Insights, announcements and a 3d concrete printer

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04.05.2018
Award Isabelle Musy

At some events, the networking breaks are more interesting than the programme. This was definitely not the case at the Startup Champions Seed Night held in Lausanne on Wednesday. Insights from a successful founder, an announcement by Swisscom Ventures, a pitching competition and the ceremony of the Isabelle Musy Award made it a worthwhile event.

300 people gathered for the Startup Champions Seednight organized by Venturelab and EPFL Alumni. The event started with a keynote by Daniel Yanisse, Checkr CEO and co-founder. His company, based in Silicon Valley, recently rose $100 million in Series C funding. As an EPFL (MT’12) and Venturelab alumnus, Daniel Yanisse shared detailed insights. One good example: The entrepreneur told the audience how much shares start-ups have to offer investors. In the Silicon Valley seed investors normally take 10 to 15%, Series A investors 20% and investors in the next rounds 10% per round.

Dominique Mégret, Head of Swisscom Ventures, made another important announcement regarding financing. He explained that Swisscom has increased the available resources for investments. Swisscom invests now CHF30-40 million per year. Half of the funds flow into Switzerland.

19 startups pitched at the event including the ten venture leaders Life Sciences. The audience selected six finalists. These included: Haya Therapeutics (drug development), SwissMotionTech (mass customised medical grade mobility equipment), Nagi Bioscience (technology for rapid and cost-effective in vivo testing of drug/chemical toxicity and efficacy), creal_3d (smart glasses for VR / AR), Artiria Medical (medical device to navigate in brain arteries), Aspivix (medical device for gynecological treatments). The jury selected Aspivix as winner. The founder had given the most appealing answer to the question what he would do if an investor invests 100 million in the company.

Isabelle Musy Award to Mobbot
The Startup Champions Seednight was once again the opportunity to discover the winner of the Isabelle Musy Award 2018. Every two years, this prize is awarded to a woman entrepreneur from Latin Switzerland active in the field of science and technology. The Prize money of CHF 50’000.- is meant to support the laureate in the realization of her entrepreneurial project.

This year’s edition winner is Agnès Petit, the founder of the Mobbot startup in Fribourg. Accompanied by Fri Up and based at the blueFACTORY, her venture is developing an innovative 3D printing technology for concrete impressed the Isabelle Musy Award’s jury.

The technology developed by Mobbot has many applications. For example, when repairing a road, a mobile robot equipped with the startup’s technology can print the elements to be replaced directly on site. Each piece is tailor-made, which significantly reduces the time and cost of the work. This ability to print customized concrete elements in series also opens up many architectural perspectives.

Picture: Award Ceremony of the Isabelle Musy Award with Agnès Petit (left) and Isabelle Musy (second from left). Picture by Venturelab.

(ES /SK)

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