefit from the annual global 3 million in cash support from the program as well as hands-on execution support at the kickers camps. They are now preparing for stage two, where they might win another CHF 20’000.

Ensiplan.jpg
Enisplan
Rebels.jpg
Rebels Technologies
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thinkfield
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Ultra low power GPS
Ensiplan (ETHZ) – IT, energy, cleantech: Power grid operators (or technically called Transmission System Operators – TSOs) still plan new power lines by hand and they have to go through time consuming steps to get permits and to communicate with local communities. Ensiplan provides IT interactive and automated solutions to support TSOs in identifying the route of new transmission lines and to improve the interaction with authorities and communities with the use of 3D visualization and virtual reality.

Rebels Technologies (HSG) – gig economy, mobile:  Rebels is a platform that makes life more efficient. It enables short term peer-to-peer “missions” for students around the globe and allows cashless transactions for missions including rewards. The missions are displayed on a map, so users can always see what’s going on around them. They can get stuff done, get paid and connect. It’s a social platform with the potential of becoming “The Uber for everything”. Machine learning is used to make requests for the users as relevant as possible.

thinkfield (University of Liechtenstein) – IT, software
: With thinkfield you can develop, manage and drop your thoughts. Thinkfield is: an infinite whiteboard, an overview of all related data to one project and a place to draw connections between thoughts. With real time collaboration you can develop ideas together with your team. The project management tools enable you to keep track of who does what and when. Thinkfield gives you an overview of all your thoughts and projects, wrapped in a simple and elegant design. Next year, the startup intends to display thoughts in augmented reality.

Ultra Low Power GPS (ETHZ) – IT, electronics: Ultra Low Power GPS improves the power consumption of GPS (also Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou) receivers by two to three orders of magnitude. The startup’s GPS receiver relies on off the shelf parts to receive and digitize the satellite signals. The innovation originates from the fact that the startup can compute a position from very short signal observations. Such short signals can be stored for later processing. The first prototype stores short snippets of GPS signals at a given interval, using a coin cell battery that can be found in wristwatches. This allows for satellite navigation technology to be applied in heavily energy restricted situations such as wearable devices.

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