Startups developing structure for plant-based meat, a digital pill for erectile dysfunction, new drugs against protozoan parasites, carbon-free energy solutions, and an AI-based software for building maintenance each win CHF 10,000

Everink: bringing structure and variations into plant-based meat
Our current food system is broken, due to high inefficiency. We are already producing enough food for 10 billion people, but we struggle to feed the 7.8 billion people on earth. Plant-based meat alternatives are emerging as one promising avenue to reduce the environmental impact of our food. However, current commercially available solutions fail to mimic many animal-derived types of meat, such as whole cuts. Everink aims to address this shortcoming to expand customer acceptance of meat alternatives. Meat consumption has risen by almost 60% in the past two decades. However, meat production is much more inefficient compared to crop harvesting, thereby negatively impacting our ecosystem. Current solutions are mostly based on the homogeneous texturing of proteins using extrusion processes.
Everink's team is composed of Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Alvaro Charlet, Ph.D. from the soft materials lab (SMaL) at EPFL, and Co-Founder and CTO Matteo Hirsch, pursuing a Ph.D. in soft materials, coming from a nanotech/biotech background. Together with Prof. Esther Amstad leading the soft materials lab at EPFL, they are developing a new processing method that enables them to introduce structure and local varying composition into plant-based meat alternatives. Their technology enables the fabrication of inhomogeneous whole-cut mimicking meat alternatives. They would like to become a processing company enabling meat alternative companies to fabricate better products for their customers. The foodtech and meat alternative market is a fast-paced emerging market. The current market is already beyond USD 1 billion and is expected to grow beyond USD 8 billion by 2025.
The Venture Kick funds will be primarily used for business development activities such as gaining more visibility with a website, and for expenses related to developing the MVP with interested users and partners, which includes visiting them and developing in-house their technology. everink.ch

e.rupt: Pocket therapist and digital pill for erectile dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is highly prevalent and is considered among the most frequently reported health complaints globally. ED is characterized by a recurrent inability to achieve or maintain an erection firm enough during sexual intercourse or a relevant decrease in erectile rigidity. It is estimated that 322 million men worldwide will be affected by ED in 2025 and nearly every second man will experience ED once in his life. 70% percent of men will never reach out for help and existing therapy methods are rigid and complicated, such as face-to-face psychotherapy and viagra.
E.rupt's team - composed of founder Melanie Baumgartner, research assistant at ETHZ, Dr. Ines Schweizer, Content Advisor, MD Uwe Bieri, medical advisor and urologist,  UX designer Till Wietlisbach, and Clement Obiegbu, marketing and communications advisor -  is developing a digital therapy for ED that includes scientifically proven modules from cognitive behavioral therapy and cooperates with local laboratories to provide anonymous blood tests to check users' lab values that indicate underlying organic causes for ED. Additionally, the application is hidden on the smartphone, and only accessible by the user, 24 hours a day, seven days a week -the pocket therapist & digital pill without side effects. Users will be guided through a scientifically proven therapy program invented specifically for ED, containing mental and physical exercises, skill training, psychoeducational, and the possibility to reach out to a real therapist or urologist nearby if wanted. The application will be covered by the insurance. 
The Venture Kick funds will help them to finish and review the app content with psychotherapists & urologists and further cooperate with local walk-in labs and insurances.

NA Drug Discovery: new drugs against protozoan parasites
New and effective drugs against protozoan parasites (malaria, cryptosporidiosis, toxoplasmosis…) are required, but the so-called “Drug development” costs too much, takes too long, and additionally, it fails way too often. NA Drug Discovery, by empowering an innovative Proprietary Parasite Drug Discovery Platform, will transform those problems into a unique business opportunity. Instead of screening thousands and millions of compounds to find one hit compound without target information, they start with a relatively tiny number of custom-designed drugs but with an extremely high success rate.
NA Drug Discovery co-founders are Natacha Gaillard and Ashwani Sharma, both PhDs, Senior Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute. They will develop new drugs to help the fight against parasitic infections caused by protozoan parasites in Human and Animal health. As an example, we can cite Malaria, Toxoplasma, and Cryptosporidium for human diseases or Eimiria and Theileria for animal diseases. By using their exclusive knowledge and know-how, the team has established a full pipeline to specifically design inhibitors of parasite tubulin, a well-known and validated target already used in cancer therapy. Their drugs will be broad spectrum, active on several protozoan diseases, and their deep understanding of their mechanism of action will enable the very fast development of alternative strategies in case of resistance development. Their expected market size is approx. USD 100 billion. This number includes human health, veterinary medicine, and agriculture.
They plan to use the Venture Kick funds to find the right partner to initiate the disease animal model studies for their first molecule: Parabulin. After their successful proof of principle, they want to validate their approach by generating more lead molecules. They will need for this the relevant funds to sustain their chemistry campaign. Finally, for strategic development, they need to team up with partners and develop their network of collaborations and customers. A lot of time and effort will be spent in this direction to ensure the long-term viability of their R&D efforts.

Neology: Ammonia as carbon-free energy vector for commercial transportation
Human activity has resulted in increasing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to reach 50 Gt of CO2 equivalent in 2020, out of which more than 60% results from the sectors of electricity & heat, transportation, and manufacturing industries. While many efforts and initiatives are currently being undertaken to decarbonize and reduce those emissions, the sector of commercial transportation, accounting for 10 % of the global GHG emissions, still lacks today of a scalable and long-lasting carbon-free energy solution. Neology tackles this problem by bringing affordable carbon-free energy to commercial transportation, starting with heavy-duty transportation.
Neology's team is composed of Aris Maroonian, MSc in Electrical Engineering at EPFL and currently pursuing his Executive MBA at IMD, Kevin Turani-i-Belloto, Ph.D. in Hydrogen Storage Technologies at the University of Montpellier and MSc in Commercial Engineering & Project Management at INSEEC, and Evgeniya Vorobyeva, a doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from ETH Zurich and postdoc in Electrochemical Energy Storage. Together, they aim at bringing a holistic solution of carbon-free energy for commercial transportation, utilizing ammonia as the energy carrier coupled with a proprietary designed ammonia cracking system, called NeoACT. The solution takes benefits from ammonia’s inherent properties such as carbon-free, high volumetric energy density, long-lasting storage capability, scalability factor, acceptance by the industrial sector, ease of deployment, and existing infrastructure. The developed onboard ammonia cracking system is a two-stage process, starting with a thermochemical process that decomposes liquid ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen, followed by a gas purification purifying the gas stream to reach the highest hydrogen purity grades essential to supply fuel cells. Their proposed solution and developed technology enable them to unlock the full potential of ammonia to become a carbon-free energy carrier for heavy-duty vehicles.
Carbon-free energy carriers, such as ammonia and hydrogen, will play a systemic role in the transition to renewables in the coming years. The global market for carbon-free energy is estimated to reach CHF 446 billion, by replacing fossil-fuel-based energy supply with carbon-free energy solutions, in order to satisfy the Paris Climate agreement scenario limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees. Neology will focus its effort on delivering solutions for the commercial transportation markets in Europe and Switzerland, markets estimated at CHF 11.5 billion and CHF 150 million respectively.
The Venture Kick funds will be used for business-related activities as well as material expenses for the prototype validation, in collaboration with HES-SO Valais-Wallis. Interviews with the prospective customers and visits to the key stakeholders will help them to identify and confirm the system requirements for the MVP, and foster strategical partnerships. neology.ch

Seismohealth: Intelligent monitoring platform to prevent collapses and maximize the safe operational life of existing buildings and bridges.
The tragic collapse of the Genoa bridge in 2018 killed 43 people and triggered massive public questions: how long do structures live and how far can we trust the structural maintenance? Every second bridge and building in Europe has long exceeded its design life span and becomes older every day. Meanwhile, maintenance relies on visual inspections that are subjective, time-consuming, and often inconclusive, as they evaluate only the visible and accessible parts of the structures. In the aftermath of disasters, inspections need to be carried out, which leads to long business downtimes that can last even years. Massive retrofitting and replacing our aging infrastructure come at an unbearable monetary and environmental cost, as 38% of the global CO2 emissions are already attributed to the construction industry.
The Seismohealth team aims to revolutionize the maintenance and preservation of existing buildings and bridges and in doing so maximize their safe operational life. Based on commercial vibration sensors, their intelligent algorithms provide real-time tracking of the global structural condition and customized tools for predictive maintenance planning. In case of disasters, they offer early warning alarms, as well as real-time assessment, significantly reducing business downtimes. In Switzerland, over 1 million buildings and 3000 bridges were built before the establishment of modern standards. Considering that 1% percent is necessary to be monitored, they estimate annual addressable revenues of CHF 100 million. By extrapolating to the European infrastructure, the addressable market size exceeds CHF 5 billion. 
In the next 6 months, they plan to complete the first release of their monitoring platform and deploy their solution in benchmark pilot projects. The financial support of Venture Kick will provide them with the necessary funds to achieve these goals. This will boost their visibility and enable Seismohealth to reduce our built infrastructure's environmental footprint and massively improve our society's resilience in response to unpredictable disasters.