Two Switzerland-based spinouts have each been awarded CHF130,000 ($131,500) in prize funding for passing all three stages of an initiative run by spinout-focused VC initiative Venture Kick.
The awardees are Skypull, a wind power technology spinout from ETH Zurich, and RetinAI, an eye care diagnosis platform based on research at University of Bern and Université de Lausanne.
Skypull is developing an airborne wind farming system that could harness gusts at more than 200 metres altitude, thus exploiting stronger winds than those encountered closer to ground by standard turbines.
The technology consists of a ground power generator connected to a drone programmed to rise to above 200 metres, at which point its motor is switched off to enable the production of kinetic energy as the drone glides in the wind.
Skypull expects the design to reduce costs by 50% and yield 95% more energy than the average wind turbine. It will use Venture Kick’s funding to pursue development of a commercially viable prototype by 2020.
Meanwhile, RetinAI is creating an artificial intelligence platform that assists eye care specialists by using a combination of medical imaging analysis, ophthalmology and machine learning to flag up pathological biomarkers that inform an accurate and perceptive diagnosis.
The capital will enable RetinAI to expand its headcount more than two-fold by the end of 2018 as it looks to build the clinical case for its technology. RetinAI previously received approximately $308,000 in seed capital from undisclosed investors in mid-2017.
Venture Kick launched in 2007 in a bid to double the number of spinouts originating from Switzerland’s universities. The initiative runs across three stages with the maximum $131,500 sum awarded in increments following the completion of each phase.
