UrbanFarmers and DistalMotion win venture kick
30.03.2012
The new winners of venture kick come from Zurich and Lausanne: UrbanFamers AG is developing a new urban agricultural system; DistalMotion is developing a cost-effective, minimally invasive surgical treatment for prostate cancer. Both start-ups were able to raise their overall prize money to the total of CHF 130’000 by winning the third and last round of venture kick.
 UrbanFarmers: Roman Gaus and Andreas Graber
|
 |
 DistalMotion: Ricardo Beira and Lionel Flaction
|
|
The world population is rapidly growing, as is the realization that more has to be done for a greener environment with less emission, especially in the light of public health considerations. Up to 80% of the retail price asked by supermarkets for a salad goes to covering logistical and transportation costs. UrbanFarmers would like to revolutionize the current system by producing fresh fish, fruits and vegetables in a sustainable way and to be an integral part of the «future cities» that are in planning for the century to come.
Fresh food from the roofs of the cities
UrbanFarmers AG is an agriculture clean-tech start-up and spin-off from the ZHAW Wädenswil founded in 2011 by Roman Gaus und Andreas Graber. Their goal is to provide cost-efficient, sustainable and process-controlled systems and solutions to grow food in the city. The benefit is healthy, naturally grown food, produced in a safe environment, directly at the point of consumption, eliminating transportation and CO2 emissions in its distribution. The system is based on the Aquaponics technique that combines Fish breeding (Aquaculture) and Vegetable Garden in Water (Hydroponic). The core of Urban Farmers’ innovation is the control system to ensure productivity, safety and efficiency and to automate the nutrient balance between fish feed, fish population and plant cultures. The FARM Pilot Project is based on the LokDepot in Basel Dreispitz which will serve as the worldwide first 'proof of concept' of this system and will be a platform for further research & development.
A new kind of cost-effective surgery for prostate cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Today there good methods for performing this surgery, but the preferred robotic and minimally invasive method is only available in the context of large hospitals because of cost-efficiency considerations. About 85 % of hospitals offer only the open surgery procedure, which implies high hospital costs because of prolonged stays for the patients and an extremely invasive incision for them. Because of this, many smaller hospitals have stopped doing prostatectomies, as they refer them to larger medical establishments. The EPFL spin-off DistalMotion is developing a surgery tool that makes minimally invasive prostatectomies, with similar clinical outcomes, affordable for all hospitals. Their space saving co-dexterity machine is just one tenth of the cost of a huge robotic surgery system. The winner of venture leader 2011, CEO and Co-Founder of DistalMotion Ricardo Beira and COO and Co-Founder Lionel Flaction want to finish the first prototype in six months. With the money won at venture kick, the young entrepreneurs want to further promote their innovation in order to raise more financing capital, so as to be ready for market entry by 2015.
Final quotes for the final kick
Roman Gaus, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of UrbanFamers: «We are very happy to have won the final kick. Our vision of urban agriculture might very well be 20 years too early for the mass market, but I think we convinced the jury with our range of projects in the pipeline, our top-class team and our track record of success.» Roman Gaus complements: «We are also thankful for the first successful rounds of venture kick, which helped develop an enormous buzz, enabling us to raise our first financing steps.» Ricardo Beira of DistalMotion: «venture kick has been one of the most valuable entrepreneurial programs in which we have been involved so far. More than the prize money we got, the feedback received from the venture kick team, jury members and other concurrent teams has been fundamental to further develop our business.»
Fresh food from the roofs of the cities
UrbanFarmers AG is an agriculture clean-tech start-up and spin-off from the ZHAW Wädenswil founded in 2011 by Roman Gaus und Andreas Graber. Their goal is to provide cost-efficient, sustainable and process-controlled systems and solutions to grow food in the city. The benefit is healthy, naturally grown food, produced in a safe environment, directly at the point of consumption, eliminating transportation and CO2 emissions in its distribution. The system is based on the Aquaponics technique that combines Fish breeding (Aquaculture) and Vegetable Garden in Water (Hydroponic). The core of Urban Farmers’ innovation is the control system to ensure productivity, safety and efficiency and to automate the nutrient balance between fish feed, fish population and plant cultures. The FARM Pilot Project is based on the LokDepot in Basel Dreispitz which will serve as the worldwide first 'proof of concept' of this system and will be a platform for further research & development.
A new kind of cost-effective surgery for prostate cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Today there good methods for performing this surgery, but the preferred robotic and minimally invasive method is only available in the context of large hospitals because of cost-efficiency considerations. About 85 % of hospitals offer only the open surgery procedure, which implies high hospital costs because of prolonged stays for the patients and an extremely invasive incision for them. Because of this, many smaller hospitals have stopped doing prostatectomies, as they refer them to larger medical establishments. The EPFL spin-off DistalMotion is developing a surgery tool that makes minimally invasive prostatectomies, with similar clinical outcomes, affordable for all hospitals. Their space saving co-dexterity machine is just one tenth of the cost of a huge robotic surgery system. The winner of venture leader 2011, CEO and Co-Founder of DistalMotion Ricardo Beira and COO and Co-Founder Lionel Flaction want to finish the first prototype in six months. With the money won at venture kick, the young entrepreneurs want to further promote their innovation in order to raise more financing capital, so as to be ready for market entry by 2015.
Final quotes for the final kick
Roman Gaus, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of UrbanFamers: «We are very happy to have won the final kick. Our vision of urban agriculture might very well be 20 years too early for the mass market, but I think we convinced the jury with our range of projects in the pipeline, our top-class team and our track record of success.» Roman Gaus complements: «We are also thankful for the first successful rounds of venture kick, which helped develop an enormous buzz, enabling us to raise our first financing steps.» Ricardo Beira of DistalMotion: «venture kick has been one of the most valuable entrepreneurial programs in which we have been involved so far. More than the prize money we got, the feedback received from the venture kick team, jury members and other concurrent teams has been fundamental to further develop our business.»