W.A. de Vigier Award for two ETH spin-offs
On Wednesday, five Swiss start-ups received the W.A. de Vigier Award, which comes with prize money of 100,000 Swiss francs each. Two ETH spin-offs were among them. MyoSwiss helps improve the lives of people with limited mobility, while nanoleq is bringing a cable with unrivalled longevity to market.
More than 220 projects were submitted for the W.A. de Vigier Award 2018. A jury evaluated the entries and chose 16 companies for the next round. These were then assessed and presented their ideas to the Foundation Board, who chose the ten finalists from which the five winners were selected. The assessment of the projects placed emphasis on entrepreneurial personality, innovative character, macrosocial relevance, technical and financial feasibility, market opportunities and level of job creation.
Alongside AUDATIC GmbH from Zurich, INVOLI from Renens and SUN bioscience from Lausanne were two ETH Zurich spin-offs.
Wearable muscles for people with limited mobility
external page Myoswiss has developed the Myosuit, a layer of wearable muscles that support everyday activities. The solution combines robotics and functional textiles in a comfortable product that weighs less than five kilograms. Innovative algorithms combined with sensor and actuator technology control the supporting forces while the user is moving. The Myosuit also made it to the final of the Spark Award in 2017.
A new generation of cables
Cables are fragile, which can be a problem, particularly in applications such as medical devices and factory robots. external page nanoleq has developed a fundamentally new kind of cable technology. Under mechanical stress, the FlexOne cable has a lifetime up to a hundred times longer than that of a standard cable, while retaining its high flexibility. nanoleq’s target markets are medical technology, high-end audio applications and robotics.
About the W.A. de Vigier Award
The W.A. de Vigier Award is the oldest and – with annual prize money of 500,000 Swiss francs – the most financially significant award for start-ups in Switzerland. In its 29-year history, the foundation has distributed over 11 million francs of seed capital. This has resulted in around 84 successful start-ups, multiple flotations, lucrative company sales and, above all, numerous new jobs.