MATIS and Versics each win CHF 40,000 in Venture Kick’s second stage

MATIS: IR camera for authentication of artworks
Art has always been a place for investment, yet reserved for high-value artworks and privileged individuals. Nowadays, middle-range-value artworks, dominant in the art market turnover, are becoming a suitable investment with appraisals up to 20% after authentication. Still, as half of the artworks in circulation might be fake, middle-range-value paintings are perceived by new investors as risky: Thorough art expertise relying on rigorous authentication is critical in transactions.

Therefore, technical analysis, such as advanced optical techniques, has been developed to assist art experts in the authentication process. Among them, infrared imaging revealing underdrawings and erased signatures provide precious data during the authentication process. These analyses are relatively costly compared to such artworks, difficult to perform, and often require additional logistic costs (transportation and insurance). For these reasons, an overwhelming majority of artworks do not go through the authentication process.

MATIS proposes a new approach. The multidisciplinary team comprises Marie Didier, who has a dual background in optics and art and holds a PhD in Optics and Photonics from the Laboratory of fundamental BioPhotonics at EPFL and graduated in conservation science; Dr. Dylan Cotta, who is an Ecole Normale Supérieure Graduate and former research fellow at Harvard University and MIT; and Charles Bret, who is a business angel. MATIS’s multispectral camera is based on utility and security. With the use of specific image-processing algorithms, the team found a way to drastically reduce the hardware costs and enhance the underdrawing visualization, fitting the needs of the art experts. With a secured online database, the camera is easy to use and gives art experts broader access to the authentication market. The Venture Kick funds will be used for patenting and salaries.


Versics: Enabling the data traffic of the future
The most valuable asset in our modern world is no longer oil but data. The exchange of data in the human-machine and the machine-machine channels currently consumes around 9% of the global energy, with a yearly growth of 20-30%. The deployment of faster data networks, 5G, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is rising, and the networks’ future energy footprint will significantly contribute to the global climate crisis. Worldwide data communication traffic is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 46%, achieving a more than 40-fold increase in the next decade. 

To simultaneously enhance the network’s bandwidth and sustain the energy levels, network providers need to upgrade critical infrastructure nodes. Current commercial solutions have reached performance limits in energy efficiency, speed, and reliability. Achieving higher bandwidth requires deploying parallel systems, resulting in unsustainable energy demands for internet and cloud service providers. Versics has a different solution: The data conversion from electronic bits (inside a computer) to optical pulses (for fiber-optics deployments) using electro-optic modulators. 

Versics sells electro-optic components for the next generation of high-speed fiber-optic networks, which serve the markets of data centers, long-haul communications, harsh environments, and test and measurement. The technology combines the best properties of two materials: pure electro-optic modulation from traditional lithium niobate devices and highly scalable fabrication run from silicon photonics. It was invented at ETH Zurich in the early 2000s and is now ready for commercialization. The Versics team comprises Dr. Marc Reig Escalé, a Pioneer Fellow of ETH Zurich and focused on business development, and Fabian Kaufmann, a PhD student in the core technology at ETH Zurich, with the main focus on product development. The team also includes Prof. Rachel Grange as a scientific advisor and Michael Stucky as a business advisor.

The Venture Kick funding will help Versics add new contacts in their current customer pipeline to fine-tune the market-product fit of their minimum viable product (MVP). In parallel, the team will set up a marketing campaign for their MVP launch in mid-2021 and extend the core team with deep-tech product management experience.