Startups Developing Reusable Coffee Cups and Nanoscale X-Ray Optics Each win CHf 40'000
22.05.2020
Learn more about the Swiss science spin-offs IRISgo and XRnanotech. Their projects help coffee drinkers to experience optimal drinking and researchers to get higher-resolution imagery on small samples. The winning founders receive Venture Kick's second stage of pre-seed funding, network support, and entrepreneurial training.
2.jpg) |
 |
 IRISgo, Manuel Borer and Fabian Christmann
|
|
 XRnanotech, Florian Döring
|
|
IRISgo: Reusable Coffee Cup (www.venturekick.ch/IrisGo)
All existing reusable coffee cups do not enable a high-quality
All existing reusable coffee cups do not enable a high-quality
drinking experience and might burn your tongue due to small openings. With the reusable IRISgo cup, the technological solution of the closure system as a sealing system ensures the optimal drinking experience. A functional prototype has been developed, the next step is the industrialization of the product. The market for reusable cups has a volume of 2.8 billion USD and is expected to grow. Considering the environmental damage caused by disposable cups and the image-loss resulting from this for their providers, IRISgo have their finger on the pulse of the time with their product. Already 100 cups are sold and going to be distributed next year.
They plan to use Venture Kick's fund to develop the IrisOne, a modification of the IrisGo cup enabling a onehanded use of the cup, and a market entry for B2B by end of March 2021.
They plan to use Venture Kick's fund to develop the IrisOne, a modification of the IrisGo cup enabling a onehanded use of the cup, and a market entry for B2B by end of March 2021.
XRnanotechWith Fresnel, Dr. Florian Döring - PostDoc at PSI - addresses the worldwide need for nanotech X-ray optics to focus high-energy beams onto smallest samples like cells, viruses or bacteria. In this niche, they provide unique optics-solutions for several hundred beamlines in more than 30 large-scale research facilities around the world. This project won the PSI Founder Fellowship, with an initial budget of 150k CHF over 18 months. Meanwhile, first customers were approached and first order requests were answered via PSI. FRESNEL was also awarded the title “Deep Tech Pioneer” by the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge. Thus, it was recognized as one of the most promising projects in deep tech to date. Starting point of this project is the market of diffractive X-ray optics, which is a growing worldwide market, dominated mainly by large-scale research facilities. They have an overall budget of around CHF 1.5 billion, where the annual market size for optics alone is estimated at 50 to 100 Mio. Later on, they will enter the markets for microscopy, drug discovery and lasertech in their respective niches for nanotechnology.
They plan to use the Venture Kick funds to cover the design and printing costs of their marketing material and hire additional team members to help strengthen the core business and widens the product portfolio to penetrate new markets.
They plan to use the Venture Kick funds to cover the design and printing costs of their marketing material and hire additional team members to help strengthen the core business and widens the product portfolio to penetrate new markets.