Intento and Vigilitech receive CHF 130’000 at the Venture Kick final
01.12.2016
With their wearable solution for stroke rehabilitation and a monitoring system for surgical interventions on small animals, Intento (EPFL) and Vigilitech (ETHZ) have broken boundaries in the medical domain. The two startups won CHF 130’000 of pre-seed capital each at the Venture Kick final.
 Andrea Maesani and Andrea Biasiucci of Intento
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 Daniel Zünd, Lukas Treyer and Marc Zünd of Vigilitech
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Every year in Switzerland, more than 16'000 people are victim of a stroke. A third of them remain severely paralyzed. Intento develops a user-friendly neuromuscular stimulation device to help paralyzed stroke patients recover motor function. This brings new hope for millions of patients in the world.
A wearable solution for the rehabilitation of stroke patients
In an initial clinical trial, 80 percent of patients demonstrated a meaningful degree of improvement after two weeks. In 2016, Intento's technology was well received during the trip with the venture leaders in Life Sciences (Boston), where it won the Global Pitchfest. Intento also won the prestigious CTI Swiss Medtech Award, presented by President Johann N. Schneider-Ammann in front of an audience of around 600 delegates in 2016. Intento was elected at the 44th rank of the TOP100 Swiss Startup Award in September 2016.
Andrea Maesani, co-founder and CEO of Intento, is happy about the great news: "the Venture Kick program, with its staged approach and the kickers camps, helped us to identify and challenge the fundamental assumptions of our business since the very beginning. Thanks to its large network, Venture Kick provides a great platform to give visibility to startups within the Swiss startup ecosystem and connect to investors."
Sophisticated monitoring system for surgical interventions in small animals
High-end medicine for animals is in great demand nowadays. Vigilitech developes a compact standalone system for mice that monitors and controls vital physiological parameters during surgical interventions. This system connects wirelessly to a browser, tablet or smartphone and also visualizes core temperature, respiration and heart. Acquired data, additional notes and photos can be synchronized, shared with others and the analysis tools can be used.
Marc Zünd, CEO and co-founder of Vigilitech, is thrilled about the winnings at the Venture Kick initiative: “The three-stage process and the support we received from Venture Kick helped us to turn our idea into a real venture. Venture Kick helped us to gain traction, progress and participating at the challenge had a big impact on who we are and what we are today.”