Startups developing tailored sleep interventions for Alzheimer disease, aquafarming using mycellium technology, regeneration through protein engineering, a vital patient data stream, and revolutionizing open source each win CHF 10,000
28.08.2023
EARDREAM, KIDEMIS, Orio Therapeutics, rheo, and Thot win Venture Kick's first stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects leverage unique biomarkers for early asymptomatic detection of Alzheimer’s disease and innovate sleep stimulation treatments; are set to disrupt aquafeed by providing economically viable, SDG-compliant, and nutritionally superior solutions for the industry; lower drug usage, costs, and side effects while improving therapeutic outcomes; replace all manual vitals measurements in the hospital with a data stream from the patient upper arm sensors; and make data management easy for scientists.
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 EARDREAM co-founders Stephanie Huwiler, Rafael Polanía, Caroline Lustenberger, and Simon Baur
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 KIDEMIS: CEO Constantin Marakhov, Finance -Strategy John Ericsson, and CSO-CTO Sean Wassermann
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 Orio Therapeutics: CEO Ziad Julier and CSO Mikaël Martino
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 rheo: CEO Philipp Vetter and CTO Jonathan Fisher
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 Thot: CEO Brian Carlsen and COO Ignacio Aleman
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EARDREAM: Resolving Alzheimer’s disease with early diagnostics and individually tailored sleep interventions
In the quest to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, there remains a lack of diagnostic tools that can detect and monitor the disease during its asymptomatic stages, which manifest 15–20 years before overt cognitive symptoms lead to a diagnosis.
The multidisciplinary ETH founding team of EARDREAM includes Simon Baur, Stephanie Huwiler, Dr. Caroline Lustenberger, and Prof. Dr. Rafael Polanía. EARDREAM is at the forefront of Alzheimer’s research, leveraging unique biomarkers for early asymptomatic detection and innovating sleep stimulation treatments. Accessing populations carrying definitive Alzheimer's genetic mutations, the startup uses its wearable technology to acquire relevant information and develop predictive and interpretable algorithms that can detect and monitor Alzheimer’s risk in its asymptomatic phase. These insights guide tailored sleep stimulation methods, enhancing deteriorated sleep mechanisms associated with Alzheimer's progression. EARDREAM is targeting customers in research and hospitals for outpatient screening and individually tailored interventions. Furthermore, the team is in the process of pursuing collaborations with (re)insurance companies to guide policymaking by delivering key insights into Alzheimer’s risk predictions. Additionally, the startup is keen to partner with pharmaceutical industries to monitor intervention success during clinical drug trials and guide early interventions. Affecting 55 million globally, related healthcare expenses have surged to $200 billion. The Alzheimer's diagnostics and therapeutics market is projected to grow from $7.3 billion in 2023 to $9.3 billion in 2028 (CAGR: 5.6%).
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to moving on to the verification of the technology, validate their regulatory strategy with industry experts, and seek further collaboration with partners in the health and insurance sectors. eardream.ch
KIDEMIS: Growing a Sustainable Future for Aquafarming Using Mycelium Technology
Aquaculture (farmed seafood) is growing at substantial rates mainly due to ocean depletion and changes from meat to a more healthy diet, however, aquafeed supply is under pressure and is in search of sustainable solutions. On the other hand, there is a problem of proper utilization of agricultural sidestreams, which currently are accumulating in huge quantities or ending up in landfills.
With KIDEMIS proprietary fermentation technology low-value sidestreams are converted to low-cost, sustainable & high-quality nutrition solutions, which could be used in either feed or food. In particular, KIDEMIS mycoprotein is set to disrupt aquafeed by providing economically viable, SDG-compliant, and nutritionally superior solutions for the industry. The company was established in 2023. Founders and Board Members include CEO Dr. Constantin Marakhov, CSO/CTO Sean Wassermann, and John Ericsson responsible for Finance/Strategy. KIDEMIS solution is targeted at the CHF 100B+ global aquafeed market, which will allow the aquaculture industry to move to more sustainable grounds and help valorize substantial amounts of agricultural sidestreams, contributing to a circular economy.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to further advance bioprocessing and engineering solutions for KIDEMIS mycioprotein. kidemis.com
Orio Therapeutics: Redefining regeneration through protein engineering
Promising therapeutic proteins for tissue repair exist, yet their clinical translation is often poor due to inadequate delivery. The limited success of growth factors and other protein-based therapies is attributed to unadapted delivery methods. Administered molecules tend to disperse rapidly, demanding repeated high doses to maintain sufficient levels at the injection site. This excessive protein delivery strategy frequently leads to severe side effects.
Addressing this, Orio Therapeutics devised a versatile delivery system based on protein interactions. This system immobilizes proteins at the site of delivery, enhancing local therapeutic effects and minimizing systemic diffusion. This approach lowers drug usage, costs, and side effects while improving therapeutic outcomes. Orio Therapeutics' first application is a cardioprotective drug for post-heart attack care. Both EPFL alumni, Prof. Mikaël Martino and Dr. Ziad Julier developed the technology at Monash University's Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute and incorporated the company in Monthey in early 2023. Orio Therapeutics will keep operating in both Monthey and Melbourne to leverage the strategic advantages offered at both locations.
Funds from Venture Kick's stage 1 will bolster fundraising efforts and facilitate market validation.
Rheo: Stream vital patient data from anywhere
Hospitals are full of overworked nurses going bed-to-bed, manually taking vital signs multiple times per day for 1 billion inpatients annually. This is time-consuming, the quality is uneven, and it's not frequent enough for robust predictions.
Rheo’s vital+ solution replaces all manual vitals measurements in the hospital with a data stream from its upper arm sensors (USD 5B/year market). It seamlessly extends to patients' homes with cellular connectivity (USD 15B/year market). Additional predictive analytics enrich the data stream (USD 50B/year market).
Rheo’s founder CEO Dr. Philipp Vetter had previously built clinical data streams for millions of patients and worked with Boston-based co-founder CTO Jonathan Fisher to develop an FDA-registered medical device.
The Venture Kick funds will be used for hospital studies to establish product-market fit in the US.
Thot: Revolutionizing open science
Data management for scientists is complex. It also leads to two of the largest problems facing science: the replication crisis and data fraud. These issues lead to tens of billions of dollars in losses each year and significantly slow down research.
Thot’s application makes data management easy for scientists. The app was built out of Brian Carlsen’s need to automate data organization and analysis and facilitate collaboration with his colleagues during his PhD at EPFL. Late in 2022, Ignacio Aleman was looking for a new adventure, so he started discussing with Brian about Thot. Together, they envisioned a future for science that is open and collaborative. Both had seen how GitHub changed the open-source software community and now they want to bring those same changes to science.
Thot is currently focused on growing their user base in academia and industry. With the funding awarded by Venture Kick, they will supercharge their marketing efforts. This will focus on online marketing campaigns and presenting at conferences. thot.so
In the quest to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, there remains a lack of diagnostic tools that can detect and monitor the disease during its asymptomatic stages, which manifest 15–20 years before overt cognitive symptoms lead to a diagnosis.
The multidisciplinary ETH founding team of EARDREAM includes Simon Baur, Stephanie Huwiler, Dr. Caroline Lustenberger, and Prof. Dr. Rafael Polanía. EARDREAM is at the forefront of Alzheimer’s research, leveraging unique biomarkers for early asymptomatic detection and innovating sleep stimulation treatments. Accessing populations carrying definitive Alzheimer's genetic mutations, the startup uses its wearable technology to acquire relevant information and develop predictive and interpretable algorithms that can detect and monitor Alzheimer’s risk in its asymptomatic phase. These insights guide tailored sleep stimulation methods, enhancing deteriorated sleep mechanisms associated with Alzheimer's progression. EARDREAM is targeting customers in research and hospitals for outpatient screening and individually tailored interventions. Furthermore, the team is in the process of pursuing collaborations with (re)insurance companies to guide policymaking by delivering key insights into Alzheimer’s risk predictions. Additionally, the startup is keen to partner with pharmaceutical industries to monitor intervention success during clinical drug trials and guide early interventions. Affecting 55 million globally, related healthcare expenses have surged to $200 billion. The Alzheimer's diagnostics and therapeutics market is projected to grow from $7.3 billion in 2023 to $9.3 billion in 2028 (CAGR: 5.6%).
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to moving on to the verification of the technology, validate their regulatory strategy with industry experts, and seek further collaboration with partners in the health and insurance sectors. eardream.ch
KIDEMIS: Growing a Sustainable Future for Aquafarming Using Mycelium Technology
Aquaculture (farmed seafood) is growing at substantial rates mainly due to ocean depletion and changes from meat to a more healthy diet, however, aquafeed supply is under pressure and is in search of sustainable solutions. On the other hand, there is a problem of proper utilization of agricultural sidestreams, which currently are accumulating in huge quantities or ending up in landfills.
With KIDEMIS proprietary fermentation technology low-value sidestreams are converted to low-cost, sustainable & high-quality nutrition solutions, which could be used in either feed or food. In particular, KIDEMIS mycoprotein is set to disrupt aquafeed by providing economically viable, SDG-compliant, and nutritionally superior solutions for the industry. The company was established in 2023. Founders and Board Members include CEO Dr. Constantin Marakhov, CSO/CTO Sean Wassermann, and John Ericsson responsible for Finance/Strategy. KIDEMIS solution is targeted at the CHF 100B+ global aquafeed market, which will allow the aquaculture industry to move to more sustainable grounds and help valorize substantial amounts of agricultural sidestreams, contributing to a circular economy.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to further advance bioprocessing and engineering solutions for KIDEMIS mycioprotein. kidemis.com
Orio Therapeutics: Redefining regeneration through protein engineering
Promising therapeutic proteins for tissue repair exist, yet their clinical translation is often poor due to inadequate delivery. The limited success of growth factors and other protein-based therapies is attributed to unadapted delivery methods. Administered molecules tend to disperse rapidly, demanding repeated high doses to maintain sufficient levels at the injection site. This excessive protein delivery strategy frequently leads to severe side effects.
Addressing this, Orio Therapeutics devised a versatile delivery system based on protein interactions. This system immobilizes proteins at the site of delivery, enhancing local therapeutic effects and minimizing systemic diffusion. This approach lowers drug usage, costs, and side effects while improving therapeutic outcomes. Orio Therapeutics' first application is a cardioprotective drug for post-heart attack care. Both EPFL alumni, Prof. Mikaël Martino and Dr. Ziad Julier developed the technology at Monash University's Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute and incorporated the company in Monthey in early 2023. Orio Therapeutics will keep operating in both Monthey and Melbourne to leverage the strategic advantages offered at both locations.
Funds from Venture Kick's stage 1 will bolster fundraising efforts and facilitate market validation.
Rheo: Stream vital patient data from anywhere
Hospitals are full of overworked nurses going bed-to-bed, manually taking vital signs multiple times per day for 1 billion inpatients annually. This is time-consuming, the quality is uneven, and it's not frequent enough for robust predictions.
Rheo’s vital+ solution replaces all manual vitals measurements in the hospital with a data stream from its upper arm sensors (USD 5B/year market). It seamlessly extends to patients' homes with cellular connectivity (USD 15B/year market). Additional predictive analytics enrich the data stream (USD 50B/year market).
Rheo’s founder CEO Dr. Philipp Vetter had previously built clinical data streams for millions of patients and worked with Boston-based co-founder CTO Jonathan Fisher to develop an FDA-registered medical device.
The Venture Kick funds will be used for hospital studies to establish product-market fit in the US.
Thot: Revolutionizing open science
Data management for scientists is complex. It also leads to two of the largest problems facing science: the replication crisis and data fraud. These issues lead to tens of billions of dollars in losses each year and significantly slow down research.
Thot’s application makes data management easy for scientists. The app was built out of Brian Carlsen’s need to automate data organization and analysis and facilitate collaboration with his colleagues during his PhD at EPFL. Late in 2022, Ignacio Aleman was looking for a new adventure, so he started discussing with Brian about Thot. Together, they envisioned a future for science that is open and collaborative. Both had seen how GitHub changed the open-source software community and now they want to bring those same changes to science.
Thot is currently focused on growing their user base in academia and industry. With the funding awarded by Venture Kick, they will supercharge their marketing efforts. This will focus on online marketing campaigns and presenting at conferences. thot.so