Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021: Captain’s blog by Oxyle CEO Fajer Mushtaq

08.12.2021 07:05, Isabelle Mitchell

For this year’s last roadshow, the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 traveled to Munich and London to pitch their innovations and connect with investors and experts. To get a behind-the-scenes look, we asked Venture Leaders Deeptech Team Captain Dr. Fajer Mushtaq to share her roadshow experience.

At Oxyle, we specialize in removing highly persistent and toxic micropollutants from wastewater of industries, households, and eventually municipal wastewater treatment plants. Recently, Europe and North America have enacted some of the most stringent regulations on micropollutant discharge limits. So, when the Venture Leaders Deeptech program provided this great opportunity to join a European roadshow, I was thrilled! I wanted to be part of this unique opportunity to meet investors and partners and learn how to expand our operations to other European countries.

This journey began in August when I pitched at an in-person jury selection event in Schlieren to be part of the roadshow (so thankful for the in-person events finally kicking in!). I was thrilled that Oxyle was selected as a member of the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 team.

Kick-off and getting acquainted with the Venture Leaders Deeptech Team
In early October, we officially began preparations for the program with the Kick-off event organized by Venturelab at their new offices in Schlieren. After an exciting round of pitching, photo sessions, and insightful conversations with the team, we headed off to ETH Zurich university for the last part of the event. An inspirational keynote speech from Gabor Cselle from Google’s Area 120, followed by an in-person pitching competition where the audience voted for the team captain.

After the introductions and with the captain selected, the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 roadshow was off to a great start! A few weeks later, Stefan Steiner and Mathilde Leboyer informed us that the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 roadshow would be traveling to not one but two locations: Munich and London! We received the required information regarding the travel plans, and the Venturelab team made the necessary preparations to get us on the road.

Day 1: Hello, and let’s do this!
On November 15, we kicked off the roadshow with the team flying into the Munich airport from two locations: Zurich and Geneva, just 30 minutes apart. Kudos to the excellent planning done by the Venture Leaders team. After a short one-hour flight, a visit to the baggage claim, and our FFP2 masks on, we headed to our hotel.



A quick lunch, change of clothes, and we were off to pitch at the event organized by Occident, an international VC investor with offices in Munich and Zug. Each member of the deeptech team had five minutes to pitch in front of investors and impress them with their technology and their vision. After the round of pitching, we enjoyed networking with the investors, making valuable introductions and receiving helpful feedback.



Day 2: Pitching and doing over 15,000 steps in a day
The next day started early with a visit to Munich Urban Colab to pitch to UVC partners. We had the opportunity to pitch to Lisa Liu and Benjamin Erhart in closed-door sessions, answer their questions, and receive quick feedback.

Next, we dashed off to attend a workshop organized by Helbling Technik at their Munich office. We learned of the many interesting ways Helbling works with deepetch companies like ours, such as getting our prototypes through a rigorous industrialization process to get our products to our customers accelerated and efficiently.



This insightful workshop was followed by a delicious Indian lunch, and then we were on the road again: this time to pitch to Earlybird. We took a rather interesting approach to this pitch: Because of COVID safety concerns in indoor settings, we presented our companies while taking a stroll in the beautiful Rose Garden in Munich. With a warm coffee in hand (and slightly cold toes), the Venture Leaders team pitched to Michael Hoeck and Stephan Rauscher from Earlybird and had many valuable exchanges on essential aspects of our technology, competition, business model, and strategy. An interesting way to pitch and keep us alert and on our feet! I might take this approach back to Oxyle for my team meetings.



The day wasn’t over just yet! Next, we headed to a scrumptious Bavarian dinner organized by the Swiss General Consul in Bayern. Our lovely host, Miss Elisabeth Bösch Malinen, ensured that the Swiss National Deepteach Team not only had a warm and delicious dinner but also plenty of opportunities to network with investors and partners.



The second day ended around two in the morning, and while heading to bed, I realized I had to be up again in about three hours to catch our flight to London! What a day!

Day 3: London calling
With Day 2 merging into the early hours of Day 3, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the airport. We landed at London Heathrow four hours later on a surprisingly sunny morning. While the rest of the Venture Leaders team moved swiftly through the immigration control, Anand (CEO of Perovskia) and I sluggishly made our way through the non-EU passport line at the Heathrow immigration control. After what felt like an eternity, we finally managed to reconnect with the rest of the team outside the airport. Sorry about that long wait, team, and thank you for waiting for your fellow team members!
Next, we hop on to the London Heathrow express line and make our way to our hotel in Shoreditch. After check-in, we had two hours at our disposal until we had to head out again. Some used this time wisely to grab lunch. I decided that eating food was overrated and spent the next two hours replying to some important emails, checking in with my team in Zurich, and getting 15 minutes of shut-eye. After a power nap, I was recharged and ready for the next adventure!



We headed out to the Embassy of Switzerland in London, where we were hosted by Lutz-Peter Berg and Charlotte Chenu and given valuable insights into why and how we can expand our operations in the UK.
In the evening, things got even more interesting: VCs, business angels, and partners arriving at the Swiss Embassy to watch us pitch. For the Swiss Pitch Night, the Venture Leaders Deeptech had the opportunity to pitch and convince the audience to give them their vote to be crowned “Best Pitch of the Night”!

The winners are awarded a prize that will remind them of London fondly for many years to come. The night continued, and I was happy to network and exchange contacts with many interested investors from deeptech and climate-tech fields.



Day 4: More pitching and a mini visit to Switzerland with a detour via China!
The fourth day began with a pitching event organized by Forestay Capital at the beautiful Standard hotel. After taking in the great view of the St. Pancras station and enjoying some delicious snacks, the pitching event began. Each company had three minutes to pitch their technology and growth strategy to the team of Forestay Capital, among other partners and investors. By this day, we were all masters at pitching! We nailed our pitches and gave the most inspiring talks so far, talking about where we are and, even more importantly, where we are going! What a great way to start the day!

After a delicious Thai lunch, we participated in a workshop on fundraising and business development in the UK. We took notes, asked our questions, and began planning for a future where our technology penetrated the fast-growing UK market.

What happened next was truly remarkable: We headed to Soho to have dinner at the St. Moritz restaurant! For many of us, this was the first fondue of the season, and what better place to enjoy it than at a chalet-style restaurant in the heart of London!

On the way to the restaurant, we walked through Chinatown, which reminded us of the original destination of the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 roadshow. Even though it was not possible to go to China this year, we still managed to go to Chinatown in London. Who says we can’t have it all?



At the VD Tech Night powered by Innovaud, we had the opportunity to dine with entrepreneurs from the UK at the St. Moritz restaurant. We taught them how to properly enjoy fondue while they shared lessons on how they grew their companies in the UK market. A fair exchange, I would say! The fondue dinner laid the perfect foundation for the next adventures: The Venture Leaders team showed Londoners how to party to old and new music - at multiple locations and into the early morning hours! We made memories that will stay with us for years to come.



Day 5: Goodbye and see you all soon!
The fifth and final day was all about relaxing and enjoying the final moments of being part of the Venture Leaders Deeptech roadshow. The day started slowly with traditional pub food and some reverse pitching! It was fun to see how much we had listened to each other’s pitches this week, how others interpreted our technology, and how they would pitch it differently. A surprise team event completed our last day -we visited an escape room!



The team was split into two groups: The first group solved the old-school escape room, looked for physical and auditory clues, opened hidden boxes, and hit random objects to get to the next clue. The second group opted for using virtual reality to complete the team missions. I went the old school way because of my glasses and my love for physical fact-finding missions. Almost an hour and countless cat-based fact clue-finding missions later, my team successfully got out of our escape room! Since we were early, we watched the VR team members solve their mission.



After heading back to our hotel, we had to say goodbye to the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 team! We hugged and high-fived and wished each other the very best of luck for the future. At 4 p.m., the Venture Leaders roadshow was officially over.



A huge round of applause to my fellow Venture Leaders Deeptech team for sharing this incredible week and to the whole Venturelab team for making this roadshow possible. I would especially like to thank Stefan Steiner and Mathilde Leboyer, who made sure everything went smoothly and organized our days to deliver maximum efficiency, comfort, and success. A big thank you to two the Venture Leaders Deeptech organizers Venturelab and swissnex and the program sponsors EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Helbling Technik, Walder Wyss, the Canton of Vaud and the Canton of Zurich.