CondenZero and Lumiphase enter Swiss BIC of CERN incubator

The Swiss Business Incubation Centre (BIC) of CERN Technologies at Park Innovaare supports entrepreneurs in their business endeavour by offering them access to CERN’s unique technologies, know-how and IP, as well as tailor-made business and management coaching and seed money of CHF 50,000. As CERN’s partner, Switzerland Innovation Park Innovaare provides comprehensive business development and marketing support and infrastructure at its high-tech innovation campus next to the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI).

Two start-ups won the competition:

CondenZero, a University of Zurich spin-off, developed a novel cooling product enabling cryogenic temperatures to be held for up to 24 hours, contrary to 15 min with current cryo-microscopy solutions. The solution allows researchers who rely on cold temperatures to work more efficiently and effectively. The start-up is launching its new product in the cryo-electron microscopy market, estimated to be USD 5 billion.

The program will enable the start-up to advance its cryogenic technology for electron microscopy together with cryo-experts from CERN and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), as revealed by Denys Sutter, CEO and Co-Founder of condenZero. “With the Park Innovaare infrastructure, condenZero can strengthen its ties to the PSI and test new cryo-TEM products in a mutually beneficial fashion. With its prevalent TEM expertise and state-of-the-art helium recovery infrastructure, the PSI will be an important partner for condenZero. We are grateful for these opportunities, he said.

The second winner, Lumiphase, is a spin-off of ETH Zurich and IBM Research that presents the capability to transform the optical networks industry. By delivering a new generation of optical communication chips placed inside transceiver modules, it provides a solution for the problem of electro-optical conversion. Lumiphase modules can be 10x more efficient than any existing alternative.

Co-led by Lukas Czornomaz, the start-up team will collaborate with CERN, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and Park Innovaare to assess the impact of radiation on its products and explore how the team could support CERN’s most pressing data transmission challenges.

(Press release/RAN)
Photo: Denys Sutter (L) and Lukas Czornomaz (R)