Meet Venture Leader Alessandro Ofner’s Upscaled Microencapsulation Startup
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Ten Venture Leaders will represent Switzerland in Silicon Valley in March. Meet Alessandro Ofner, co-founder of Microcaps. Learn more about upscaled Microencapsulation and Alessandro's expectations on his roadshow in Silicon Valley.
Can you introduce yourself, how your company started and what your project is?My name is Alessandro Ofner, I’m co-founder and CEO of Microcaps, which I founded with Michael Hagander, a mechanical engineer from ETH Zurich. Our technology is based on four years of scientific research from my PhD on upscaling microencapsulation. Microencapsulation is used in various fields to protect and deliver active materials to their target. Examples are medication in pharmaceutics, fragrances or anti-aging substances in cosmetics, aromas and probiotics in food, or pesticides in agrochemistry. However, with today’s microencapsulation processes there is a trade-off between high throughput and precise particle size, the latter being crucial for increased stability and a controlled release profile. We developed a novel technology, based on microfluidics, that solves this problem by enabling precise microencapsulation at industrial scale. Our device can ensure particle size control from 10 to 2,000 µm, robustness, throughput of up to 5 L/h and flexibility in the choice of materials and chemicals.
What attracted you to Silicon Valley as a business development destination?
After initial customer relationships in western Europe, our internationalization plan focuses on U.S. tech hubs. Both Silicon Valley and the Boston area are very interesting destinations. The combination of tech startups, established medtech companies, and investors is very attractive for us.
What do you hope to achieve from the trip? What are your expectations and goals?
We expect a lot from this trip, as we have only heard great feedback from previous years. From expert meetings to investor pitches, direct contact with customers and exchanges with peers: it will hopefully have a great impact on the future of Microcaps and our novel microencapsulation technology.
Why is Venture Leaders Technology beneficial for your startup?
The Venture Leaders Technology program is a unique opportunity for Microcaps. Apart from the exposure and the connection within the Swiss hub, it will help us bring our value proposition to international markets in pharma, cosmetics, nutraceutics, and agrochemistry.
What is pushing you towards international expansion?
The life science and med-tech market in Silicon Valley and Boston are of huge interest for Microcaps. We are convinced that many companies can benefit from our technology.
What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the American market?
Getting a foothold into the market and establishing first contacts will be essential. This is why we are really looking forward to this trip.
What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?
We are curious to pitch to U.S. investors and share our vision with them. It’s also exciting to meet other startups in similar situations to ours.
Do you have a “funny/best day” anecdote about being an entrepreneur?
Last year, at a very early stage of our Microcaps journey, we were selected among the top five business ideas in the Venture>> competition. The during the day of the final in Lausanne at EPFL many investors meetings are scheduled. We somehow missed the deadline to arrange these meetings, so when every other startup received their personal timetable, ours was a blank page. So, we decided to mingle at the coffee bar and catch-up with investors there. In the end, it was a great strategy and we connected with many investors that way.
Read about the Startup Champions kick-off event and follow the trip on Twitter using the hashtag #VLeadersTech
Venture Leaders Technology is sponsored by Rothschild & Co Bank, Kellerhals Carrard, DPD, Swisscom, Canton de Vaud, ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne.
