"The Startup Unit brings all support mechanisms under one roof"

Since April 1st, EPFL Vice Presidency for Innovation can count on a dynamic new team to support entrepreneurship and startups at the renowned university in Lausanne. Startupticker.ch had the opportunity to get in contact with André Catana to better understand what the new organization means for entrepreneurs and startups active on the campus.

Will enable continue to be part of the Technology Transfer Office ?

André Catana: Yes, however, the enable program will be repositioned to focus on supporting technology development to facilitate licensing to existing companies and partnerships with industry.

The other part of enable was supporting startup projects. We’re bringing this under the remit of the Startup Unit. By bringing all the startup support mechanisms under one roof it’ll be easier for entrepreneurs to get the support they need.

How will the new organization impact the support offered to the startups, in comparison with what existed already ?

The new organization brings together a passionate and engaged team, who share the same vision - supporting startups that’ll impact society for the better. We know that starting the journey to commercial success can be a little daunting. We will be offering funding and guidance to EPFL entrepreneurs to accelerate and derisk their projects.

The incubation period is essential for all startups. Our focus is supporting and preparing the entrepreneur and company for the next step – incorporation. It’s our role to help entrepreneurs bring their technology to life and build a solid foundation for future investment.

Can you describe how you support entrepreneurs concretely? 

We do this in 3 ways: Firstly by grants. Innogrants is well known - it’s been around for 15 years and has served as a launchpad for many of EPFL’s most successful startups. We believe there is room to further develop the Innogrants program, in particular, through forming partnerships with other key players in the sector. We recently launched a joint program with the Wyss Center which supports promising projects in the field of neuroscience. Other thematic initiatives are under preparation. The grants are open to external applicants wishing to join EPFL labs. This will leverage the EPFL ecosystem with different perspectives and entrepreneurial mindsets.

It's important we’re inclusive and cover the very early stages of the startup journey too. We have created a new grant – the Ignition Grant. This grant of CHF 30’000 is aimed at graduate students, PhDs or Postdocs, to help them validate their concept and start exploring a product-market fit. 

However start-ups need more than financial support. Does enable also offer expertise? 

Absolutely. Building a business needs funding, but it also needs support, skills, and guidance from experts across a wide range of fields. We’re addressing these needs in a number of ways.

All new technology needs a working prototype to help discover and validate customers. Enabled by Design is a platform designed to connect enthusiastic designers with leading entrepreneurs to help accelerate this process.

Life science projects require a longer time-to-market, larger investments and are high risk. We are specifically targeting these projects, helping entrepreneurs derisk the first steps so they can answer the go/no go question as quickly as possible. We provide funding of early stage validation (such as first clinical or regulatory assessments or preliminary animal studies) to help them make this decision sooner.

It’s important we nurture the talent of tomorrow. We are running a dedicated startup internship program which allows students from a range of backgrounds become part of the startup journey and add value to projects. This creates valuable opportunities for the making of teams which is so important for startup launch.

Last but not least, we are increasing our support to entrepreneurs who wish to apply for other non-dilutive funding sources. We will work together with a dedicated team of professionals to guide and advise the applicants through the process.

Finally we are builing up a community. It’s important that our entrepreneurs don’t feel isolated. We want to build a strong network of specialists to nurture the startup incubation phase. We want to get closer to our labs, to build stronger connections with the PhD and Postdocs communities and foster motivation for the startup path. On the other end, we want to build stronger links with the seed investor community to increase visibility on investment opportunities.

Will the new organization support more ventures ?

We certainly hope so! EPFL has been fostering innovative thinking for over 50 years and we sit at the heart of the most competitive hub of innovation in Europe. Our ecosystem is very rich and provides unique opportunities to successfully incubate startup projects. We will further open our grants to external applicants wishing to join the EPFL launchpad. This will leverage the EPFL ecosystem with different perspectives and entrepreneurial mindsets.

What about the next months ?

Ironically, we’re still in a startup phase ourselves! To make sure we can do our job effectively, we need to set a strong foundation for growth. We’ll start by consolidating the grants into one coherent offer and building the first blocks of our services. We will then reach out to key players of our ecosystem and beyond to launch new initiatives aiming to strengthen the EPFL startup launchpad.

(ES)

Photo by EPFL - From left to right: Isabel Casado, André Catana