Startups with Innovative Noise-Cancellation Technology and Sustainable, Cement-Free Concrete Win CHF 40,000

AVAtronics Sarl: cancelling noises no-one else can

If you've ever sought silence when concentrating at work, teleconferencing with colleagues or sleeping on a long-haul flight, you know existing noise-cancelling solutions aren't good enough. That's because average human hearing ranges from 20Hz to 20kHz, but current technologies can only cancel a small portion of this bandwidth. In the case of headphones this is only up to 1kHz, whereas office chatter can reach 4 kHz.

The Lausanne-based startup's trio of experienced engineers Jeyran Hezaveh, Amir Farahani, and Fardad Zabetian, have developed a novel electro-acoustic modelling and predictive filtering algorithm that removes noise up to 4 kHz. Their technology eliminates background noise from the speech users want to hear when on conference calls, commanding smart speakers or using hearing aids in noisy environments. The entrepreneurs are targeting the hundreds of millions of consumer electronics devices sold worldwide. They plan to close their first financing soon, to expand the team and apply their noise-cancellation tech to the headphone, hearing aid, and automotive industries.

 

"Venture Kick has been a great experience for us, in Switzerland also worldwide it’s considered a great stamp of approval," said CEO Hezaveh, "We have received new investors, we are getting lots of exposure and our network is only growing!"
AVAtronics' profile
 

Oxara: affordable, ecological construction material
The construction accounts for 30 percent of global CO2 emissions and a third of global energy consumption. At the same time, UN Habitat and the World Bank estimate the world needs to build housing for another 2 billion people by 2050. What are the sustainable options to meet the growing demand for affordable housing and reduce the construction industry's impact on our climate?

ETH Zurich spin-off Oxara transforms construction waste into a strong, ecological building material, that reduces the financial and environmental cost of safe and affordable housing. The technology developed by co-founders Gnanli Landrou and Thibault Demoulin turns local excavation materials into sustainable, cement-free poured earth concrete, while using traditional concrete infrastructure and processes. The resulting 'Cleancrete' is as much as 2.5 times cheaper and 20 times more ecological than conventional concrete, the founders say.

"The Kickers' Camp was an eye-opening game-changer. It really improved how I pitch, by examining every element and getting straight to the point. It boosted my confidence," said Landrou, who recently featured on Forbes’ list of 30 under 30 innovative people. Oxara will now complete patents applications and large-scale testing.
Oxara's profile