Medtech Saving Babies Before Birth and Dynamic Pricing Software for Small Hotels Win CHF 150,000
16.12.2019
Venture Kick's jury awards KOVE and RoomPriceGenie 150,000 francs each, to support Swiss startups helping surgeons treat babies in the womb, and independent hotels earn more by pricing rooms dynamically.
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 KOVE founder Yannick Devaud
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 RoomPriceGenie co-founder Ari Andricopoulos
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Medical device startup KOVE is preparing long-term in vivo trials with University Hospital Zurich, while hotel revenue pricing algorithm RoomPriceGenie already serves more than 130 small- and medium-sized hotels around the world. The two Zurich-based spin-off projects earned Venture Kick's highest level of funding, training and support.
KOVE: saving babies before birth
Treating fetuses during pregnancy risks triggering premature birth. Currently the surgical instruments used in the womb often damage the fetal membrane, causing early births in many cases. University of Zurich BioEntrepreneur Fellow Yannick Devaud has patented a device that reduces this risk. Safer fetal surgery will open the path for safer treatment of fetuses.
Devaud, whose grandmother comes from the Brazilian Amazon, named the startup KOVE, which means 'to live' in the Amazon’s Tupi-Guarani language. "The Amazon is an area of blooming life and constant renewal. We save babies before they are born. We want families to stop having to mourn the death of a child," he says.
The startup and the University Hospital of Zurich successfully tested the feasibility of its device on pregnant sheep, and now plan long-term trials before a seed round next year. Venture Kick's training has already helped KOVE's successful grant applications from Gebert Rüf Stiftung InnoBooster and the Swiss National Science Foundation's BRIDGE programs.
"Venture Kick is a mind-opener!" says Devaud. "For scientists like me, it forces you to leave your comfort zone and rethink a lot of aspects of your startup. It's a school for entrepreneurs."
Devaud, whose grandmother comes from the Brazilian Amazon, named the startup KOVE, which means 'to live' in the Amazon’s Tupi-Guarani language. "The Amazon is an area of blooming life and constant renewal. We save babies before they are born. We want families to stop having to mourn the death of a child," he says.
The startup and the University Hospital of Zurich successfully tested the feasibility of its device on pregnant sheep, and now plan long-term trials before a seed round next year. Venture Kick's training has already helped KOVE's successful grant applications from Gebert Rüf Stiftung InnoBooster and the Swiss National Science Foundation's BRIDGE programs.
"Venture Kick is a mind-opener!" says Devaud. "For scientists like me, it forces you to leave your comfort zone and rethink a lot of aspects of your startup. It's a school for entrepreneurs."
venturekick.ch/KOVE
High resolution image of KOVE founder Yannick Devaud.
RoomPriceGenie AG: dynamic pricing for small hotels
High resolution image of RoomPriceGenie co-founder Ari Andricopoulos.
High resolution image of KOVE founder Yannick Devaud.
RoomPriceGenie AG: dynamic pricing for small hotels
Revenue management for many small hotels merely means a high-season and a low-season. That old-fashioned approach doesn't make sense to co-founders Ari Andricopoulos, author of 49 Tips to Supercharge your Revenue, Marvin Speh, and Jörg Siegel. The trio, linked to the ETH, the University of St. Gallen, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, blend backgrounds in the travel, finance and data industries. Their algorithm draws on publicly-available data points to help small and medium-sized, independent hotels price dynamically to fill their rooms throughout the year while also increasing revenue by as much as 20 percent.
Venture Kick's pre-seed support enabled RoomPriceGenie to boost marketing and prepare to scale. In the past six months the team has doubled to 19 staff in three countries, and raised a 1-million-franc seed round from investors. The Zug-based startup will now focus on automating its customer acquisition processes before a further funding round in the second half of 2020.
Venture Kick training at the Kickers' Camps were the "chance to get out of day-to-day operations and look at the business from first principles again," says Andricopoulos, whose father's bed & breakfast inspired the startup's first algorithm. "We received deep and insightful advice. As a founder you're able to re-orientate yourself to focus on the important things for your startup."
Venture Kick's pre-seed support enabled RoomPriceGenie to boost marketing and prepare to scale. In the past six months the team has doubled to 19 staff in three countries, and raised a 1-million-franc seed round from investors. The Zug-based startup will now focus on automating its customer acquisition processes before a further funding round in the second half of 2020.
Venture Kick training at the Kickers' Camps were the "chance to get out of day-to-day operations and look at the business from first principles again," says Andricopoulos, whose father's bed & breakfast inspired the startup's first algorithm. "We received deep and insightful advice. As a founder you're able to re-orientate yourself to focus on the important things for your startup."
High resolution image of RoomPriceGenie co-founder Ari Andricopoulos.
Additional Links
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