Three startup projects win the first stage of Venture Kick
16.08.2017
Three startups won CHF 10’000 each at the first stage of Venture Kick: Rowcus, nanoleq and Innovative natural fungicides to control fungal diseases on fruits and vegetables. They benefit from the annual global 3 million in cash support from the program as well as hands-on execution support at the kickers camps. They are now preparing for stage two, where they might win another CHF 20’000.
 Rowcus: Kai v. Petersdorff and Sophie Lohmann
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 SwissBiol: Olga Dubey
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 nanoleq: Luca Hirt (on the left) and Vincent Martinez
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Rowcus (ETHZ) – sports: ROWCUS is the first intuitive navigation aid for rowers. As rowing is a rear facing motion, athletes only see where they are coming from but not where they are going. The inability to permanently monitor the path ahead results in a large number of expensive and sometimes dangerous accidents. ROWCUS - a system comprising a proximity sensor to monitor what is ahead and a haptic feedback chest-belt, to solve this problem by letting the rower intuitively feel where to go.
SwissBiol (Unil) – agriculture: The startup developed a novel experimental screening assay for the identification of organic pesticides coupled to state-of-the-art computational methods. Its lead compound is an organic fungicide to control a widespread and destructive grey mold disease. The startup plans to scale up compound discovery using high-throughput computational screening approaches. The startup is developing a scoring scheme for target selection and prioritization based on the properties of already tested compounds. Their first developed compound already showed great results compared to existing biologic solutions.
nanoleq (ETHZ) – electronics: nanoleq invented a new patented technology of cables and connectors. The startup’s technology relies on a smart layer arrangement of the cable and the use of innovative stretchable and conductive materials coming from research labs. The startup now produces cable prototypes that have a flex lifetime (lifetime over mechanical stress) improved by a factor 100 while preserving high mechanical flexibility. The startup wants to dedicate the next few years to convince high-end electronic companies to adopt its technology. In the future, there will be no more pain, financial loss and risk associated with the wear of cables.
SwissBiol (Unil) – agriculture: The startup developed a novel experimental screening assay for the identification of organic pesticides coupled to state-of-the-art computational methods. Its lead compound is an organic fungicide to control a widespread and destructive grey mold disease. The startup plans to scale up compound discovery using high-throughput computational screening approaches. The startup is developing a scoring scheme for target selection and prioritization based on the properties of already tested compounds. Their first developed compound already showed great results compared to existing biologic solutions.
nanoleq (ETHZ) – electronics: nanoleq invented a new patented technology of cables and connectors. The startup’s technology relies on a smart layer arrangement of the cable and the use of innovative stretchable and conductive materials coming from research labs. The startup now produces cable prototypes that have a flex lifetime (lifetime over mechanical stress) improved by a factor 100 while preserving high mechanical flexibility. The startup wants to dedicate the next few years to convince high-end electronic companies to adopt its technology. In the future, there will be no more pain, financial loss and risk associated with the wear of cables.