CTI Start-up Label awarded to five companies

Personalised music TV, real-time motion capture software, technology making LEDs, solar cells and LCD displays more energy efficient, biosensors improving the success rate in drug discovery and a pipetting robot are the products of the five new CTI start-up label companies.

The product of Andrew Alliance is a novel type of pipetting robot that operates, unattended, adjustable manual pipettes in the same way as would the best skilled user. The company based in the canton of Geneva has been created in March 2011 by an experienced founding team. The development of the underlying technology had started in 2010, with the purpose of commercializing easy to use robots for the Life Science community. By integrating state-of-art robotics, innovative hardware solutions, camera-based vision and software algorithms, Andrew Alliance intends to provide a new generation of tools to biologists and technicians that – today – have no alternative to manual liquid handling operations.

Creoptix, based in Wädenswil, develops best-in-class biosensor devices. The patented technology of the start-up patented allows the detection and characterization of tiny molecules, weakest interactions or smallest concentrations. One possible application is the determination of binding affinity of drugs to its targets, even for the smallest molecules. This will improve the success rate in drug discovery. The start-up was founded by an experienced team: one managing partner, Kaspar Cottier, is a specialist in microtechnology, the other, Matyas Vegh, was CEO at a biotech company and managing partner at an investment advisory firm with a focus on healthcare.

EULITHA is a pioneer and leader in production of high-quality nanostructures using advanced lithography techniques. The company introduced the revolutionary PHABLE technology in 2010 for low-cost fabrication of photonic nanostructures over large areas. PHABLE is a proprietary lithography technology that is designed to enable production of energy efficient LEDs, solar cells and LCD displays. EULITHA was founded in 2006 in the canton Aargau of Switzerland. Its founders have led the development of Extreme Ultraviolet Interference Technology at the Paul Scherrer Institute.

The software of Faceshift analyses the face motions of an actor, and describes them as a mixture of basic expressions, plus head orientation and gaze. This description is then used to animate virtual characters for use in movie or game production. The solution has astonishing real time tracking and a high quality offline post-processing in a single, convenient application. Expensive hardware, annoying markers, and weeks of post-production are no longer necessary. Faceshift was founded in 2012 as spin-off of EPFL and is today based in Zurich.

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. The beta-version of the app was launched one year ago. Rayneer was founded in 2011 by Firmengründer OIiver Flueckiger (CEO), Yannick Koechlin, and Ronny Nenniger (former Head of Music Radio Energy, Head of Program Strategy at Rayneer).