Startups developing a low-cost breathe ventilator, 300x faster qubits, a minimally invasive diagnostic for sepsis, sustainable real estate investment, sustainable food based on fungi and fermantation each win CHF 10,000

breathe: a low-cost breathe ventilator for all
Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) lack a sufficient supply of ventilators leading to millions of preventable deaths and poor patient outcomes each year. To tackle this problem, breathe develop a low-cost ventilator for emergency use, transport, and
short-term critical care. The team behind the project is composed of CEO Dr. Thomas Lumpe, CTO Leonie Korn, and COO Christos Vasileiou. Thomas Lumpe is currently a Postdoc at the Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory (EDAC) at ETH Zurich, where he also finished his Ph.D. in April 2021 in the field of computational design and 3D printing. For the successful introduction into the market and sustainable use in low-resource settings (LRS), the team takes a holistic, user-centered approach to design a ventilator that is intuitive to use, robust, and easy to maintain, even in harsh environments. Their main customers are medical facilities, NGOs, and governments in LMICs that want to increase their healthcare capacities. Eventually, breathe would like to co-produce the ventilator in a LMIC to promote knowledge exchange, strengthen local economies, and build capacity. The global ventilator market is estimated at about USD 4.6 billion in 2020. Excluding homecare devices and focusing on LMICs yields a Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) of about USD 690 million, which is estimated to grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 12%.
They will use the Venture Kick financing specifically to manufacture their final prototype and take it to African countries to present it to relevant stakeholders. breathe-ventilator.ch

 

Chiral: 300x faster qubits
The quantum computing industry is growing extremely fast and will reach $50 billion by 2030 (McKinsey, 2021). Quantum computers are exceptionally good at tackling optimization problems with a very large number of scenarios, consisting of basic computing units known as quantum bits, or qubits. In today's industry, the production of high-quality qubits is the biggest bottleneck.
Chiral, an ETH spin-off from a 4-year federal research consortium, aims to break this bottleneck with our competencies in nanotechnology, machine learning, and high-precision engineering. With their patented technologies and machine prototype, the founders CEO Seoho Jung, CTO/COO Nathanael Lanz, and CPO Andre Butzerin are already producing qubits 300x faster and have a clear roadmap for further R&D. They have already delivered their first order to a customer. Their team brings a rare combination of competencies in nanotechnology (nanomaterial growth), AI (material selection), and high-precision robotics (qubit assembly). Their first patent application protects a growth chip design that allows them to grow more than 500 nanomaterials on a single chip. This is 50x more than what has been done by others. Being able to grow a large number of clean nanomaterials at once is critical to increasing the overall throughput of the process. The next two patents in the pipeline will protect key features of their assembly machine. The 500+ potential customers they identified represent an addressable revenue of USD 1 billion.
They plan to use the funds from the Venture Kick stage 1 for the website design and legal support.

EVIIVE: minimally invasive diagnostic for sepsis
The current standard of care approach for sepsis is highly invasive, delayed, and insensitive.
CEO Dr. Kevin Ho Wai Yim from UZH co-founded EVIIVE together with CSO Dr. Richard Chahwan with the aim of providing diagnostic and disease monitoring approach for sepsis patients that is minimally invasive, sensitive, and specific to serve as a navigation tool for precise treatment. The solution is based on liquid biopsies derived from extracellular vesicle analyses for sepsis detection and monitoring. The final product will be assay kits for customers to process liquid biopsies and analyze with existing flow cytometers. They are also planning to provide novel EVs biomarker discovery services for diseases with high unmet needs in detection and monitoring. In the EU/US, around 20% of newborns (around 1,600,000 per year) show sepsis symptoms, and over 75,000 children are diagnosed with severe sepsis every year in the US with a similar number in the EU (around 150,000 per year). At the target charge of USD 100 per test, with each patient taking 3 tests for 3 days after symptoms onset, the revenue is estimated at approximately USD 525 million per year.
The Venture Kick funds will cover the salary of a research assistant to perform validation experiments and associated reagent costs and equipment charges.

OPTIML: NetZero CO2, cost-optimized and digitalized real estate investment
Real estate managers and consultants are struggling due to the currently time-consuming and analog approaches for developing renovation strategies for existing buildings. Achieving Net-Zero cost-effectively is at the top of the agenda.
OPTIML's mission is to digitalize real estate investment for sustainability. OPTIML is an end-to-end software platform harnessing the power of optimization to generate intelligent low-cost and low-carbon investment strategies for existing buildings. Real estate owners and consultants benefit from the novel data-driven approach scaled from the asset to portfolio level with increased productivity and accuracy for multi-year planning.
With OPTIML-asset, long-term strategies to 2050 can be developed for any unique building asset considering all aspects of renovations for asset and construction management. Minimal data input is required but the models can be leveraged with maximum customizability. Scaled to any number of buildings, OPTIML-portfolio develops portfolio budgetary and CO2 pathways considering asset level granularity with minimal planning cost.
The team is led by two co-founders: CEO Dr. Evan Petkov and CTO Jordi Campos, and scientific advisors Dr. Georgios Mavromatidis, Dr. Christof Knoeri, and Prof. Dr. Volker H. Hoffmann, part of the ETH Zurich Group for Sustainability and Technology. The Venture Kick financing at stage 1 will give them the boost to develop marketing materials such as a website and branding along with hiring a freelancer to help with the critical UI/UX features. www.optiml.ch

Yumame Foods: sustainable food based on fungi and fermentation
Some consumers perceive the current plant-based meat products as ultra-processed, and not fully sustainable due to the long, international supply chain and the complex production process of their ingredients, particularly proteins. 
Yumame Foods' mission is to fulfill this need and play a key role in the transition to a truly sustainable global food system. CEO and Founder Eliana Zamprogna uses fungi and fermentation in a novel way to create superior healthy, tasty, and sustainable products for the "center of the plate" that are locally produced and are minimally processed. Fungi have cost-efficient growth, form structures naturally, and have excellent taste. Fermentation enhances the nutritional value and taste of food naturally and resource-efficiently. For that, Yumame collaborates with scientists, technology partners, and culinary chefs. Their products have a local supply chain and do not require Novel food Approval.
Eliana plans to use the funds for the preparation of the first pilot-scale production and for marketing activities. Yumame Foods is building up collaboration with production partners and suppliers, setting up its own fermentation infrastructure, as well as preparing the necessary regulatory requirements for market testing. yumamefoods.com