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.
 

CycloWatt: Providing pro-level insights for amateur cyclists
Power is the gold standard in cycling performance: it’s the most objective measure of how hard you are working, making it essential for effective training and pacing strategies. Yet most hobby cyclists ride without a power meter because of the prohibitive cost and deployment complexity. CycloWatt changes that by harnessing AI-driven technology to deliver an accurate and affordable power meter.
The co-founders, Victor Luder and Levi Luder, are passionate amateur cyclists who have experienced the problem firsthand. Combining Victor’s technical expertise with Levi’s entrepreneurial drive, they have positioned CycloWatt to innovate and disrupt the cycling technology market. CycloWatt reinvents power measurement and provides an affordable and user-friendly solution. They introduce a cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) device that seamlessly integrates force signals with inertial sensor data while leveraging the power of edge machine learning techniques.
The amateur cycling powermeter market is worth well over 1 billion USD. The team aims to use Venture Kick financing to boost business development and prepare for market entry.

Flatable: Becoming the global leader in flat hunting by reimagining the entire process
Flatable addresses the frustration of finding a shared flat or roommate. Current platforms are inefficient, filled with unresponsive listings, scams, and little personalization — leading to wasted time and mismatched living situations.
Founded by ETH Zurich graduate Safras Rawfal, Flatable is an AI-driven mobile app that uses personality-based matching to connect users with compatible roommates and shared flats. It offers a fully integrated journey, from matching and viewing scheduling to digital contract signing, all in one secure platform. The startup targets students, young professionals, and landlords, starting in Switzerland and expanding into a global shared housing market worth over CHF 7.7 billion.
The Venture Kick funding will be used for targeted marketing campaigns to acquire early users. Funds will go into online and offline outreach, building strong network effects from day one.

TightValve: First surgical device for measuring valve leakage during heart surgery
One treatment option for aortic root diseases is valve-sparing aortic root replacement, which repairs the valve and replaces the aortic root with a graft. The valve's tightness can only be assessed after surgery, and in 20% of the cases, reoperation is required. This is harmful,  costly, and may prevent treatment for fragile patients due to the high risk. 
TightValve has developed a simple and fast measuring device to directly quantify valve leakage during surgery. In the western world (EU, USA, CAN), 25k David procedures/year are conducted, a number that can be increased if the high re-operation risk can be reduced. The funding team of TightValve is composed of a CEO Silje Ekroll Jahren, a biomedical engineer, CTO Lukas Glaus a mechanical engineer and heart surgeon, CMO Emmanuel Zimmer a heart surgeon, and scientific advisor Prof. Dominik Obrist. 
The Venture Kick funds will contribute to building a quality management system to be used on the regulatory path towards FDA/CE approvals.

Additional Links
Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Dr. Bettina Ernst Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Jim Pulcrano

Dexterous Endoscopes: Empowering doctors to achieve optimal patient outcomes
Millions of endoscopic procedures are performed annually using rigid or flexible instruments to access internal sites. Rigid endoscopes cannot bend into confined spaces. Flexible ones reach further but lack the force and precision for effective tissue dissection. Surgeons are therefore forced to choose between reach, precision, and control.
Dexterous Endoscopes has developed a variable-stiffness scope engineered to overcome existing limitations. Its ability to switch between rigid and soft modes on command is key. In the soft state, the scope can safely navigate complex organ anatomy to the target zone. In the rigid state, it resists buckling. It provides additional stability, enabling concentrated force with instruments passed through the working channel for high-quality tissue dissection or delivering greater stability for laser surgeries.
The Venture Kick funding will support preclinical trials, demonstration of the technology, and advancement of business development activities.

latentfusion.ai: Optimizing protein-based therapeutics to unlock innovative treatments
97% of all protein-based therapeutics fail before approval, after millions of US dollars and a large effort have been invested into their development. Up to 50% of those failures could be avoided with optimized protein candidates.
latentfusion.ai provides AI-driven protein optimization, helping biotech partners fix critical issues in lead candidates. This accelerates research, boosts licensing potential, and avoids dead-end projects. Most importantly, it increases the chances of life-changing treatments reaching patients.
latentfusion.ai was founded by CEO Elias Hagmann, with a background in computer science from ETH Zürich, and CSO Dieter Schiegg, with a background in Biochemistry from the University of Zürich. Together, they bring over 25 years of experience in the biotech industry.  The core market consists of 3,000+ therapeutic biotech companies that currently spend over USD12 billion on protein lead optimization.
The Venture Kick funds will be used to reach potential customers, establish strategic partnerships, and accelerate market entry.

LightSeeds: Reducing Solar Installation Costs with Lightweight, Low-Carbon Technology
LightSeeds addresses a major barrier to solar adoption: the high cost and complexity of installing traditional photovoltaic systems, especially on infrastructure like roads and railways. Their solution replaces heavy, fragile glass panels with lightweight, rigid, and recyclable modules that cut total installed costs by 20% and halve the carbon footprint.
Founded in 2024 by Laure-Emmanuelle Perret and Pierrick Duvoisin, LightSeeds brings together 30+ years of expertise in photovoltaics, industrial design, and public-private innovation. With patents pending and pilot installations realised, the startup targets a USD 46M market (SOM) in Europe and Switzerland until 2027 with a scalable licensing model.
The Venture Kick Stage I funds will support industrialization, strengthen the team, and accelerate market entry through new strategic partnerships and field deployments.
 

Additional Links
Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Jim Pulcrano Behind the Jury: Perspectives from Venture Kick Jury Member Dr. Bettina Ernst

RetinAI develops innovative software that collects, processes, and analyzes large-scale retinal images and biomarker datasets. Its flagship platform, RetinAI Discovery, FDA-cleared and CE-marked, uses AI models to support the diagnosis and monitoring of eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. By providing actionable insights, RetinAI helps healthcare professionals make more informed and timely decisions in patient management.

From the very beginning, the Medtech company's goal has been to harness the power of data and AI to transform patient care. This next chapter with EssilorLuxottica allows it to take that mission further—scaling its impact globally and strengthening its contribution to the future of patient care.

Beyond clinical applications, RetinAI collaborates with pharmaceutical companies and research organizations to accelerate drug development and clinical studies. Its AI-driven platform leverages real-world evidence to streamline workflows across clinical, research, and pharmaceutical domains.

Being acquired by EssilorLuxottica enables RetinAI to scale its technology globally, integrating its AI-powered solutions into a leading eyecare ecosystem. The move highlights RetinAI’s role in redefining eye health through advanced data, machine learning, and retinal imaging.

RetinAI has been ranked among the Top100 Swiss Startups, won Venture Kick, and participated in Venture Leaders Life Sciences and Venture Leaders China.


RetinAI team

Additional Links
RetinAI's profile on Venture Kick

The first closing of Neology Hydrogen’s funding round brings in CHF 1.7 million in equity commitments from Swiss and international backers. The round is led by the investment group of serial entrepreneur Roland Bartholet, with contributions from Kickfund, CoreAngels Climate, and ongoing support from Venture Kick alongside a network of early angel investors. Public co-financing includes a CHF 250,000 matching grant from the City of Zurich, while additional non-dilutive support is being explored in Vaud.

This funding will accelerate the rollout of Neology’s 50 kW Ammonia Power Generator (APG) units, expected to enter the market between late 2026 and early 2027. These off-grid systems are designed to replace diesel-powered machinery in sectors such as ports, mining, and agriculture, reducing emissions while maintaining reliable power supply.

Having been ranked among the Top100 Swiss Startups and a Venture Kick winner, Neology is securing green ammonia supplies for field deployments through established European partners starting in 2025, ensuring a sustainable fuel source for its zero-emission technology. By combining innovative power generation with renewable fuel, Neology Hydrogen aims to provide industries with practical solutions for transitioning away from fossil fuels.


Neology Hydrogen Team

Additional Links
Neology wins CHF 150,000 to develop novel solution for carbon-free energy supply Neology Hydrogen's profile on Venture Kick

Eldian Biomed: Injectable Microcushions for Damaged Joints
Osteoarthritis (OA) affects over 500 million people and is a leading cause of disability. Current treatments offer only temporary relief and fail to stop disease progression, underscoring the need for disease-modifying solutions.
Eldian Biomed, a spin-off from the University of Bern, is developing CloudLi—a patented microcushion technology of lipid nanoparticles crosslinked with peptide linkers, targeting both inflammation and cartilage wear. In animal models, CloudLi showed marked improvements in joint structure and well-being. The team is led by Gregor Bordon, supported by the research infrastructure of the University of Bern, including the labs of Prof. Paola Luciani and Prof. Jean Louis Reymond. The OA therapy market is projected to reach USD 17B by launch, with CloudLi addressing a USD 1–1.4B segment for non-end-stage knee OA in Europe and the US.
Venture Kick funding will support trademark filings, website setup, and presence at key investor conferences ahead of a 2026 raise.

NanoZymeX: Delivering enzyme therapies precisely where they are needed
NanoZymeX is a health startup project developing a new therapy for rare genetic conditions known as lysosomal storage diseases. Their innovative approach uses lipid-based nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic enzymes directly into cells, helping the body break down harmful substances more effectively. Current treatments for lysosomal storage diseases often struggle to get the needed enzymes into the right parts of the body, especially inside cells where they’re needed most. As a result, patients face frequent, high-dose infusions with limited efficacy and high risk of immune responses. 
The startup project is led by Boris Sevarika and Margarita C. Dinamarca, based at the University of Basel within the Nanopharmaceutical and Regulatory Science Group of Professor Scott McNeil. The team is developing a lipid nanoparticle-based enzyme delivery platform that encapsulates therapeutic enzymes and delivers them to the place in the body where they are needed. The first target is Pompe disease, a rare neuromuscular disorder with a global market exceeding USD 2 billion, but the platform is adaptable to a broad range of enzyme-driven indications in rare and metabolic diseases. This next-generation treatment aims to improve the lives of patients with these often-overlooked and difficult-to-treat disorders.
With Venture Kick support, the NanoZymeX team will refine its business model, conduct structured interviews with stakeholders to validate the solution, and expand its network of key opinion leaders in enzyme therapy and lysosomal storage disorders. These activities will position the project for incorporation and fundraising, laying a strong foundation for future growth.

OOVIE Studios: Interactive AI Movies that Change Every time you Watch them, Powered by Live Music and Human Interaction
Classical music struggles to engage younger and broader audiences, who seek more immersive, multimedia formats than traditional concerts.
Incorporated in May 2025 in Lugano by five co-founders – CEO Riccardo Acciarino, COO Marco Seco, CTO Ignacio Palladino, CAO & Sales Manager Giulio Casagrande, and CMO Lorenzo Ramon – OOVIE Studios transforms the visions of the musicians into interactive AI movies, crafted by world-renowned AI artists. The narrative changes every time automatically following the nuances of music and audience input. OOVIE bridges several markets with common needs, adapting its format for both the musical and corporate world. After launching its first immersive brand experience with EssilorLuxottica – EA7, the startup will premiere its launch tour with Grammy-winning violinist Maxim Vengerov during the Venice Film Festival, at the Trieste Festival, and Teatro Piccolo “Strehler” in Milan.
They will use the Venture Kick funds to organize a private client roadshow, register the trademark, and cover key team travel expenses for the launch tour.