Acodis: The Venture Leader Technology empowering high-value automation and GenAI initiatives

13.03.2024 10:00, Rita Longobardi

Meet Martin Keller, CEO of Acodis. The ICT startup's Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) platform extracts data from any document in a few seconds. Martin and the other nine Swiss National Technology Team members will fly to Silicon Valley in April.

Name: Martin Keller
Location: Winterthur
Nationality: Swiss
Education: IESE Business School, MA International Relations, The Graduate Institute, Geneva  
Job title: CEO & Co-founder 
Number of employees: 25
Money raised: CHF 8.2 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Innosuisse Business Creation ICT, 2018
 
Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
Our software helps companies to transform documents into structured, AI-ready data. The no-code platform is designed for business experts to structure and extract data from documents at speed and scale. It works in any format (PDF, word, scan), in any language, and allows you to deal with multiple use cases. Market leaders in Life Sciences and other industries rely on Acodis to automate document-intensive workflows and as data ingestion engines for their LLM.
 
How did you come up with the idea for your startup?
Our very first idea was to develop a mountaineering app and as the relevant content was only available in human-readable formats such as PDF, we searched for a solution. Unfortunately, there was no solution available that was able to cope with such complex documents – 100+ pages containing tables, images, pictograms etc. – we decided to build a prototype that was capable of understanding documents as we humans do. Fast forward, we are still very passionate about pursuing our mission to turn documents into value for businesses and society. 

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Whereas the product is industry-agnostic, our go-to-market focus is on Life Sciences that impose high standards to accuracy, compliance, and security. Use cases of our customers cover a broad part of the overall value chain, ranging from clinical trials, manufacturing, quality management, regulatory, supply chain and commercial. We are offering it as SaaS that scales with the document volume and users.

How do you think the Venture Leaders roadshow will help you achieve your vision?
Whereas our main footprint is in Europe, we have several customers in the US and therefore the Venture Leaders roadshow in Silicon Valley can help us to establish partners, validate ideas, and make concrete plans for starting operations in the US. The program will increase our visibility there, which will speed up our market entrance in the future. 

What excites you most about your work right now?
Witnessing how top-notch Pharma companies build their data pipeline around Acodis to feed their LLMs for GenAI use cases is super exciting. First, because it demonstrates the novelty, ease of use and scalability of the solution and second because it generates immediate impact in terms of productivity gain, shorter time-to-market and higher employee satisfaction.

How did you go about building your team?
This is the most important ingredient for every startup. We build on skillsets and strengths that are very different and complementary, but at the core, we share the same values and passion. That’s what matters and will be tested several times along the startup journey.

What are your team's key achievements to date?
Great customer feedback, winning awards and fundraising news are one thing, another one is to stand together in tough times and supporting each other when needed is equally important. 

How do you foster creative thinking in your team?
It is a mix of dedicated sessions out-of-the daily business – for instance in our last company offsite we spend a day with Lego Serious Play – and instilling a learning culture in our office, e.g. in weekly all-hands meetings.

Who do you look to for guidance and mentorship?
We can rely on a large network of experienced entrepreneurs, peers, and friends. The best mentors show support in every situation and ask excellent questions that trigger thought processes. 

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?
One of the most challenging aspects is to envision the future while acting in the present. Making hypotheses and decisions with incomplete information and wearing thereby several hats can be uncomfortable. But ultimately it is a very rewarding personal experience.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder? 
Having great colleagues and happy customers. 

What did you want to do with your life when you were a child?
To become a football player at Borussia Dortmund.