Startups developing greenhouse cultivation with direct air capture, solar-powered cooling solutions, AI-driven scientific analysis, and plant-based microbiome nutraceuticals each receive CHF 10,000
19.11.2024
fortyfour, FrostForge, SciRep, and Trilliome were selected at Venture Kick's first financial and entrepreneurial support stage. Their projects develop a fully-electric Direct Air Capture technology that captures CO2 straight from the air for farmers, eliminating transportation and storage costs; a truly off-grid containerized cooling system that turns the sun's heat into ice, fighting spoilage where cooling matters most—at production and delivery points; AI-driven scientific testing and analysis to increase the productivity of human experts by 5 times and make rookies become experts by providing AI tools for scientific data analysis, plotting, and report generation; and sustainable, plant-derived precision nutraceuticals that harness the microbiome to tackle core health challenges like cognitive decline and metabolic disorders.
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 fortyfour: Pedro Reina, Henry Müller, and Mathias Müller
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 FrostForge: CTO Quinn Temmel & CEO Jonathan Koifman
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 SciRep: Wen Chen
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 Trilliome: Patrick Guye & Tim N. Mak
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fortyfour: Transforming Greenhouse Cultivation with Direct Air Capture
European greenhouse farmers face a critical challenge: they inject millions of tons of fossil CO2 to help plants grow faster. With European regulations mandating the phase-out of fossil CO2 by 2040, farmers urgently need a clean alternative to keep growing food efficiently.
fortyfour solves this challenge with a fully-electric Direct Air Capture technology that captures CO2 straight from the air. Unlike current methods that often rely on the availability of thermal energy, their electric-powered technology produces the CO2 right where it’s needed. This makes it both environmentally friendly and cost-effective for farmers, eliminating transportation and storage costs. A complementary founding team leads the startup: Pedro Reina and Mathias Müller, who together pioneer their proprietary liquid absorber technology at the heart of their technology; and Henry Müller, who focuses on business development and financing of the hardware.
The Venture Kick Stage funds will support the development of larger prototypes as the team works toward installing their first pilot plant. With interest from key industry players, the funding will accelerate their path to market validation.
FrostForge: Transforming Solar Heat into Clean, Cost-Effective Cooling Solutions
Every day, we see a global tragedy: 40-50% of food and vaccines spoil before reaching consumers. This waste adds up to 1.3 billion tons of food and USD 1 trillion in losses yearly—a problem that climate change accentuates. Current cooling systems fail because they're complex and expensive and need reliable power grids that many regions lack.
FrostForge combines market insight and technical know-how to reshape off-grid cooling. CEO Jonathan Koifman brings 14 years in clean energy development and marketing, while CTO Quinn Temmel adds 12 years in system design. Together, they've created IceQube, a truly off-grid containerized cooling system that turns the sun's heat into ice, fighting spoilage where cooling matters most—at production and delivery points.
Using patentable heat exchanger technology and optimized adsorption cooling chemistry in a simple drop-and-play design, IceQube serves the CHF 9B off-grid cooling market. It delivers reliable, grid-free cooling to three key groups: humanitarian teams who need quick setup and delivery, food suppliers who want on-site and at-market preservation, and event organizers seeking clean, quiet cooling anywhere.
The Venture Kick funding will help build FrostForge's prototype and test it with future customers. This moves them closer to their goal: making sustainable cooling available worldwide. frostforge.info
SciRep: AI-driven Scientific Testing and Analysis
Scientific testing and analysis have a high demand for expertise, such as a PhD. However, such expertise is scarcity, expensive, and non-sharable. This makes testing services and RD expensive and insufficient, and consequently severely hinders scientific discovery and technological advancement.
SciRep believes AI-driven robots and agents will be heavily involved in the scientific analysis and testing workflow. Driven by a commitment to making research easier, SciRep works on AI-driven scientific testing and analysis to increase the productivity of human experts by 5 times and make rookies become experts by providing AI tools for scientific data analysis, plotting, and report generation. SciRep is driven by a passionate team of material scientists (Dr. Wen Chen), AI/IT engineers, testing experts, and marketing experts educated from EPFL, PSI, Bern University, and RWTH-AACHEN.
The Venture Kick fund would be used for product development, PMF verification, and fundraising activities.
Trilliome: Advancing Global Health with Plant-Based Microbiome Nutraceuticals
Modern lifestyles negatively influence the gut microbiome, leading to chronic issues like cognitive decline, metabolic disorders, and inflammation. Existing solutions lack precision and efficacy and fail to address these root causes. We aim to restore microbiome health to improve overall well-being.
Trilliome, founded in 2023 by CEO Patrick Guye, PhD, MBA, and CBO Tim N. Mak, PhD, MBA, develops sustainable, plant-derived precision nutraceuticals that harness the microbiome to tackle core health challenges like cognitive decline and metabolic disorders. Leveraging decades of expertise, advanced gut models, and proprietary data, Trilliome's products amplify specific beneficial resident gut bacteria that cannot be provided through probiotics supplementation. With the gut health supplements market projected to reach USD 23 billion by 2031, age-related cognitive decline costing USD 305 billion annually in the U.S. alone, and 65% of global consumers seeking cognitive health products, Trilliome meets this demand to enhance healthspan for all.
The team intends to use the Venture Kick financing to fortify its supply chain management and enhance regulatory compliance strategies.
European greenhouse farmers face a critical challenge: they inject millions of tons of fossil CO2 to help plants grow faster. With European regulations mandating the phase-out of fossil CO2 by 2040, farmers urgently need a clean alternative to keep growing food efficiently.
fortyfour solves this challenge with a fully-electric Direct Air Capture technology that captures CO2 straight from the air. Unlike current methods that often rely on the availability of thermal energy, their electric-powered technology produces the CO2 right where it’s needed. This makes it both environmentally friendly and cost-effective for farmers, eliminating transportation and storage costs. A complementary founding team leads the startup: Pedro Reina and Mathias Müller, who together pioneer their proprietary liquid absorber technology at the heart of their technology; and Henry Müller, who focuses on business development and financing of the hardware.
The Venture Kick Stage funds will support the development of larger prototypes as the team works toward installing their first pilot plant. With interest from key industry players, the funding will accelerate their path to market validation.
FrostForge: Transforming Solar Heat into Clean, Cost-Effective Cooling Solutions
Every day, we see a global tragedy: 40-50% of food and vaccines spoil before reaching consumers. This waste adds up to 1.3 billion tons of food and USD 1 trillion in losses yearly—a problem that climate change accentuates. Current cooling systems fail because they're complex and expensive and need reliable power grids that many regions lack.
FrostForge combines market insight and technical know-how to reshape off-grid cooling. CEO Jonathan Koifman brings 14 years in clean energy development and marketing, while CTO Quinn Temmel adds 12 years in system design. Together, they've created IceQube, a truly off-grid containerized cooling system that turns the sun's heat into ice, fighting spoilage where cooling matters most—at production and delivery points.
Using patentable heat exchanger technology and optimized adsorption cooling chemistry in a simple drop-and-play design, IceQube serves the CHF 9B off-grid cooling market. It delivers reliable, grid-free cooling to three key groups: humanitarian teams who need quick setup and delivery, food suppliers who want on-site and at-market preservation, and event organizers seeking clean, quiet cooling anywhere.
The Venture Kick funding will help build FrostForge's prototype and test it with future customers. This moves them closer to their goal: making sustainable cooling available worldwide. frostforge.info
SciRep: AI-driven Scientific Testing and Analysis
Scientific testing and analysis have a high demand for expertise, such as a PhD. However, such expertise is scarcity, expensive, and non-sharable. This makes testing services and RD expensive and insufficient, and consequently severely hinders scientific discovery and technological advancement.
SciRep believes AI-driven robots and agents will be heavily involved in the scientific analysis and testing workflow. Driven by a commitment to making research easier, SciRep works on AI-driven scientific testing and analysis to increase the productivity of human experts by 5 times and make rookies become experts by providing AI tools for scientific data analysis, plotting, and report generation. SciRep is driven by a passionate team of material scientists (Dr. Wen Chen), AI/IT engineers, testing experts, and marketing experts educated from EPFL, PSI, Bern University, and RWTH-AACHEN.
The Venture Kick fund would be used for product development, PMF verification, and fundraising activities.
Trilliome: Advancing Global Health with Plant-Based Microbiome Nutraceuticals
Modern lifestyles negatively influence the gut microbiome, leading to chronic issues like cognitive decline, metabolic disorders, and inflammation. Existing solutions lack precision and efficacy and fail to address these root causes. We aim to restore microbiome health to improve overall well-being.
Trilliome, founded in 2023 by CEO Patrick Guye, PhD, MBA, and CBO Tim N. Mak, PhD, MBA, develops sustainable, plant-derived precision nutraceuticals that harness the microbiome to tackle core health challenges like cognitive decline and metabolic disorders. Leveraging decades of expertise, advanced gut models, and proprietary data, Trilliome's products amplify specific beneficial resident gut bacteria that cannot be provided through probiotics supplementation. With the gut health supplements market projected to reach USD 23 billion by 2031, age-related cognitive decline costing USD 305 billion annually in the U.S. alone, and 65% of global consumers seeking cognitive health products, Trilliome meets this demand to enhance healthspan for all.
The team intends to use the Venture Kick financing to fortify its supply chain management and enhance regulatory compliance strategies.