Startups developing a supply-chain risk analytics software, verifying student's individual, handwritten math solutions, and producing composite bipolar plates for hydrogen-energy each win CH 10,000
24.01.2022
Correntics, Pelephant, and TOSA win Venture Kick's first stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects develop supply-chain risk analytics software for companies to become more resilient in the face of climate change; an application that verifies handwritten math solution paths just by scanning; and provide a solution to substitute metal bipolar plates by composite bipolar plates in the hydrogen-energy production industry.
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 Pelephant CEO Ramona Schindler
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 TOSA CEO Sawsane Queloz-Nakouzi
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 Correntics: CTO Gaudenz Halter and CEO Michael Gloor
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Correntics: Navigating through emerging risks in the supply chain
Modus Operandi: changing tomorrow's learning
Modus Operandi (M.O.) is an application that allows pupils and students to check and correct their individual, handwritten solution paths on mathematical problems like arithmetics, integrals, or derivations. At the moment students and pupils can use various tools to receive standardized solution paths for mathematical problems. Nevertheless, these hints are not tailored to the knowledge and the way of students' thinking.
Pelephant's product Modus Operandi - developed by founders Ramona Schindler from UZH and Andreas Lorenz - is an application, that has the capability to scan handwritten math solution paths, verify them, and give hints why a calculation step is right or wrong. This way math students can use their mobile to check their solution path right at the moment of learning, receive tailored hints, and enhance their mathematical knowledge. The main advantage of that technology is the immediate feedback for various types of math e.g. derivatives, integrals, matrixes, equations, etc., regarding the correctness of the solutions and regarding the reason why errors were made. This could be for example the wrong usage of binominal formulas or the product rule for derivatives. There is an IP protection process ongoing.
The Venture Kick funding will be used to further develop the application, to enable business experiments with customers, and to support the marketing strategy. pelephant.com
The last few years have shown clearly that the globalized economy has become extremely sensitive to interruptions. Events such as natural disasters in North America or Asia, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, are just a few examples that interrupted tightly connected global supply chains. In the context of climate change, many natural hazards are expected to become more likely or more severe in the future, therefore posing an increasing threat to global supply chains.
Correntis develops supply-chain risk analytics software for companies to become more resilient and less prone to interruptions in the face of climate change and other emerging risks. The team, composed of CEO Michael Gloor, Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, and CTO Gaudenz Halter, MSc from the University of Zurich, delivers their solution through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. By building a web-based analytics platform with sophisticated modeling capabilities, they aim to help companies understand scientific data about climate change, natural hazards, and sustainability aspects, and translate these data into decision-useful information that is relevant for businesses. The tools and models they develop will support companies to increase their resilience and will reduce risks for severe economic interruptions. Their digital solution will also help companies to measure and manage their environmental impacts. The global supply-chain management market is currently estimated at USD 19.8bn and is expected to grow significantly over the next years, almost doubling by 2027.
They will use the CHF 10'000 from Venture Kick for finalizing the development, testing and deployment of their MVP as well as for cloud computing resources that are needed for data processing and model development. Additional funds are expected to go into the acquisition of high-resolution climate and sustainability model data, as well as for obtaining external support for a market study. correntics.com
Modus Operandi: changing tomorrow's learning
Modus Operandi (M.O.) is an application that allows pupils and students to check and correct their individual, handwritten solution paths on mathematical problems like arithmetics, integrals, or derivations. At the moment students and pupils can use various tools to receive standardized solution paths for mathematical problems. Nevertheless, these hints are not tailored to the knowledge and the way of students' thinking.
Pelephant's product Modus Operandi - developed by founders Ramona Schindler from UZH and Andreas Lorenz - is an application, that has the capability to scan handwritten math solution paths, verify them, and give hints why a calculation step is right or wrong. This way math students can use their mobile to check their solution path right at the moment of learning, receive tailored hints, and enhance their mathematical knowledge. The main advantage of that technology is the immediate feedback for various types of math e.g. derivatives, integrals, matrixes, equations, etc., regarding the correctness of the solutions and regarding the reason why errors were made. This could be for example the wrong usage of binominal formulas or the product rule for derivatives. There is an IP protection process ongoing.
The Venture Kick funding will be used to further develop the application, to enable business experiments with customers, and to support the marketing strategy. pelephant.com
TOSA Swisstech: composite bipolar plates for hydrogen-energy
Hydrogen is considered to be the panacea for the energy transition, capable of overcoming the problems of intermittence, replacing fossil fuels in mobility, and decarbonizing industry. The entire chain of production and use of hydrogen goes through fuel cells and electrolysis. Fuel cells currently suffer from weight and durability issues.
TOSA Swisstech develops a manufacturing process and provides a solution to substitute metal bipolar plates, an essential element of these cells - representing more than 30% of the price and more than 70% of the weight - by composite bipolar plates. The product - developed through an Innosuisse project is ultralight, durable, non-corrosive, compact, and efficient. No manufacturing process for serial production exists on the market yet. The CEO Sawsane Queloz, Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Toulouse University is taking this challenge to develop it with the help of two swiss research centers FHNW and KATZ, and the industrial partner GreenGT. TOSA will design, produce and commercialize these bipolar plates. This product is used in many applications in the field of clean energy: Hydrogen fuel cells, energy storage batteries, and electrolysis.
They plan to use the Venture Kick funds to help them on the R&D to develop the prototype, its material, and its manufacturing process.