Current Pioneer Fellows

The Pioneer Fellowship enables entrepreneurial ETH students and researchers in developing their research-based technologies into marketable products and services to launch a successful ETH Spin-off company. See what the current Fellows are working on in their projects.

Current Pioneer Fellows

Hao Liu
Lumios
Shaping light to accelerate the development of life-saving therapies with accurate and reproducible human tissue models

Giuseppe Antoniazzi
FibroTech Solutions
Pioneering chemical probe for the early diagnosis and monitoring of fibrosis

Lukas Bircher
TALPA-Inspection
Contactless, automated, and cost-efficient corrosion inspection

Massimo Saini (Pioneer fellow), Alexander Ring, Nicola Aceto and Andreas Wicki (Co-inventors)
Captaim
CTC Apheresis for Personalized Targeted & Immune Therapy

Grace Kagho (Social Impact Pioneer Fellow)
UrbanEcho
A digital twin technology for sustainable urban planning in developing regions

Jessica Droujko
RiverLabs
Breaking down the barriers of traditional water management using novel hardware and intelligent software to create an interconnected ecosystem

Marco Francesco D'Elia
ÁPEIROS
Fluorescent, Recyclable and Self-Healing Anticorrosion Coatings

Robert Axelrod - Francesca Catto - InSight

Robert Axelrod (Pioneer Fellow) and Francesca Catto (co-founder) (left to right)
IMAI (InSight)
Bringing cancer detection to new dimensions

Andreas Kourouklis
Conductive skin
Conductive skin device for power transfer to life-saving implants

Gregor Perich (Pioneer Fellow) und Lukas Graf – Terensis

Gregor Perich (Pioneer Fellow) and Lukas Graf (co-founder) right to left
Terensis
Connecting agriculture

Edoardo Pezzulli
Sustain
Low-cost monitoring of subsurface CO2, hydrogen and heat storage

Fabrice Bagnoud and Iwan Haechler
solabs
Solar-powered durable antifog coating

Giorgia Greter
Baxiva
Preventing urinary tract infections with a glycoconjugate vaccine

Martin Stadler
QENDRA
Providing cutting-edge classical control for atom and ion-based quantum computers, powering the quantum revolution

Kyriakos Alexandros Chondrogiannis
Builtstop
Refueling the lifespan of buildings by deploying innovative technologies to protect traditional structures

Tansel Baran Yasar
Aeternus Neurotechnologies
Next-generation ultra-flexible brain implants for stable interfacing with brain networks at single-cell resolution

Stefan Villiger (Pioneer Fellow) and Reto Togni (co-founder) (from right to left)
Reagiro
Steering-by-Leaning in Manual Wheelchairs

Carolina Paganini (Pioneer Fellow) and Jacob Lesinski (co-founder) (from left to right)
Checktor Biosciences
Fighting drug resistance with point-of-care tests

Betim Djambazi (second from left) and Pascal Auf der Maur (first from right)
RoBoa
A revolution for confined spaces rescue and inspection!

David Stark
QCSEL
Mid-infrared lasers for portable gas sensing solutions

Paulius Viskaitis (Pioneer Fellow) and Dane Donegan (co-founder) (left to right)
smartVNS
Personalised and intelligent neurorehabilitation

Left to right: Nevena Paunović (Pioneer Fellow) and David Klein Cerrejon (co-founder)

Nevena Paunović (Pioneer Fellow) and David Klein Cerrejon (co-founder) (left to right)
OBaris
Painless alternative for delivery of injectable drugs

Fabian Schmid (Pioneer Fellow) and Murielle Schreck (right to left)

Fabian Schmid (Pioneer Fellow) and Murielle Schreck (co-founder) (right to left)
qCella
(re)shape heating

Julia Carpenter
Apheros
Ultra-porous metal foams for efficient cooling

Archive of all Pioneer Fellows

Jonas Wuest and Pragash Sivananthaguru (left to right)
Tethys Robotics
Enable search, recovery and inspection missions in all waters
Host Professor: Siegwart Roland (MAVT)

Yvan Bosshard and Tiago Salzmann (left to right)
peaKFlow
Bringing the Smart to Smart Infrastructure
Host Professor: Benini Luca (ITET)

Natanael Lanz
Chiral
Next generation transistors
Host Professor: Hierold Christofer (MAVT)

Julian Senoner (co-founder, left), Bernhard Kratzwald (Pioneer Fellow, right)
external pageethonAI
Proactive Quality Management
Host Professor: Netland Torbjorn Hestenes (MTEC)

Bettina Thumm Müller
Citus
Ultra-light suction device for improved skin characterization
Host Professor: Mazza Edoardo (MAVT)

Lukas Böcker and Severin Eder (left to right)
Authentic seafood analogues
Host Professor: Mathys Alexander (HEST)

Aurel Neff and Patrick Barton (left to right)
Caterra
Laser-based weeding robot
Host Professor: Walter Achim (USYS)

Alexandre Anthis
AnastoSEAL
Smart patch, eradicating surgical leaks
Host Professor: Herrmann Inge Katrin (MAVT)

Lukas Ambühl
Transcality
Scalable digital transportation twins for cities
Host Professor: Axhausen Kay (BAUG)

Simona Fehlmann, Nicole Kleger (left to right)
sallea®
Add the third dimension to cells.
Host Professor: Studart André R. (MATL)

Mauro Häusler
Spektrum
Structural Monitoring of Rock Slopes
Host Professor: Fäh Donat (ERDW)

Martin Hofmann
X14 foods
Marbled plant-based meat analogues
Host Professor: Vermant Jan (MATL)

Philippe Bechtold (co-founder) and Michele Gregorini (left to right)
diaxxo (peakPCR)
Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)
Host Professor: Stark Wendelin (CHAB)

Mamta Chabria
Tandem Therapeutics
Targeting diseased microenvironment in fibrosis
Host Professor: Vogel Viola (HEST)

Karl-Philipp Schlichting
Nanoporous Graphene Membranes
Host Professor: Poulikakos Dimos (MAVT)

Mandy Boontanrart
Ariya Bio: Reactivating fetal hemoglobin in B-Hemoglobinopathy patients
Host Professor: Jacob Corn (BIOL)

Dominic Jud and Burak Cizmeci (left to right)
Teleoperated and Semi-Autonomous Heavy Machinery
Host Professor: Marco Hutter (MAVT)

Marc Bächinger
external pageMindMetrix
Host Professor: Nicole Wenderoth (HEST)

Tino Matter and Sebastian Loy
external pageanavo
Host Professor: Inge Herrmann (MAVT)

Hélène Iven and Sonia Meller (left to right)
external pageDigitSoil
Host Professor: Emmanuel Frossard (USYS)

Marc Reig Escalé
external pageVersics
Host Professor: Rachel Grange (PHYS)

Paul Baade
eightinks
Cost-effective battery manufacturing
Host Professor: Vanessa Wood (MAVT)

Yurena Segui Femenias
external pageDuraMon - Durability Monitoring of infrastructures
Host Professor: Ueli Angst (BAUG)

Zuzana Sediva
external pageGROAM - Alternative Foaming agents
Host Professor: Erich Windhab (HEST)

Alexander Tanno
external pageHemetron - Novel Hand-Held Electrochemical Lateral Flow Assay
Host Professor: Vörös Janos (ITET)

Timothy Sandy
Visible Referencing Systems
Host Professor: Marco Hutter (MAVT)

Marcel Schuck
external pageNoTouchRobotics
Host Professor: Johann Kolar (ITET)

Vanesa Natalin Rocha Martin
external pageBactoKind
Host Professor: Christophe Lacroix (HEST)

Jonathan Kiefer
PhireTherapeutics
Host Professor: Dario Neri (CHAB)

Mohsen Ewaida
SnowBell
Host Professor: Gustavo Alonso (INFK)

Simon Hecker
external pageAegis Rider Technology
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Christoph Schneeberger
external pageAntefil Composite Tech
Host Professor: Paolo Ermanni (MAVT)

Picture of Melanie Binggeli and Cyrill Hess

Cyrill Hess & Melanie Binggeli
LemnaPro
Host Professor: Achim Walter (USYS)

Michael Wetter
Prolongate
Host Professor: Markus Aebi (BIOL)

Alessandro Ofner & Michael Hagander
external pageMicrocaps
Host Professor: André Studart (MATL)

Thomas Zumbrunn
external pageCustomSurg
Host Professor: Stephen Ferguson (HEST)

Etienne Jeoffroy
external pageFenX
Host Professor: André Studart (MATL)

Lukas Böni
external pageplanted
Host Professor: Erich Windhab (HEST)

Gnanli Landrou
external pageOxara
Host Professor: Guillaume Habert (BAUG)

Claudia Hössbacher
external pagePolariton Technologies
Host Professor: Juerg Leuthold (ITET)

Pascal Buholzer & Bernhard Winter
external pageScewo
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Volker Bartenbach
external pageAuxivo
Host Professor: Roger Gassert (HEST)

Ali Oezhan Altun
external pageUNISERS
Host Professor: Christofer Hierold (MAVT)

Oskari Vinko & Maximilian Schulz
external pageUniteLabs
Host Professor: Jörg Stelling (BSSE)

Enkelejda Miho
external pageaiNET
Host Professor: Sai Reddy (BSSE)

Mark Bispinghoff & Andreas Schmocker
external pageLumendo
Host Professor: Hansjörg Grützmacher (CHAB)

Marcel Gort & Manuel Heckhorn
external pageRapid Graft
Host Professor: Mirko Meboldt (MAVT)

Steven Schmitt & Irene Wüthrich
SpheroBiotics
Host Professor: Sven Panke (BSSE)

Xavier Garrabou
Lock and Key Bioscience (Quiralex)
Host Professor: Donald Hilvert (CHAB)

Manuel Schaffner & Petar Stefanov
external pageSpectroplast
Host Professor: André Studart (MATL)

Lea Pokorny & Pascal Guillet
MicroPow
Host Professor: Erich Windhab (HEST)

Claudia Murar
Host Professor: Jeffrey Bode (CHAB)

Sergio Sanabria
REFLECTUS
Host Professor: Orcun Göksel (ITET)

Philipp Furler
external pageSynhelion
Host Professor: Aldo Steinfeld (MAVT)

Max Ahnen and Jannis Fischer
external pagePositrigo
Host Professor: Günther Dissertori (PHYS)

Vincent Martinez and Luca Hirt
external pagenanoleq
Host Professor: Janos Vörös (ITET)

Christina Wouters
Hallcube
Host Professor: Christopher Hierold (MAVT)

Lorenz Meier and Lukas Meier
Host Professor: Marc Pollefeys (INFK)

Zhenzhong Su and Tonio Gsell
external pageFixposition
Host Professor: Markus Rothacher (BAUG)

Patrizia Marschalkova
external pageDicronis
Host Professor: Jean-Christophe Leroux (CHAB)

Patric Eberle
Host Professor: Dimos Poulikakos (MAVT)

Marco Habegger
Immuprobe
Host Professor: Janos Vörös (ITET)

Michela Puddu
external pageHaelixa
Host Professor: Wendelin Stark (CHAB)

Benedikt Wanner
external pageSynple Chem
Host Professor: Jeffrey Bode (CHAB)

Sohyeion Jeong and Lubor Ladicky
Host Professor: Markus Gross (INFK)

Thomas de Wouters
external pagePharmaBiome
Host Professor: Christophe Lacroix (HEST)

Tina Hovestadt
Host Professor: Mirko Meboldt (MAVT)

Franz-Josef Obermair
external pageTepthera
Host Professor: Manfred Kopf (BIOL)

Thomas Nescher
external pageInspacion
Host Professor: Konrad Wegener (MAVT)

Claudia Kuster
Perceptiko
Host Professor: Markus Gross (INFK)

Mattias Ivarsson
external pageInositec
Host Professor: Jean-Christophe Leroux (CHAB)

Oliver Weingart
Host Professor: Martin J. Loessner (HEST)

Ulf Blanke
external pageAntavi
Host Professor: Gerhard Tröster (ITET)

Andreas Hugi
external pageIRsweep
Host Professor: Jérôme Faist (PHYS)

Martin Ebner
external pageBattrion
Host Professor: Vanessa Wood (MAVT)

Sabrina Badir
external pagePregnolia
Host Professor: Edoardo Mazza (MAVT)

Diego Marti
external pageDiramics
Host Professor: Colombo Bolognesi (ITET)

Andreas Essig
Host Professor: Markus Aebi (BIOL)

Moritz Haag
Host Professor: Markus Reiher (CHAB)

Christopher Millan
Cellspring
Host Professor: Marcy Zenobi-Wong (BIOL)

Tom Reuter
Host Professor: Chiara Daraio (MAVT)

Matthias Krebs
external pageAerotain
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Andreas Lauber
external pageANYbotics
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Vincent Forster
external pageVersantis
Host Professor: Jean-Christophe Leroux (CHAB)

Simone Bottan
external pageHylomorph
Host Professor: Dimos Poulikakos (MAVT)

Olgac Ergeneman
external pageMagnes
Host Professor: Nelson Bradley (MAVT)

Nickolay Todoroff
Host Professor: Gisbert Schneider (CHAB)

Jijo Vallooran
Host Professor: Raffaele Mezzenga (HEST)

Xiang Li
external pageZuriMed Technologies
Host Professor: Jess Snedeker (HEST)

Kevin Mader
external page4Quant
Host Professor: Marco Stampanoni (ITET)

Bryan Anastasiades
external pageNoonee
Host Professor: Fumiya Iida (MAVT)

Martin K. Ostermaier
external pageInterAx Biotech
Host Professor: Gebhard Schertler (BIOL)

Matthias Dantone
Fashwell
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Hans-Anton Keserue
external pagerqmicro
Host Professor: Petra S. Dittrich (BSSE)

Marco Trudel
mtSystems
Host Professor: Bertrand Meyer (INFK)

Angela Yao
external pageParquery
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Wang Hao
Host Professor: Günther Detlef (CHAB)

Patrick Galliker
external pageScrona
Host Professor: Dimos Poulikakos (MAVT)

Stefan Richter
Embotech
Host Professor: Manfred Morari (ITET)

Felix Holzner
external pageSwissLitho
Host Professor: Nicholas Spencer (MATL)

Stéphane Kühne
external pagemicroGauge
Host Professor: Christofer Hierold (MAVT)

Pratik Mukerji
external pageElectric Feel
Host Professor: Jürgen Biela (ITET)

Stephan Koch
external pageAdaptricity
Host Professor: Göran Andersson (ITET)

Choi Jong Wong
Host Professor: Hyung Gyu Park (MAVT)

Delano Landtwing
Host Professor: Stefan Wiemer (ERDW)

Marie-Christine Fluet
external pageReHaptix
Host Professor: Roger Gassert (HEST)

Florian Perrodin
external pageDistran
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Fabian Nater
Upicto
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Susanne Wolfrum
Glycemicon
Host Professor: Erick M. Carreira (CHAB)

Christoph Barmet
external pageSkope Magnetic Resonance
Host Professor: Klaas P. Prüssmann (ITET)

Fabian Köhler
Host Professor: Wendelin Stark (CHAB)

René Jähne
Host Professor: Edoardo Mazza (MAVT)

Alexander Hasse
external pageMonolitix
Host Professor: Paolo Ermanni (MAVT)

Ferdinand Felder
Phocone
Host Professor: Jürg Dual (MAVT)

Jan Lukas Giesbrecht
Host Professor: Paul Smith (MATL)

Rober Adelmann
Host Professor: Mattern Friedemann (INFK)

Jörg Albuschies
Host Professor: Viola Vogel (HEST)

Apply here for the ETH Pioneer Fellowship Deep-Tech and Social Impact Incubation Program

Note: You can apply for both programs, but can only receive one fellowship. You must apply for each program individually.

For further information and questions contact