Startups developing a novel electric wheelchair, tracers for early detection of neurological diseases, a cloud platform for location analytics and business intelligence, and ultra-photorealistic 3D digital models for urban spaces each win CHF 10,000

28.10.2020

Exomotion, Nemosia, UrbanDataLab and, Uzufly win Venture Kick's first stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects help people with mobility difficulties to move around in different environments, pharma companies, and hospitals to detect and combat neurological diseases, real estate professionals by providing them with easy access to custom location knowledge, and the public community and construction stakeholders better visualize and apprehend future construction projects.

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Exomotion's CEO and Founder Mohsen Falahi
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Nemosia: CEO Awa F. Diagne, Director of Clinical Development Dr. Hazem Farouk, Director of R&D Dr. Haider Ahmed and, IT & Analytics Daniel Tay
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UrbanDataLab: Vision and Business Patrick Schirmer, Data Scientist Lorenz Walthert and Digital innovation Pablo Viejo, and Solution Sales Silvan Geser
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Uzufly: Founder Romain Kirchhoff
Exomotion: Developing ALLURE, the most liberating electric wheelchair
Moving freely and with ease has been the dream of humans since long before the invention of the wheel. Exomotion, as an EPFL spin-off, disrupts the way we move and think about mobility in a way which has never been possible before, by re-inventing the wheel to provide freedom in any mobility device.
Currently the focus of Exomotion is on personal mobility devices for people with mobility difficulties. ALLURE is the next generation of powered wheelchairs.
This product addresses three main issues with the existing devices in the market; mobility, negative social impact, and the service connectivity. This novel electric wheelchair provides the highest level of manoeuvrability for its users, enabling them to move in any direction they desire, in a wide range of environments. Benefitting from an elegant design, ALLURE appearance represents the cutting edge robotic technology used in this device. “Our product, ALLURE, gives back one degree of freedom to those who have already lost it, to increase their quality of life. This is our ultimate goal” said the CEO of Exomotion, Mohsen Falahi. 
Exomotion team has been hosted by Professor Auke Ijspeert, the head of BioRob lab at EPFL, to develop their technology further and go to market soon. In 2021, only a limited number of units will be distributed among early supporters. The assistive mobility market has been projected for more than 7.9B USD in 2022. This is a growing market with a CAGR of more than 17%. The growth of this market comes from the increase in ageing population of elderly people and the need for automation in clinics and hospitals. Starting with ALLURE, Exomotion aims to shape the future of mobility.
The funds from VentureKick will be spent on technology development and proof of market. exomotion.ch

Nemosia: Tracers that can provide early detection of various neurological diseases
Neurological degeneration severely impacts quality of life and hence represents one of this century's greatest medical challenges. Billions of dollars have been invested over the last two decades and yet, still no cure.
Nemosia is an ETH Zurich spin-off project developing tracers for early diagnostics of neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. They use PET imaging, a non-invasive technique, to visualize the receptors inside the brain. The team, composed of CEO Awa Diagne, Director of Clinical Development Dr. Hazem Ahmed, Director of R&D Dr. Ahmed Haider and Advisor Prof. Simon Ametamey. Their target customers are first Pharma companies which they can support from day #1 in their drug development and preclinical studies. Then, after completion of clinical development phase 2, they will add patient recruitment and therapy monitoring to their offering and extend their customers base to Hospitals. Finally, after FDA approval, their tracers will empower everyone to take early measures to combat the diseases. 
Proof of Concept is completed with preclinical studies on primates, the team is now in preliminary clinical trials Phase 1. 
Besides, Nemosia also aims to raise public awareness of neurological disorders and promote a culture where it is seen as normal and safe to do regular brain check-ups even if there are no visible symptoms of neurological disorder.
The Venture Kick fund will be used to strengthen their patent position and further support their clinical development. nemosia.com

UrbanDataLab: The cloud platform for location analytics and business intelligence
Developers and investors in real estate need to have local knowledge to acquire assets and manage their portfolios. While there is a huge growth in available spatial data this data is often found to be inconsistent, especially across regions and countries which makes it challenging to scale internationally. Moreover, the increase in volume and complexity of data comes with a high cost on expert know-how and IT-infrastructure.
UrbanDataLab's team develops a cloud platform that takes this burden off an organization by providing  real estate professionals with easy access to location knowledge, AI-driven business analytics and intuitive decision support tools. It enables professionals to create custom strategies and to use cutting edge data science techniques which reduces or even makes obsolete expensive in-house expertise in data and geo science as well as the managing of its own IT infrastructure. The core-team consists of geospatial, IT and business experts: Patrick Schirmer (PhD in urban simulation at ETHZ) and Lorenz Walthert (Msc Statistics, ETHZ) have been developing insights for the real estate industry for years. Pablo Viejo and Silvan Geser have years of expertise in product and platform development as well as B2B Sales. First clients have already licensed the application in Switzerland.  Currently, a pilot project is also running for the Indonesian market.
The Venture Kick financing will be used for market research and professional marketing support. urbandatalab.ch

Uzufly: Ultra-photorealistic 3D digital models to represent urban spaces and future construction projects 
For urban projects, public consultation is a key stage during which future constructions are presented to local communities to ensure projects are tailored to the population’s requirements and wishes. However, current 2D plans or computer-generated imagery methods only provide a very limited representation of future construction projects to local communities. 
To maximize project approval rates and ensure the population has access to valuable information, Uzufly delivers ultra-photorealistic 3D digital models generated from aerial methods (such as drones) and integrates the designs of future constructions within their designated area. Those 3D models provide a realistic understanding of the volume and architecture of planned projects, with a project scope ranging from a single building to an entire city or canton. Furthermore, those highly detailed 3D models can be converted to technical drawings and topographic surveys to support architects and construction engineers in their work.  Uzufly’s team is led by founder Romain Kirchhoff, who holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from EPFL and HKUST, a MSc in Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship from EPFL, and is a swiss private pilot (PPL holder). 
The funds provided by Venturekick will help Uzufly upgrade its hardware and build a web platform to further streamline and automate Uzufly customers’ journey. www.uzufly.com

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