Venture Winners & Finalists

Breaking the Wall to a High Water-barrier, Biodegradable Polymer

Kelpi is a world-leading sustainable materials innovation business – harnessing the properties of seaweed to create compostable, marine-safe, low-carbon bio-based packaging. They’re addressing the horrors of marine plastic pollution by replacing fossil fuel-plastics with materials that biodegrade fully, leaving no toxins nor microplastics behind.

Kelpi’s unique coating material is created entirely from seaweed and other plant-based materials. Using these feedstocks, Kelpi develops coatings for paper, card and other substrates to create packaging that in many cases can not only match but even exceed the performance of fossil fuel plastics. What makes Kelpi unique is their material’s ability to provide a long term water barrier, in addition to resistance to moisture, oxygen, acid and grease.

Breaking the Wall to Zero-emission Electricity from Waste Heat

Luminescent Heat Engine, founded in 2020 and based in Israel, is dedicated to advancing heat technology. Their unique solution, a liquid-based isothermal engine, transforms heat into usable, zero-emission electricity. This innovative technology has the potential to revolutionize waste heat recovery, geothermal energy, re-gasification, and long-duration renewable energy storage. It also significantly upgrades existing power systems, converting small open-cycle gas turbines into more efficient combined-cycle systems.
Their versatile technology transforms industrial waste heat from 100 to 700 degrees Celsius into electricity. Actively seeking design partners, they’re set to integrate their technology into various systems. With its groundbreaking technology, Luminescent heat engine is poised to redefine the energy landscape.

Breaking the Wall to Defossilizing the Chemical Industry

MacroCarbon is a start-up based in the Canary Islands that specializes in developing Sargassum stationary aquafarming with integrated harvesting and processing. Their goal is to create drop-in feedstocks for the chemical industry such as bionaphtha. Unlike other seaweeds, free-floating Sargassum doesn’t require expensive infrastructure and it can double its mass every 10 days. MacroCarbon aims to develop cost-effective and sustainable methods for growing Sargassum as a biological feedstock for the circular economy.

MacroCarbon’s farms will be integrated with offshore platforms or wind farms. They are working with their partners to develop integrated processing for immediate processing into high-value chemicals.

Breaking the Wall of Resistant Weeds with AI-generated Herbicides

Projini uses a proprietary bio-convergence platform developed originally for drug discovery, and applies it to crop protection.

In the recent Agri-Tech Innovation summit, they announced the first-ever AI-generated herbicide prototypes, validated to control herbicide-resistant weeds, including weeds which inflict a $16B annual crop loss for soy and corn farmers in the US.

Projini patented novel small molecules for weed control, and is advancing to prove efficiency in field conditions. They aim to demonstrate that AI-discovery can out-pace and out-perform all other discovery operations which are based on phenotypic screening.

They slash the cost of discovery, while accelerating the process that may otherwise take years or even decades, to several months.

Breaking the Wall to Fusion Energy

Proxima Fusion is working to develop power plants via optimized stellarators, devices that form magnetic cages for high-energy matter.

Proxima is the first-ever spin-out company from the Max Planck Society Institute for Plasma Physics, which built and operates the most advanced stellarator on the planet, W7-X. Research over the past decade has now set the stage for Proxima to leverage modern optimization tools and design capabilities, and accelerate fusion. With W7-X reaching high-performance in continuous operation, uniquely among fusion concepts, Proxima Fusion is catalyzing the creation of a new fusion ecosystem in Europe.

Connecting partners from industry and academia, the Proxima Fusion founding team, coming together from the Max Planck Society, MIT and Google, is now entering the race for fusion energy to turn stellarators into economically viable fusion power plants.

Breaking the Wall to Climate Positive Power

Reverion’s mission is to make carbon-negative power generation possible at scale and become the first cost competitive BECCS technology in the market. They are starting with biogas: the only renewable energy source that can provide both secure base load and control power for the fluctuating feed-in from wind and photovoltaics.

As a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich, they have developed and patented the first all-in-one power plant that has the following three main characteristics. 1. It electrochemically converts biogas or hydrogen into electricity with highest electrical efficiencies of 80% (which doubles the efficiency of state-of-the-art solutions). 2. It has a reversible operation mode and can also produce green hydrogen or methane from electricity (Power-to-Gas). 3. It captures pure, storable CO2, enabling cost-effective, negative CO2 emissions for the first time.

Reverion power plants consist of standardized container units. These are designed for series production and plug&play installation to easily replace existing gas engines.

Breaking the Wall to Sustainable Concrete

Sonocrete is a pioneering start-up on a mission to address the environmental impact of the concrete industry. Cement, the main ingredient of concrete, accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions. Recognizing this issue, Sonocrete is striving to make a significant impact by reducing these emissions by 30%.

Sonocrete achieves this reduction through their innovative use of high-power ultrasound to accelerate the hydration reaction in concrete. This enables a decrease in cement levels without compromising the performance and quality of the concrete. This approach has the potential to revolutionize the industry by offering a more sustainable alternative.

By deploying their ultrasound-based pre-mixing system, Sonocrete is poised to transform the concrete industry, making it more environmentally friendly and paving the way for a more sustainable future.

Breaking the Wall to Brain-inspired AI Hardware

Today’s hardware used to train artificial intelligence (AI) is not well suited for the task. This becomes particularly clear when you look at the floors of server racks in today’s data centers, which have the energy requirements of a small town and yet cause long runtimes and thus long development cycles. The reason for these inefficiencies is the attempt to reproduce the processes of the human brain by software, but then to execute them on an infrastructure (digital computer), which is fundamentally different in its mode of operation from that of the human brain.

Therefore, GEMESYS is working on the development of a chip, whose mode of operation is much closer to the human brain. They expect an increase in efficiency of up to 20,000x compared to the current state of the art.

Breaking the Wall to Mechanobiology

Specto Photonics is an Italian deep-tech start-up aiming to commercialize miniaturized spectrometers for Brillouin spectroscopy using Silicon Photonics. Brillouin Spectroscopy allows all-optical measurement of the material mechanical properties, such as stiffness and viscosity, in a non-destructive manner, at high optical resolution and without the need for physical contact.

Specto’s flagship product, ElastiX, will provide significant advantages in terms of ease of use, portability, production costs, and performance. These competitive advantages will provide unprecedented capabilities for the life sciences, chemistry, and material science sectors while leveraging Brillouin spectroscopy in medical diagnostics.

Their core team comprises recognized pioneers in Brillouin spectroscopy with proven scientific excellence, making them the most skilled and balanced team to accomplish the ambitious goal of turning Brillouin spectrometers into an everyday-use measurement apparatus.

Breaking the Wall of Space Mobility

Co-founded in 2021 by CNRS and the start-up studio Technofounders, ION-X provides electric propulsion solutions for small satellites. Based on patented electrospray technology, their unique ionic liquid thruster is the next big thing in small satellites propulsion. It will deliver unmatched thrust and fuel efficiency while offering great operability with non-toxic & non-pressurized propellant.

Breaking the Wall to Emissions-free Electric Aviation

Kite Magnetics is an aerospace manufacturing company based in Melbourne, Australia that is enabling electric aircraft to fly up to 15% further by producing the next generation of smaller, lighter and more efficient electric motors. Their motors use a new nanocrystalline magnetic materials technology called Aeroperm™ that was developed at Monash University by founder and CEO Dr. Richard Parsons. They are now developing their first product, a 120 kW electric propulsion solution for 4-seat electric aircraft, which will be ready for delivery to their flight test partners at the end of 2023.

Breaking the Wall to Fire-safe Affordable Insulation Materials

There are currently no affordable, high thermal-performance and non-combustible building insulation materials available to insulate new tall buildings or retrofit the UKs 8m existing uninsulated solid wall properties. Plastic materials are not porous and burn, and mineral wool insulation is too inefficient as the required thickness takes up millions £ in lost floor space. Aerogels are fire-safe, breathable and high performance (thin), but too expensive due to their inefficient production.

Thermulon solves this problem with a novel chemical process to produce aerogels. The use of waste materials as precursors, a fully continuous process and excellent engineering control means Thermulon will be the first company to be able to produce aerogels at the scale needed to tackle the current insulation crisis in the built environment.

Additionally, aerogels are being used as thermal barriers in Electric Vehicle Batteries to stop fires during operation and charging.

Breaking the Wall to Quantum Sensing

Nomad Atomics is a company with a mission to provide the world’s best sensing solutions, allowing people to see deeper, explore further and better understand our world and beyond. They are a leader in deployable quantum sensors, revolutionizing the field of quantum sensing by developing robust solutions with reduced size, weight, and power requirements to enable real-world applications. They offer end-to-end capabilities that encompass technology development, manufacture, sensor deployment, and comprehensive data collection and processing.

Utilizing their state-of- the-art quantum gravimeters, Nomad Atomics provides critical data to organizations that need accurate insights into underground environments, empowering them to make more informed decisions resulting in improved outcomes. Some examples of such organizations include those in resource exploration and extraction, land and groundwater management, CO2 sequestration monitoring, and underground infrastructure monitoring.

Breaking the Wall to Material Discovery through Quantum Computing

QunaSys is a leading developer of innovative algorithms in chemistry, focused on accelerating the development of quantum technology applicability. The company maximizes the power of quantum computing through its advanced joint research, offering Qamuy™, the most powerful quantum chemical calculation cloud software.

QunaSys also fosters collaboration through the QPARC industry consortium and works with research institutions from academia and government. Its software runs on multiple technology platforms and can be applied in all chemical-related industries to boost adoption of quantum computing.

Breaking the Wall to Precision Diagnostics in Healthcare

Visual analysis is a key bottleneck in precision medicine. Aignostics believes that AI holds the key to discover the next generation of tissue-based biomarkers to drastically improve how cancer and other complex diseases are diagnosed and treated. Their mission is to support the discovery and validation of these biomarkers, and to develop them into diagnostic products for global use in clinics and labs.

Breaking the Wall of Antimicrobial Resistance

smartbax was founded in 2021 as a spin-off from the TU Munich. Its technology is based on research from the lab of Prof. Stephan Sieber and the finding of a novel hit compound with highly promising antibacterial properties, such as no detectable development of resistance, broad-spectrum activity against MRSA and the ability to eradicate biofilms. Its unique dual mode of action involves the inhibition of menaquinone biosynthesis, an essential electron carrier for energy metabolism, and stimulation of protein secretion, which leads to a dysbalance in autolysin homeostasis causing self-digest and cell lysis. This mechanism of activating an enzymatic process is unprecedented in antibiotic drug development.

smartbax further intends to expand this activation strategy to additional targets, particularly in Gram-negative bacteria, against which it is now screening for activators to demonstrate the feasibility of enzyme activation as a new paradigm in antibiotic drug development.

Breaking the Wall to B Cells as Evolving Therapeutics

B cells have a significant role in the positive immune response affecting the outcome of cancer. Tabby Therapeutics is developing first-in-class novel engineered B cells (EBC) for tumor immunotherapy.

By introducing engineered B cell receptors (BCR) directed against tumor specific targets, they can exert multiple anti-tumor effects leveraging B cell unique capabilities to orchestrate humoral, cellular, adaptive and innate immune responses. Tabby’s EBCs offer a novel living and evolving tuned-medicine for the treatment of solid tumors.

Breaking the Wall to Robotic Tumor Removal in Neurosurgery

Founded by Mazor Robotics’ founder and surgical robotics visionary, Prof. Moshe Shoham, Tamar Robotics is developing the first endoscopic robotic system focusing on small cavity surgery. Based on innovative kinematics, the Tamar system enables highly accurate and safe robotic surgery in challenging workspaces where robotics currently cannot be used, offering improved clinical and economic benefits for millions of procedures annually worldwide.

The Tamar System is currently being developed for use in Neurosurgery where it will bring clinical and economic value in procedures such as pituitary, intraventricular, and skull-base tumor removal, as well as removal of gliomas, intracerebral hemorrhage, and other brain mass.

The system addresses about 2.3 million neurosurgical procedures annually.

Breaking the Wall to Assistive Technology with Robotic Exoskeletons

Vilje Bionics is a Norwegian Medical Technology start-up dedicated to the purpose of empowering people with wearable robotics.

Globally, 1 in 4 individuals will experience a stroke, resulting in limited arm and hand mobility for many. Vilje Bionics addresses this challenge by developing ABELarm, the world’s first commercially available motorized exoskeleton for the entire arm. The assistive device uses sensors, proprietary software, and state-of-the-art motors to register weak user-initiated movement and augment the user’s arm movement, enabling independent execution of two-handed activities.

ABELarm was initially created by a professor at NTNU to help his brother regain arm functionality after he gradually became paralyzed. This reflects their deeply ingrained user-centric approach. They are dedicated to shaping a better future for people with disabilities and revolutionizing the field of assistive technology.

Breaking the Wall of Drug Testing in Oncology

VoxCell is a tissue engineering company based in Victoria, BC, Canada. They have developed Canada’s first high-resolution 3D bioprinter, a vascularization algorithm, and their own proprietary bioinks, which can be best described as a bioprinters cartridge.

These three innovations come together to create their vascularized cancer tissue models. VoxCell is selling two avenues of consumables, their proprietary, tissue-specific bioinks and their vascularized cancer tissue models. VoxCell’s tissue models are meant to act as a negative control that can identify which drug or therapeutic candidates will not work in clinical trials. Though their first tissue models are focused on cancer, the technology is not limited to this space: by adjusting their bioinks and cell lines Voxcell aims to assist drug developers accelerate therapeutic development across many diseases.

The mission of VoxCell is to accelerate the development of life-saving therapies, saving time and money for drug developers.

Breaking the Wall to Unlocking RNA Delivery through AI

Mana.bio leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) to design novel non-viral ex-liver cell-specific RNA delivery solutions. Mana Bio is a biotech start-up leveraging data, machine learning, and high throughput screening to design novel LNPs for extrahepatic delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics and vaccines. Mana was founded by a team of serial entrepreneurs and highly regarded experts in the field of drug delivery, machine learning, and software development.

Mana built predictive AI models and achieved novel IP-protected in vivo results, including lung-specific delivery of mRNA. The company is now open to leveraging this technology platform for collaborations with biotech and pharma companies to optimize formulations for cell-specific delivery of a wide range of payloads, including mRNA and CRISPR gRNA.

Breaking the Wall to Novel Antibiotic Candidates

By 2050, antimicrobial infections are projected to cause 10 million deaths worldwide, outracing cancers. Therefore, new antimicrobial agents are urgently needed before the existing ones become ineffective.

Ynno Med developed an AI-assisted platform for discovering new drugs, specializing in the infectious disease area. They address the unmet clinical needs of new antimicrobial agents tackling antimicrobial resistance. As a university spin-off company, YnnoMed is commercializing the scientific and technological findings obtained from research activities to utilize the otherwise unexploited knowledge. As a drug R&D company, their goal is to design, develop, and distribute first-in-class antimicrobial medicines that can treat current antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and suppress the generation of new antimicrobial resistance. Additionally, they can also provide drug design and discovery services, using their technology to facilitate industrial development.

Breaking the Wall to Early Cancer Detection

Late cancer detection leads to death. Today, 50% of cancer diagnoses are late, meaning that most of these people die within 5 years. Oncoliq’s mission is to reduce cancer-caused deaths globally through an early detection approach. Their solution is a blood test that detects up to 50 cancer types. They combine molecular biology strategies based on PCR with machine learning, to develop algorithms that indicate whether a person has a tumor in a specific organ. Oncoliq’s technology is highly sensitive, non-toxic, non-invasive and low cost.

Reyedar’s mission is to democratise access to early diagnosis of life-impairing degenerative diseases. By combining state-of-the-art infra-red eye-tracking powered by Deep Learning, they create accessible medical devices for diagnosing visual impairments, neurological diseases, and cognitive disorders in just a few minutes of non-invasive testing. This unique hardware-software combination is called SONDA (Standardized Oculomotor and Neuro-ophthalmic Disorders Assessment).

SONDA allows for extremely fast, objective, and patient-friendly quantification of eye movement properties and their conversion into a novel diagnostic biomarker. Their first product, SONDA SCREENER, improves the diagnostic workflow of Glaucoma and other severe retinopathies by enabling unprecedentedly fast and simple functional vision testing inside and outside hospitals.

Alessandro Grillini is the founder, CEO and CTO of Reyedar. In 2023, he won the Breakthrough of the Year in the Science Start-Ups category.

Breaking the Wall to 3D Genomics for Therapeutic Development

Enhanc3D Genomics is a functional genomics company developing a disruptive technology capable of unlocking the 3D spatial genome for target and biomarker discovery.

The company incorporated in January 2020 and established operations at the Milner Therapeutic Institute in Cambridge, UK.