Startups developing molecular intelligence for the chemical industry, a chip for AR glasses, a one click e-compliance for food manufacturers, phage therapies to fight antibiotic-resistance, and decarbonized regenerated glass fiber textiles each get CHF 10,000
16.07.2024
Molucent, Mosaic SoC, OpenReg, Precise Health, and Verretex were selected at Venture Kick's first financial and entrepreneurial support stage. Their projects develop comprehensive, customized, and accurate property databases, which are directly accessible to chemical engineers through their daily tools; microcontroller units architecture enabling multiple hardware accelerators to access memory with high bandwidth and low contention, allowing them to operate at full capacity; an e-service for automated regulatory assessment of food recipes; phage therapies to combat critical antibiotic-resistant infections; and a process to regenerate the damaged glass fibers to produce a high-quality product, solving a key problem both for producers and recyclers.
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 Molucent: CEO Dr. Johannes Schilling, CSO Dr. Philipp Rehner, CTO Dr. Gernot Bauer, Scientific Advisor Dr. Benedikt Winter, and
Scientific Advisor Prof. Dr. André Bardow
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 Mosaic SoC: CEO Alfio Di Mauro
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 OpenReg: CTO Alessandro Granata and CEO Dr. Isabelle Caelen
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 Precise Health: CEO Dr. José Luis
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 Verretex: CEO Mitchell Anderson, COO Lidia Rocoffort de Vinniere, CFO Pierre Wust, and CSO Nour Halawani
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Molucent: Transforming the chemical industry through molecular intelligence
The transition of the chemical industry to a sustainable carbon economy requires new products, processes, and value chains. Designing this new carbon economy relies on accurate physical property data for the molecules involved. However, this data is lacking for many molecules and even more for their mixtures, resulting in a massive data gap hindering the rapid transition to a sustainable carbon economy.
Molucent, a startup to be founded by Gernot Bauer, Philipp Rehner, and Johannes Schilling with scientific advisors Benedikt Winter and Prof. André Bardow, aims to tackle this issue. Leveraging their research at ETH Zurich, the founders have developed an advanced machine-learning-powered property prediction tool that combines natural language processing with modern physics-based property models. This innovative solution allows Molucent to provide comprehensive, customized, and accurate property databases, which are directly accessible to chemical engineers through their daily tools. With its user-friendly solution, Molucent intends to serve customers in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
The Venture Kick funds will be instrumental in defining Molucent’s first pilot projects with chemical companies and process simulation software developers and establishing the company’s structure for incorporation.
Mosaic SoC: crafting the ultimate chip designed exclusively for augmented reality glasses
AR glasses require real-time data processing to implement complex human-machine interfaces like eye and hand tracking. Existing microcontroller units (MCUs) lack the necessary computational power, and integrating multiple hardware algorithm accelerators into an MCU remains a major challenge. Mosaic SoC has developed an MCU architecture that overcomes these challenges, enabling multiple hardware accelerators to access memory with high bandwidth and low contention, allowing them to operate at full capacity.
Mosaic SoC was founded in 2024. The founding team comprises CEO Alfio Di Mauro (PhD,* ETH Zürich) and CTO Moritz Scherer (PhD, ETH Zürich). Alfio and Moritz ha(missing OpenReg text)ve been involved in research projects with industry partners like Meta, NXP, and GlobalFoundries and have designed multiple advanced SoCs. Scientific advisor Luca Benini is Chair of Digital Circuits and Systems at ETH Zürich. Mosaic SoC’s solution addresses a USD 50M opportunity in the AR glasses market, within the USD 16B MCUs for IoT and consumer electronics market.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to engage with new customers and support the growth of the initial engineering team.
www.mosaic-soc.com
OpenReg : One-click e-compliance for food and food supplement manufacturers
Food manufacturers must ensure their products meet regulatory requirements worldwide. Manual compliance is costly, time-consuming, error-prone (1’000 recalls yearly in Europe due to non-compliant composition!), and not scalable.
Incorporated in 2024 in Geneva by CEO Dr. Isabelle Caelen and CTO Alessandro Granata, with business strategic advisory from Paola Ghillani and Dr. André Bernard, the company leverages 40+ years of regulatory and tech expertise. They developed OpenReg, an e-service for automated regulatory assessment of food recipes. This cloud-hosted platform integrates regulations with compliance services, targeting SMEs to reduce outsourcing costs and helping large manufacturers streamline resources. OpenReg aims to serve 6,000 food and food supplement manufacturers globally.
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to building the regulations database, improving the platform and the application programming interfaces (APIs), and launching marketing activities.
Precise Health: Developing Phage Therapies to combat critical antibiotic-resistant infections
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rising due to the overuse and misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, leading to treatment failures and increased healthcare risks. It has caused 1.27 million deaths annually and poses an additional economic burden of up to USD1 trillion by 2030.
Precise Health is building a platform for the development of personalized phage therapies to target resistant bacteria without harming the beneficial microbiota, reducing AMR. Co-funders are CEO Dr. José Luis, CSO Dr. Paul Tetteh , both graduated from EPFL, and COO Dr. Hale Bila from ETHZ. Their preliminary phage products, specifically designed to combat inflammatory skin conditions (acne, atopic dermatitis) as a proof-of-concept have shown over 90% efficacy against relevant bacterial strains. These PoC products will serve as a market entry point, with broader applications to follow for other bacterial infections affected by AMR such as vaginal infections.
The Venture Kick support will enable the filing of the 3rd IP.
Verretex: Decarbonizing regenerated glass fiber textiles to enable the circular economy.
For decades, the composite industry has struggled to find an end-of-life solution for their fiber-reinforced plastics. Recycling techniques like pyrolysis have been used with limited success due to the low value of the damaged fibers that come out of the process, making recycling both environmentally and economically unfeasible.
Verretex has developed a process to regenerate the damaged glass fibers to produce a high-quality product, solving a key problem both for producers and recyclers. Verretex is an EPFL spin-off developed by 3 EPFL scientists and an IMD EMBA graduate. The founders, CEO Dr. Mitchell Anderson, CSO Dr. Nour Halawani, COO Dr. Lidia Rocoffort de Vinnière, and CFO Pierre Wüst have spent years working together to bring circularity to glass fiber composites. They are now getting ready to launch their first product, a regenerated glass fiber non-woven textile with an up to 80% reduction in CO2eq. We are entering a 50B market eager for sustainable and decarbonized products.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to increase their marketing presence and get more products into customers' hands.
The transition of the chemical industry to a sustainable carbon economy requires new products, processes, and value chains. Designing this new carbon economy relies on accurate physical property data for the molecules involved. However, this data is lacking for many molecules and even more for their mixtures, resulting in a massive data gap hindering the rapid transition to a sustainable carbon economy.
Molucent, a startup to be founded by Gernot Bauer, Philipp Rehner, and Johannes Schilling with scientific advisors Benedikt Winter and Prof. André Bardow, aims to tackle this issue. Leveraging their research at ETH Zurich, the founders have developed an advanced machine-learning-powered property prediction tool that combines natural language processing with modern physics-based property models. This innovative solution allows Molucent to provide comprehensive, customized, and accurate property databases, which are directly accessible to chemical engineers through their daily tools. With its user-friendly solution, Molucent intends to serve customers in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
The Venture Kick funds will be instrumental in defining Molucent’s first pilot projects with chemical companies and process simulation software developers and establishing the company’s structure for incorporation.
Mosaic SoC: crafting the ultimate chip designed exclusively for augmented reality glasses
AR glasses require real-time data processing to implement complex human-machine interfaces like eye and hand tracking. Existing microcontroller units (MCUs) lack the necessary computational power, and integrating multiple hardware algorithm accelerators into an MCU remains a major challenge. Mosaic SoC has developed an MCU architecture that overcomes these challenges, enabling multiple hardware accelerators to access memory with high bandwidth and low contention, allowing them to operate at full capacity.
Mosaic SoC was founded in 2024. The founding team comprises CEO Alfio Di Mauro (PhD,* ETH Zürich) and CTO Moritz Scherer (PhD, ETH Zürich). Alfio and Moritz ha(missing OpenReg text)ve been involved in research projects with industry partners like Meta, NXP, and GlobalFoundries and have designed multiple advanced SoCs. Scientific advisor Luca Benini is Chair of Digital Circuits and Systems at ETH Zürich. Mosaic SoC’s solution addresses a USD 50M opportunity in the AR glasses market, within the USD 16B MCUs for IoT and consumer electronics market.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to engage with new customers and support the growth of the initial engineering team.
www.mosaic-soc.com
OpenReg : One-click e-compliance for food and food supplement manufacturers
Food manufacturers must ensure their products meet regulatory requirements worldwide. Manual compliance is costly, time-consuming, error-prone (1’000 recalls yearly in Europe due to non-compliant composition!), and not scalable.
Incorporated in 2024 in Geneva by CEO Dr. Isabelle Caelen and CTO Alessandro Granata, with business strategic advisory from Paola Ghillani and Dr. André Bernard, the company leverages 40+ years of regulatory and tech expertise. They developed OpenReg, an e-service for automated regulatory assessment of food recipes. This cloud-hosted platform integrates regulations with compliance services, targeting SMEs to reduce outsourcing costs and helping large manufacturers streamline resources. OpenReg aims to serve 6,000 food and food supplement manufacturers globally.
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to building the regulations database, improving the platform and the application programming interfaces (APIs), and launching marketing activities.
Precise Health: Developing Phage Therapies to combat critical antibiotic-resistant infections
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rising due to the overuse and misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, leading to treatment failures and increased healthcare risks. It has caused 1.27 million deaths annually and poses an additional economic burden of up to USD1 trillion by 2030.
Precise Health is building a platform for the development of personalized phage therapies to target resistant bacteria without harming the beneficial microbiota, reducing AMR. Co-funders are CEO Dr. José Luis, CSO Dr. Paul Tetteh , both graduated from EPFL, and COO Dr. Hale Bila from ETHZ. Their preliminary phage products, specifically designed to combat inflammatory skin conditions (acne, atopic dermatitis) as a proof-of-concept have shown over 90% efficacy against relevant bacterial strains. These PoC products will serve as a market entry point, with broader applications to follow for other bacterial infections affected by AMR such as vaginal infections.
The Venture Kick support will enable the filing of the 3rd IP.
Verretex: Decarbonizing regenerated glass fiber textiles to enable the circular economy.
For decades, the composite industry has struggled to find an end-of-life solution for their fiber-reinforced plastics. Recycling techniques like pyrolysis have been used with limited success due to the low value of the damaged fibers that come out of the process, making recycling both environmentally and economically unfeasible.
Verretex has developed a process to regenerate the damaged glass fibers to produce a high-quality product, solving a key problem both for producers and recyclers. Verretex is an EPFL spin-off developed by 3 EPFL scientists and an IMD EMBA graduate. The founders, CEO Dr. Mitchell Anderson, CSO Dr. Nour Halawani, COO Dr. Lidia Rocoffort de Vinnière, and CFO Pierre Wüst have spent years working together to bring circularity to glass fiber composites. They are now getting ready to launch their first product, a regenerated glass fiber non-woven textile with an up to 80% reduction in CO2eq. We are entering a 50B market eager for sustainable and decarbonized products.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to increase their marketing presence and get more products into customers' hands.