April 25, 2014
Start-ups provide new hope for patients
Dear reader
The technology of Swiss start-ups is often fascinating and that from G-Therapeutics is something special – the use of it has enabled completely paralysed animals to learn to walk again. G-Therapeutics, a spin-off from EPF Lausanne, aims to translate this breakthrough into a viable therapy for humans. The company is developing an implantable spinal stimulation system and robot-assisted training to rehabilitate those with spinal cord injuries. G-Therapeutics has now won €100,000 in a European start-up competition.
Thanks to Innomedica, patients can hope. The company has developed a new generation of cancer drugs with a packaging that protects the active substances until they reach the application site in the patient’s body. As a result, there are fewer side effects and greater efficacy. The company has just finished a financing round of more than CHF600,000.
While G-Therapeutics and Innomedica are still at the beginning of the start-up life cycle, life sciences firm Aïmago has already completed the cycle. This week, CEO Michael Friedrich announced the sale of the company to Novadaq, a large US business.
In the US, however, it’s not only Swiss life sciences companies that have attracted attention: ReMeeting, an IT start-up, has won the Grand Prize at the UC Berkeley Startup Competition, and Scandit is also very successful in the US. The innovative scanning technology is used primarily in North America and now the company has opened its first US office in San Francisco to drive growth.
Francesco Dell’Endice can push ahead with the development of his company QualySense. The company closed a round of financing this week of about CHF1.3 million.
Seven promising young Swiss companies that are currently looking to raise funds will present at CTI Invest’s forthcoming Swiss Venture Day on 7 May. In addition, CTI Invest this week announced an innovation roundtable on cloud computing. Start-ups are still being sought for this event.
Young companies can also now apply for the Swiss Startups Awards and for the canton of Fribourg’s Innovation Award.
Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch