A brief introduction of David Brown
David Brown co-founded an Internet startup (buyat.com) as the CTO in 1998 and survived the first Internet bubble and bust to then exit to AOL in 2008. Over the past two decades, he has established himself as an angel investor in deep-tech startups in Switzerland, while also serving on several boards. He was SECA angel investor of the year in 2016. Currently, Mr. Brown is a member of the Innosuisse Innovation Council and serves as the chair of the Bridge Proof of Concept panel. In addition to his leadership roles, he is updating his technical expertise by studying online in the Applied Data Science and Machine Learning program at the EPFL Extension School.

David, can you tell us what brought you to the Venture Kick jury and what has kept you engaged over the years?
It’s continually inspiring to see new generations motivated to solve meaningful problems as entrepreneurs. I believe in planetary boundaries, the need to move to a sustainable circular economy, and I believe that technological innovation, as promoted by Venture Kick, is a core part of that.

What makes the Venture Kick program stand out in the Swiss startup ecosystem?
It really is true to its name and “kicks” startups forward. It has done this at scale and consistently for a long time now.

What do you enjoy most when interacting with founders during the jury sessions?
You get to see forward-looking young people - they are not expecting my generation to fix the problems we caused/exacerbated, but are themselves powering ahead to fix them.

In your opinion, what are the three key success factors a startup should fulfill?
Any startup has to navigate 3 phases to be successful. Initially, it needs a compelling idea and a strong team to get momentum going. Then it has to determine the value it can bring to potential customers. Then, to grow, it has to figure out how to sell efficiently to these customers and scale up.

Additional Links
Behind the Jury: Perspectives from the Venture Kick Jury Member David Kurmann Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Dr. Bettina Ernst Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Christer Bergstroem Behind the Jury: Perspectives from the Venture Kick Jury Member Luca Bolliger Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Jim Pulcrano

Firefighters and industrial safety teams face significant risks when assessing high-temperature environments such as burning buildings or industrial furnaces. These conditions expose workers to hazards including toxic smoke, structural collapse, and extreme heat. Conventional drones cannot operate under such circumstances, leaving first responders and inspection teams without real-time situational awareness when it is needed most.

The Empa spin-off FireDrone develops heat-resistant autonomous drones capable of withstanding temperatures of at least 200°C, delivering real-time hazard detection in environments where standard technologies fail. Using advanced thermal insulation and cooling systems, the drones enhance safety, reduce operational downtime, and improve decision-making in critical situations.

FireDrone targets two main markets: high-temperature industrial inspections and public safety. Together, these areas represent an estimated market size of USD 12.1 billion—USD 6.45 billion in industrial inspection and USD 5.65 billion in firefighting. The company’s initial addressable market of about USD 1.0 billion includes industries such as cement, steel and aluminum, waste-to-energy, fertilizer, and glass production, as well as first responder operations where conventional drones cannot function due to heat and smoke. These sectors share core needs: minimizing downtime, ensuring worker safety, and meeting regulatory standards—challenges FireDrone’s technology addresses through real-time monitoring in extreme environments.

The CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick will accelerate its go-to-market efforts by expanding the business development team, onboarding distribution and maintenance partners, advancing product certification, and converting pilot projects into pre-orders across its target industries.

The founding team unites robotics, materials, and aeronautical knowledge, with Dr. Fabian Wiesemüller and David Häusermann bringing extensive research and field experience in drone design and autonomous systems, while their deep understanding of industrial safety positions the startup to deliver innovative solutions for operations in extreme heat.

“Venture Kick has been fantastic for us,” highlights Co-Founder Fabian Wiesemüller. “It helped turn an ambitious idea into a venture, sharpened our business case with expert feedback, and opened doors to partners and investors. The program doesn’t just provide seed capital – it brings visibility, structure and momentum that fuel FireDrone’s ongoing growth.”


FireDrone Co-Founders Dr. Fabian Wiesemüller and David Häusermann

Additional Links
FireDrone's profile on Venture Kick CHF 40,000 for autonomous drones for extreme environments

RetinAI develops software that analyzes large-scale retinal images and biomarker data to support the diagnosis and monitoring of conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. Its AI platform, RetinAI Discovery, is both FDA-cleared and CE-marked, and is used to advance clinical research and patient care worldwide. Following the company's recent acquisition by EssilorLuxottica, we spoke with Co-Founder Carlos Ciller about RetinAI’s journey, the lessons learned along the way, and his advice for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

 
RetinAI was recently acquired by EssilorLuxottica. Looking back, what were the most important factors that made this outcome possible?
It’s hard to pinpoint a single set of decisions that defined our journey. For us, it was a framework built on team selection, focus, and execution. We chose to specialize deeply in ophthalmology because that was our background, moving quickly to form partnerships with established stakeholders—first in pharma, then in clinics—and consistently deliver the highest-quality work to our customers. On the team side, we were deliberate. Each early hire was critical, and we looked for people who could deliver, learn fast, and grow with us. We refused to be intimidated by regulatory frameworks, such as those in medical devices or AI, and instead aimed to maximize ROI for every innovation by collaborating with key players and forming win-win partnerships through our network. Above all, we treated every customer with genuine care. We wanted them to feel we had their back, no matter the circumstance. In the end, customers may forget the details, but they remember how you made them feel.

That mindset earned us trust and recognition. Over time, our brand gained credibility with customers and peers alike. We were carving out our place in the market just as EssilorLuxottica entered the healthcare field, setting the stage for the next chapter of growth together. Chapter 1 is complete, and chapter 2 is just beginning.
 
You received early backing from programs such as Venture Kick. How did this support help you establish the foundation for growth and long-term success?
The money from Venture Kick saved the company at the time. In Switzerland, labels matter—a lot: academic labels, merit labels, grassroots labels, and the seal of approval you get from programs like Venture Kick and other initiatives organized by Venturelab. These were important milestones that helped us close our first pre-seed round. I’m grateful for that support, because without it, we wouldn’t have lived to see what the company became a few years later.



You also joined the Venture Leaders programs in China and Life Sciences. In what ways did these experiences shape your fundraising strategy and international expansion?
We were fortunate to be selected for both Venture Leaders Life Sciences in Boston in 2017 and Venture Leaders China the following year. The first trip—and, in fact, the preparation before leaving for Boston—led to our first investment. Had we not been selected for Venture Leaders in 2017, we wouldn’t have been in the spotlight at EPFL’s Startup Night that April/May, and our first angel investor might never have noticed us in the audience. From that perspective, it was incredibly important—and a reminder that you always need to show what you do, because you never know who is listening. 
The trip to Boston opened our minds and exposed us to the realities of entrepreneurship in the US. We built a network of contacts there that continues to have important effects to this day. The trip to China was longer and gave us the chance to explore the Asian giant. It helped us understand that entering such a market would require muscle, significant capital, and dedication. The experience allowed us to reshape our business, reassess opportunities, and refine our focus. I really value these trips as opportunities for new entrepreneurs to grow by learning from peers and exploring the unknown. That mindset will, in turn, be essential for their companies’ success.


Carlos Ciller at the Venture Leaders China kick-off in 2018

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs aiming for a successful exit?
Find the right co-founders and team members, and push yourself out of your comfort zone before you start. Test those relationships early—working together on small projects, if possible. My co-founders were essential to every success, including the exit. When challenges arose, we acted without hesitation or finger-pointing, focusing on thinking and taking action. Understand your situation, and make decisions as a team. Luck comes in waves, and when it appears, you have to be ready to seize it.

One might think the beginning of an exit happens just months before the event, but in our case, the path started at least two years earlier. From day one, build relationships with industry players—you never know when their strategy or mission might align with your vision. Don’t wait until the end to build those bridges. Get to know the teams that could one day acquire your company, because few buyers acquire businesses they don’t already know.

Finally, be ready for the possibility of failure. When you lower expectations and focus on conviction—pushing forward with minimal regrets—that’s when you find the clarity and resilience to take your company to new heights. For us, it wasn’t the exit itself, but preparing for the exciting next chapter in the story of Ikerian/RetinAI.


RetinAI / Ikerian's Co-Founders: CEO Carlos Ciller, CSO Sandro De Zanet, and CTO Stefanos Apostolopoulos

Additional Links
RetinAI / Ikerian profile on Venture Kick RetinAI acquired by EssilorLuxottica to advance AI-powered eye care

Millions of intricate manual tasks on factory floors still rely on human skill, beyond the reach of traditional robots. Conventional automation handles repetitive motions but requires costly setup for new tasks, while humanoid robots have seen limited adoption due to high costs and safety concerns.

The robotics startup Mimic, a Venture Kick winner and ranked among the Top100 Swiss Startups, addresses this gap by training AI models on real-world human demonstrations. Operators wear proprietary devices while performing tasks, capturing movement data without disrupting production. The AI enables Mimic’s humanoid hands to reproduce human techniques, react to object changes, and self-correct in human-centered environments.
 
The technology is already piloted with top manufacturers and logistics providers, responding to growing demand amid labor shortages and reshoring trends. Founded in 2024 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, Mimic has a 25-person team and has received support from Switzerland’s federal innovation agency and the AWS Generative AI Accelerator.

The USD 16 million seed round, led by Elaia and backed by Speedinvest and others, brings total funding to over USD 20 million and will accelerate development of foundation AI models and humanoid robotic hands for real-world deployments.

"Venture Kick was one of our first backers and really helped us make the shift from a highly technical deep-tech team to a more business-driven company," highlighted Mimic's Co-Founders. "The program moves fast, keeps you accountable, and the bootcamps and expert feedback were incredibly valuable in sharpening our pitch and preparing us for international investors."


Mimic robotics team

Additional Links
mimic robotics' profile on Venture Kick Mimic Robotics receives CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick to build embodied intelligence CHF 40,000 for robotic manipulation AI models

When Tethys' co-founder Jonas Wüst first met rescue divers in Switzerland, what struck him wasn’t their courage but the persistent risks defining their work. “We realized how outdated it all was,” he recalls. “Divers were still sent into low-visibility waters to inspect wrecks, recover objects, or deal with unexploded ordnance. It was slow, risky, and often guesswork.”

That realization became the foundation for Tethys Robotics, a Zurich-based spin-out from ETH Zurich focused on subsea automation. The startup develops autonomous robotic systems capable of performing complex underwater missions—tasks traditionally carried out by divers under dangerous and uncertain conditions.

The Robotics company has secured EUR 3.5 million in pre-seed funding to expand its engineering and data teams, scale production, and move from pilot deployments to full commercial operations across Europe. Led by Redstone with participation from Euregio+, Alpine VC, Zürcher Kantonalbank, the ETH Foundation, Kickfund, and Venture Kick, the funding represents a step toward industrial adoption of autonomous underwater systems.

Wüst and his co-founders began developing their first prototypes while studying and conducting research at ETH Zurich. The university’s ecosystem, known for nurturing robotics ventures, provided the technical and academic grounding that shaped Tethys Robotics’ early development.

By combining robotics, data-driven autonomy, and maritime expertise, the startup, which was ranked among the Top100 Swiss Startups this year, aims to bring safety, precision, and scalability to underwater missions—redefining how subsea operations are conducted in fields from infrastructure inspection to environmental monitoring.


Tethys Robotics Co-Founders: Pragash Sivananthaguru (CTO), Andrej Studer (mapping lead), Bastian Schildknecht (user software lead), Jonas Wüst (CEO), Johannes Lienhart (COO), and Florin Kümin (robotics software lead)

Additional Links
Tethys Robotics' profile on Venture Kick

The investment was raised via an accelerated bookbuild offering of 11.3 million new ordinary shares at EUR 4.50 per share, determined by ONWARD Medical’s pricing committee. The private placement attracted both existing and new institutional investors. Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA, a global leader in prosthetics, orthotics, and exoskeleton technology, participated as a cornerstone investor, joined by healthcare-focused investor Invus and the ASR Global Impact Equity Fund managed by a.s.r. Asset Management N.V., acting as anchor investors.

The company intends to allocate the proceeds strategically across its operations. Around 40% will go toward development initiatives, including clinical studies and regulatory activities for the investigational ARC-IM System, which aims to address blood pressure instability in individuals with spinal cord injuries. Another 30% will fund the expansion of sales and operations to support the commercialization of the ARC-EX System in the United States, Europe, and select other regions. Quality, administrative, and operational scaling activities will receive 20% of the funds, while the remaining 10% will cover working capital, general corporate purposes, and financing costs, including existing debt obligations.


ONWARD Co-Founders: Jocelyne Bloch, MD, Head of the Department of Functional Neurosurgery at the CHUV and Grégoire Courtine, Phd, Professor of neuroscience and neurotechnolgy at EPFL

The funding is expected to extend ONWARD Medical’s cash runway through at least the end of 2026, assuming no use of its existing debt facility. Despite the strengthened balance sheet, the company’s stock price fell on Euronext Brussels following the announcement.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, with a Science and Engineering Center in Switzerland and an office in Boston, Massachusetts, ONWARD Medical, repeatedly ranked among the Top100 Swiss Startups, winner of Venture Kick, and participant in Venture Leaders Technology, is developing technologies that stimulate the spinal cord to restore movement and other functions in people with paralysis. Its ARC Therapy platform is based on years of research conducted at leading neuroscience and rehabilitation institutions. ONWARD has received ten Breakthrough Device designations from the US FDA and continues to develop its implantable system, ARC-IM, designed to pair with a brain-computer interface for thought-driven movement restoration.

Additional Links
ONWARD Medical profile on Venture Kick ONWARD Medical secures EUR 50 million in upsized capital increase to fuel growth

Preterm birth and pregnancy complications remain among the most pressing challenges in maternal health. When a mother’s water breaks too early, doctors face a difficult dilemma: delay delivery and risk infection or induce birth and risk lifelong complications for the baby. With no reliable way to quantify these risks, mothers often undergo invasive tests while clinicians must make life-or-death decisions with limited data.

The EPFL spin-off MoleSense is redefining women’s healthcare with a new class of wearables that track inflammatory proteins and steroid hormones in real time through non-invasive sweat monitoring using a “wear & forget” device. By combining personalized molecular data with biology-aware machine intelligence, the technology provides real-time, actionable insights for early diagnosis and targeted interventions.

Founded and led by Gian Luca Barbruni and Ata Golparvar, both PhD graduates from EPFL, MoleSense brings together deep expertise in micro- and nano-engineering and wearable technologies. The team is initially focusing on pregnancy management, aiming to impact more than eight million pregnancies annually across Switzerland, Europe, and the United States. Their approach sets a new standard for proactive, personalized maternity care and targets the USD 110 billion women’s healthcare device market, beginning its rollout with high-risk pregnancy centers such as CHUV.

The CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick will help the Medtech startup complete validation and move forward along the regulatory pathway toward early market entry.

“Venture Kick challenged us to think bigger, move faster, and sharpen our vision,” commented CEO Gian Luca Barbruni.

Gian Luca Barbruni CEO MoleSense

Additional Links
MoleSense's profile on Venture Kick CHF 40,000 molecular wearables for maternity care

Founded to address the growing complexity of Europe’s decentralized energy systems, Exnaton develops software that helps utilities launch and manage data-driven, sustainable energy products. Its AI-powered SaaS platform supports services such as dynamic tariffs, energy sharing, and smart EV charging—without requiring costly IT overhauls.

The Series A funding will enable Exnaton to scale its operations and further develop tools that automate data analysis across billing, consumption, and production. This helps utilities reduce operational costs, improve efficiency, and deliver more personalized services.

More than 50 utilities in Europe, including TotalEnergies in Belgium, eprimo and Bayernwerk in Germany, and Burgenland Energie in Austria, already use Exnaton’s technology to bring greater transparency and flexibility to the energy sector.

The cleantech company has been ranked among Top100 Swiss Startups for four consecutive years, won Venture Kick, and participated in Venture Leaders Technolgy and Venture Leaders Cleantech.


Exnaton's team

Additional Links
Exnaton's profile on Venture Kick

Real estate teams spend countless hours on manual, repetitive tasks—from entering data into ERP systems to approving invoices and compiling reports. These processes are time-consuming, error-prone, and often lack the precision needed for high-quality business analysis.

Anevo, a Zurich-based ETH spin-off, addresses this inefficiency with an automation platform designed specifically for the real estate sector. By integrating directly into a company’s core systems, the platform mirrors what employees see and performs the same tasks they would—extracting data from various document types, processing invoices, and generating reporting-ready KPIs. Leveraging recent advances in large language models and AI, Anevo combines natural language processing with domain-specific expertise and robust safety measures to ensure accuracy and reliability.

The startup has already attracted several prominent clients, including stock-listed real estate companies, insurance firms, and public institutions. Its pre-seed round, supported by Innovationsstiftung der SZKB, Hohle Gasse AG, and angel investors Dominik Grolimund and Reto Lämmler, will allow Anevo to advance its product development and expand across Switzerland.

Looking ahead, Anevo aims to make its automation platform accessible to real estate companies and property managers of all sizes, with the long-term goal of becoming Europe’s leading provider of real estate automation solutions.


Anevo's Co-Founders Tiago Salzmann, Yvan Bosshard, and Rafaél Monasterios

Additional Links
Anevo's profile on Venture Kick

calmea: Engineering better sleep
Chronic stress and poor sleep affect over a third of adults, costing billions in lost productivity and health expenses. Existing solutions are often short-term or impractical. calmea offers science-based and comfortable solutions to restore sleep and relaxation naturally.
calmea develops smart robotic beds that enhance deep, restorative sleep through gentle swaying movements. Unobtrusive sensors monitor sleep and enable personalized, real-time adjustments based on physiological feedback. Founded by Dr. Alexander Breuss and Manuel Fujs, MSc, calmea combines scientific insight with innovation. Backed by two patents and validated in research and wellness settings, the company targets the rapidly growing USD 200B global sleep tech and wellness market.
The Venture Kick funding will help calmea refine its business case, engage early customers, and prepare pilot deployments, paving the way for market entry.

LabDeep: Unlock hidden data for life sciences R&D
Over 70% of all scientific data remains inaccessible and therefore underused, leading to an estimated USD 330 billion in wasted resources annually. Much of this knowledge sits in forgotten databases or never gets published. If unlocked, this hidden information could prevent scientists from repeating redundant experiments and allow them to plan more effectively, saving time, money, and resources.
LabDeep is an AI-powered platform transforming how scientific knowledge is managed. We collect, curate, and make available underused or unpublished data, turning it into a reusable resource. The team is led by Dr. Catharina Sänger, CEO, a molecular biologist with management consulting experience who witnessed this problem firsthand, and Sebastian Schilbe, CTO, a seasoned tech leader with expertise in scalable solutions. They are targeting the R&D market for biotechs.
The Venture Kick funds will help develop an MVP, covering two main needs: securing legal consulting for compliant data collection, and allocating the remainder to core product development. Labdeepdata.com

MINYSA: GaN (Gallium Nitride) semiconductor drivers that make power systems smaller, cooler, cheaper
Today’s power-silicon drivers are overheating, oversized, and too expensive across e-mobility, drones, robots, satellites, and data centers. GaN could fix it, but adoption is blocked by complexity, cost, and lack of integrated control.
MINYSA builds GaN-optimized gate-driver ICs and reference modules that unlock higher power density and efficiency while cutting cost and time-to-market. Targeting the fast-growing GaN power market of USD 3 billion, 42% CAGR (USD 19 billion by 2035), their solution enables up to 50% smaller, 20% cooler systems, and 25% lower total cost. The startup focuses on e-mobility, commercial drones, industrial robots, space, and data-center power. Early traction includes a pilot customer and a working prototype. MINYSA is led by founder & CEO Salem Abid, supported by an R&D team with 80+ cumulative patents and 100+ years of experience in power semiconductors.
Venture Kick funding will support marketing, B2B outreach, and a prototype to accelerate customer pilots and design-ins.

STATecovery: Making cellular signaling visible to accelerate drug development
Drug development for cancer and autoimmunity is slow and expensive. Current tools provide only static snapshots of a drug's effect on key signaling pathways like JAK-STAT, completely missing the real-time dynamics inside living cells that ultimately determine therapeutic success.
STATecovery's proprietary STATeLight biosensor platform solves this, helping pharmaceutical companies develop drugs faster while reducing late-stage failures and cutting costs. Their technology, protected by a patent application filed by the University of Zurich, provides a direct, continuous visualization of a drug's mechanism of action in living cells. Delivered as ready-to-use engineered cell lines, the platform offers a straightforward, single-step protocol compatible with standard laboratory equipment, including microscopes and high-throughput plate readers. STATecovery was founded by Dr. Roman Meledin and Thi Nguyen as a planned spin-out from the University of Zurich laboratory of Prof. Onur Boyman, to target the USD 21 billion cell-based assay market in oncology and immunology.
Venture Kick funds will support business development and market validation.

SurgExplore: AI-powered Software as a Medical Device
Every day, thousands of surgical videos are recorded and stored for regulatory and compliance purposes. However, this valuable source of information remains largely unutilized. Without intelligent tools to structure and interpret this data, valuable insights are lost, limiting surgical learning, quality improvement, and innovation.
Founded by experts in surgical AI, computer science, and product design, SurgExplore develops technology that transforms surgical videos into structured, searchable insights. Their platform enables automated documentation and intelligent video exploration, addressing a serviceable market of over CHF 1 billion while empowering surgeons through data-driven insights.
Venture Kick funding will support prototype refinement and strengthen product validation through early testing and feedback.