Venture Leaders 2016
As novelty in 2016, not only one, but two “Swiss startup teams” have been selected for the US journey as part of the program venture leaders, co-organized by venturelab and swissnex Boston and its New York Outpost. The venture leaders in Life Sciences and the venture leaders in Technology teams, composed of 10 high potential startups each, will fly to Boston and New York this summer for a “business boosting” week which will enable them to accelerate their development on the US market, meet top investors and experts. Selected after a highly competitive process, both teams offer an amazing display of startups to watch for future success.
Venture Leaders Life Sciences (Boston, June 12-18)
| Andrea Maesani, Intento |  | A solution for the rehabilitation of severely paralyzed stroke patients, helping them to perform and recover upper limbs movements again. | (medtech), EPF Lausanne |
| Marcel Ottiger, Amphasys AG |  | A patented new technology enabling label-free, non-destructive and mobile analysis of any kind of single cells (by microfluidic impedance flow cytometry), in a similar way as a scanner at the airport. For example, analysis of pollen viability is a crucial step in the seed production because yield and quality of seed and the growing plant strongly correlate with pollen quality. Other examples are analysis of milk (somatic cells), fermentation processes (yeast, bacteria) or sperms (viability and quantity). | (biotech), Technopark Lucerne |
| Martin Ostermaier, InterAx Biotech |  | InterAx Biotech helps pharmaceutical companies to develop new and better drugs. Their unique combination of computational methods and innovative biological products allows for fast and comprehensive characterization of potential new drugs. Costly clinical trials can then be performed with reduced risks. | (biotech) ETH Zurich |
| Natali Pennesse, Cellphmed | A method to verify the identity and quality of human cells, which will open doors for the advancement of personalized medicine. | (medtech), EPF Lausanne | |
| Philipp Knechtle, Selmod |  | Development of innovative small molecule therapies for the treatment of life-threatening invasive fungal infections, which represent around 2 million new cases every year worldwide. | (biotech), Uni Basel |
| Reto Naef, Topadur Pharma |  | Specialized drugs for the treatment of severe wound healing, which enables a higher life’s quality for patients. | (biotech), Schlieren |
| Sabrina Badir, pregnolia |  | A diagnostic tool that measures the cervical stiffness in pregnant women, allowing to reliably identify women at risk of preterm birth, thus solving the long-standing problem of preterm birth risk assessment and management in pregnancy. | (medtech), ETH Zurich |
| Sandeep Rahunathan, PB&B SA |  | A new generation of fillers and anti-aging medicine for plastic surgeons and dermatologists. The patented technology stimulates a patient’s soft tissues to naturally gain volume with locally delivered lipids. | (biotech), Uni Genève |
| Sylke Hoehnel, SUNbioscience |  | Standardized cultures of stem cell-derived organoids, which are self-organizing 3D miniature tissues with organ-mimicking functions. The technology opens the door to personalized medicine, which means more effective treatments and fewer side effects than the current “one drug fits all” principle. | (biotech), EPF Lausanne |
| Tomas de Wouters, PharmaBiome |  | Antibiotic resistances make intestinal infections (i.e. C. difficile infection) life-threatening. Fecal microbiota transplant, the transplant of feces from a healthy donor to the infected patient, is currently the only lifesaving but experimental therapy with success rates of over 90%. PharmaBiome develops a scalable, controllable and efficient alternative to the use of fecal material to make it the treatment of choice for intestinal infections. | biotech), ETH Zurich |
Venture Leaders Tech (New York City, June 5-11)
| Alberto Hernando, SthAR |  | Algorithms that draw on large quantities of telecommunications data to identify where and when to deliver a message most effectively. The software product could be useful in both electoral and advertising campaigns. | (software), EPF Lausanne |
| Alexandre Catsicas, Artmyn |  | A unique digitizing service setting new standards in the way Fine Art can be experienced and promoted on screen, via a web browser, accessible from any mobile device. | software), EPF Lausanne |
| Andreas Hempel, embotech GmbH |  | Software that transforms the way to build and design optimal decision making systems such as autonomous machines. This reduces development cost, and increases productivity and reliability of anything from dishwashers to complex air traffic control systems, in fields such as automotive, robotics, and even healthcare. | (software), ETH Zurich |
| Daniel Meier, Aerotain |  | Fun and interactive flying solutions to boost the attention and coverage of brands and products. Applications range from advertisement and entertainment to live streams of events from the air | (engineering), ETH Zurich |
| Elias Kleimann, Wingtra |  | Wingtra develops a convertible aerial robot that takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like a plane. Thanks to the combination of range and flexibility, the fully autonomous Wingtra 1 is best suited for various civil applications, i.e. for the inspection of farmland, mining or even for parcel delivery. | (engineering), ETH Zurich |
| Julien Moix, Advanced Sport Instrument |  | FieldWiz is a strategy and physical performance tracking system for outdoor team sports players. It is a standalone device worn on a player’s back to collect statistics, which are synchronized at the end of the game or practice. | (engineering), HES-SO |
| Mathias Haussmann, Uepaa AG |  | Uepaa is a quickly growing «peer-to-peer» software company (SaaS) based in Zurich Switzerland that enables developers to integrate proximity features into their apps. Internationally awarded for its disruptive p2p safety app in 2013, the company launched its Software Development Kit (SDK called www.p2pkit.io) in October 2015. Uepaa has already seen tremendous uptake, with over 300+ clients from over 40 countries. Additionally Uepaa was recognized by 451 Research among others, as being a first-mover and leader in the proximity-based services space! | (web, mobile), ETH spin-off |
| Michela Puddu, Haelixa |  | Haelixa provides intelligent DNA-based tracing solutions allowing fluid/item tracking and parameter monitoring (temperature, light, pH, oxidants) to support the energy industry (underground exploration and monitoring), and ensure product authentication and quality control as well as liability management. | (materials), ETH Zurich |
| Olivier Hamel, Prodibi |  | A high-quality, powerful and easy solution to showcase images beautifully. With Prodibi, brands can directly use their images online without costly optimization. | (web, mobile), Geneva |
| Timo Steitz, ShoeSize.Me AG |  | ShoeSize.Me offers data-driven business intelligence solutions to footwear retailers and brands. Their core solution enables online shops to provide their customers with precise shoe size recommendations for every shoe model they want to buy. | (web, mobile), St. Gallen |
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