SolidWatts: The Venture Leader Cleantech developing high-efficiency electric heating solutions for industry

23.09.2024 16:10, Rita Longobardi

Meet Markus Aicheler, Co-Founder of SolidWatts and Venture Leaders Cleantech 2024 Team Captain. The Cleantech startup enables the electrification of industrial processes that currently use fossil fuels - notably gas - to generate heat to fulfil a production process. In November, Markus and the other nine Swiss National Cleantech Team members will travel to Munich on a business development and investor roadshow.

Name: Markus Aicheler  
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Nationality: German
Graduated from: Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Job title: CEO
Number of employees: 10
Money raised: >1m CHF
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Innosuisse Start-up Training, 2022

Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
We are aiming to help industrial production or process companies that use heat as part of their production process to transition away from fossil fuel use. Industrial process heat is omnipresent and still today 75% of it is produced by burning natural gas. We want to bring industrial process heat into the 21st century

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Initially, we are targeting machine builders who already have Radio Frequency (RF)/Microwave (MW) heating as part of their portfolio. We aim to transition them from an end-of-live legacy technology for generating RF/Microwaves towards the next generation of emerging technology. We then partner up with those machine builders to scale up their machinery to satisfy the needs of processing companies which require unattainable power levels today. This is where we want to shine: we want to be the first company and become the reference to deliver multi MegaWatt power levels for RF/Microwave heating e.g. chemical, glass, and textile processing.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
My co-founder and I are two teach-heads making the textbook mistake of falling in love with a solution and trying to find a problem to solve. However, then Russia was invading Ukraine and natural gas was once more on everybody's minds. We were looking into where this gas is being used the most in industry and identified industrial process heat as a very exciting opportunity for the application of our technology. We later found out that of course economists and investors predicted this topic as the next trillion investment before us... Speaking about doing your research (which is funny, because both of us come from research at CERN).

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders Cleantech roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
We would love to use the Venture Leaders Cleantech roadshow as a platform for heralding the new age of RF heating in the very high-power region. Now, for the first time, massive energy-hungry processes and industries can be catered to with solutions based on fully electrical high-performance heating. On the roadshow, we hope to get in contact with relevant industrial partners either as machine builders or fossil process owners and help both to bridge the gap to make full electrification happen!

What are your team’s key achievements to date?
We managed to hire an excellent team covering all bases from electronics design to production management to marketing expertise. This team secured numerous POCs and is converting them into first orders. We managed to secure a healthy amount of third-party dilutive and non-dilutive funding. Our first product has passed strides the prototype phase and is now being industrialised. We are ready to go!

What is the most challenging and rewarding aspect of being a founder?
It is the same thing I’d say: learning! The amount of things one has to learn over an extended time is staggering. Every day there are many “first times” which become gradually more and more complex. But this is also the biggest reward I would say: if you are a person (like me) who likes learning, this is your ultimate playground!

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
The importance of a good team, the power of delegation, and the value of good leadership. However, all of the mentioned ones do not work without excellent communication. So, if I had to pick one skill to level up to 11 instantly, this would be the one: communication!

What is your favourite productivity hack/tool and why?
I guess you can hardly call it a hack or a tool, but I have discovered the old Roman version of Stoicism for myself. The constant pursuit of self-improvement and the wisdom of understanding what is in your circle of influence and what is not, is helping me tremendously to stay sane in ever so dynamic times. It is like my guiding light shining on the person I want to become and while doing so, hopefully become a better leader and improve the lives of the people around me.

What was your dream job when you were a child?
Fighter Jet Pilot - most kick-ass sensations practically riding a rocket. What could compare to that?