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The Startup Champions Seed Night 2020 showcased 18 promising startups in a hybrid event

29.09.2020 14:15, Nicolas Briner

The ninth edition of the Startup Champions Seed Night took place at the Rolex Learning Centre at EPFL in front of a virtual audience of more than 500 guests. Loulia Kassem, co-founder of REA, won the jury vote for the best pitch of the evening.

On September 28, 18 startups met at EPF Lausanne to present to their solutions for a safer, healthier, and cleaner future. The future of Swiss entrepreneurship was gathered under the same roof for the yearly 90-minute pitch competition and, as per usual, they did not disappoint the (virtual) audience.
 
During four rounds of four to five pitches, each startup showcased its revolutionizing technology and tried to attract as many votes from the public as possible. For the first time, the four finalists included three women: Congratulations to Ulrike Kettenberger (Flowbone), Samantha Anderson (DePoly), Loulia Kassem (REA), and Luca Randazzo (Emovo) for reaching the finals!  

Eddie Roschi, co-founder of Le Labo Fragrances and EPFL alumnus, gave the keynote speech remotely but did not miss the opportunity to inspire the 18 startups and the over 500 attendees online. He shared his five key learnings as an entrepreneur: have a novel idea, build a strong idea around it, become an expert in your field, have a viable business plan, and be aware of what type of money you want to start a company. Giving too much equity too early in your startup’s life can result in losing control of your future. 
 
During the keynote, the jury got together, deliberated, and selected REA as the winning startup of the evening. Congratulations to Loulia Kassem and Erick Garcia Cordero on this great achievement!  
 
Watch the full replay of the event on YouTube:



Last but not least, this event would not have been possible without the support from EPFL Alumni, EPFL Startup Unit, and our generous sponsors: Swisscom Ventures, Logitech, EY, Kellerhals Carrard, SPEI, and Innovaud.

 


Learn more about the 18 startups that pitched at the Startup Champions Seed Night 2020: 

ArcoScreen SA: Improving drug discovery through patient cell-screening.

ArcoScreen SA is an EPFL spin off founded in July 2021 in Lausanne. We are specialized in the development of tools for G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) drug discovery. Our revolutionary technology ... Read more

Bloom Biorenewables SA: Making biomass a true alternative to petroleum

Bloom offers a sustainable alternative to replace petroleum in current products. With Bloom, customers can match the growing demand for nature-based products as well as make a big step towards meeting... Read more

CompPair Technologies SA: Healable and sustainable composites to improve circularity

CompPair brings healable composite materials on the market to reduce CO2 emissions. HealTech products are a ground-breaking innovation enabling the production of composite structures that can be repai... Read more

DePoly SA: Closing the loop on PET plastic recycling

Every year 56 M tonnes of PET plastic is produced, but only 9% is recycled. This is largely due to the fact that for PET plastic to be recycled it needs to be clean, sorted, and can't be mixed with ot... Read more

Emovo Care SA: Therapy while living

Emovo Care (https://emovocare.com/ ) is a medical device company developing robotic systems to support people with motor impairments Exploiting our innovative patent-protected soft-robotics tech an... Read more

Enlightra Sàrl: Lasers for ultra-fast and low power data transmission

Enlightra develops lasers to transmit data. They are 100x faster and are up to 10x more energy efficient than todays solutions. Providing a need solution to the $10 Billion data center market. Enlig... Read more

flowbone SA: Restoring hip strength to resist breaking

FLOWBONE is involved in the development and promotion of a revolutionary biomaterial for the minimal-invasive augmentation of fragile bones. FLOWBONE, follows a completely new treatment approach allow... Read more

INERGIO Technologies SA: Next gen fuel cell systems for mission-critical applications

INERGIO develops compact, high-efficiency fuel cell generators that deliver clean, silent, and autonomous power for off-grid and mission-critical applications. Designed to replace diesel generator... Read more

kaiosID SA: Traceability solutions to identify and authenticate products

kaiosID is a traceability solution for consumer goods. It allows brands to fight counterfeiting and illicit trade and build consumer trust and awareness by adding smartphone readable, invisible and un... Read more

Magma Learning Sàrl: Enhance human learning with machine learning

MAGMA Learning helps companies and institutions boost the impact of learning thanks to artificial intelligence. They developed the personal AI tutor app ARI 9000, which uses machine learning to person... Read more

Rea Diagnostics SA: We develop technology to monitor high risk pregnancies

Rea developed the first at-home diagnostic test that tracks biochemical markers of preterm birth (PTB). Our solution allows doctors to continuously follow up pregnant women at risk of PTB to anticipat... Read more

REM Analytics SA: Making custom microbiome diagnostics.

REM Analytics has developed a technology for microbiome diagnostics: Advanced testing for genetic composition (ATGC). It is a technology platform that enable the development of accurate, fast and cos... Read more

SoHHytec SA: Cost-effective solution for renewable hydrogen&electricity.

SoHHytec is a solution provider. We Develop, Build and Operate Gardens and Forests of our proprietary Arbs (Artificial Trees) and provide Hydrogen (fuel) & power as a Service. We use our innovative pa... Read more

Strong Network SA: Secure Workspaces for Global Development Teams

Strong Network was founded by two engineers with long experience in cybersecurity, Laurent Balmelli and Ozrenko Dragic. The company raised a EUR 5.1m Seed round in March 2022 and won two awards in Cyb... Read more

Urbio SA: Accelerating the decarbonization of buildings with AI

Urbio is a SaaS platform that leverages generative AI to accelerate the transition of utilities, cities and real estate actors to clean energy. We automate the design of net-zero energy infrastruc... Read more

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