The jury has decided: the team SWISSto12 from Lausanne wins the 8th edition of »venture». Alessandro Macor and Emile de Rijk extended the borders of terahertz applications and have developed a completely new production method. Their comprehensive offer covers the production of terahertz transmissions up to 3 THz and enables, in future, a view inside materials.
Zurich, May 24, 2012 – Following the presentation of the best business ideas in January, the best business plans were honored. The competition prize money totals over CHF 150,000. The innovation strength of the Swiss economy is unbroken as seen in the high number of participants: 191 teams submitted their business ideas in the first phase. In the second phase, 137 teams submitted their business plans. This time companies were primarily in the IT/portal and software areas.
The top five teams:
2. Place
Sophia Genetics (Pharma/Biotech – EPFL Lausanne)
Sophia Genetics offers solutions for secure storage and analysis of information on the genome sequence of patients and allows an efficient and confidential application of personalized medicine. The company develops and distributes an extremely reliable and secure web application that enables storing, analyzing and visualization of gene data at the click of a mouse. www.sophiagenetics.com
3. Place
Bcomp (Chemicals/Materials – Freiburg)
Bcomp makes durable, lightweight material from natural fibers, for example: skis, ski poles and tent poles or bicycle components – or, in future, even aircraft parts. www.bcomp.ch
4. Place
OsmoBlue* (Cleantech – EPFL Lausanne)
With their innovative technology OsmoBlue offers a profitable and sustainable solution for the conversion of waste heat into electricity. OsmoBlue can generate energy from very low temperatures (under 100°C) (*formerly: OsmoTech)
5. Place
Rayneer (Media – Zürich)
Rayneer offers personalized music TV. With the help of a free app on a smartphone, tablet or via a web browser the viewer receives exactly the music videos he or she wants. This is made possible through linking with social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. www.rayneer.tv
Other finalists:
Abionic (Medtech – Lausanne)
Abionic will provide physicians and clinical researchers with the abioDISC™, a biomedical product that allows user-friendly diagnosis of allergies and makes personalized medical treatment easier. www.abionic.com
AppAware (Software – ETH Zurich)
AppAware is a social network for mobile apps and games. Connecting with friends, it allows discovery of smartphone apps. It is already available for free for Android-based phones. appaware.com
Online GV by Agilentia (Software – Zurich)
With onlineGV, Agilentia offers digital enhancement to physical annual general meetings. The invitation and registration procedures and also participation can conducted via the Internet. www.onlinegv.ch
Phocone AG (Electronics/Hardware – Zurich)
Phocone develops laser modules for the medium infra-red wavelength range. The company offers all of the necessary and sophisticated characteristics for high-speed measurement of gas concentrations at low cost. The recently introduced laser module technology can be used in the most varied of markets. www.phocone.com
Uepaa Swiss Alpine Technology (Telecommunications – Zurich)
Uepaa converts smartphones into alpine rescue angels. Through network linking, mobile phones can initiate alarms in areas without reception or allow localization. The devices have built-in positioning sensors, are WLAN-capable and also detect movement. www.uepaa.ch