enable was created in 2011 by André Catana as a technology acceleration programme out of the Technology Transfer office at EPFL. Moving technologies from lab to market is challenging, in particular when they’re at a very early stage and when their holders, the researchers, have little business experience. So far, enable has helped more than 40 start-up projects.
“There are so many promising technologies coming out of EPFL labs – about 100 new invention disclosures per year come to us. Early stage inventions need de-risking and validation during their incubation phases in our labs before they can get traction in the market” explains André Catana. For many of these, enable is the starting point for the lab to market journey. The program offers funding and expertise to EPFL innovators to grow their promising ideas.
As the Head of the Program explains, enable funding plays an important role, helping to develop and de-risk inventions, validate applications and assess user needs. The program adds value to the projects through design and prototyping. To accomplish this, Enable works with talented service providers, companies, and partner institutions such as ECAL, HEC, HES, CSEM, etc. Support is provided during the whole incubation period at EPFL, up to start-up incorporation.
“A key aspect in growing a business is building a motivated, passionate, and diverse team” says André Catana. At this stage enable internships bring talented students from different backgrounds to join the program’s entrepreneurs on their journey. More than 100 students have been enrolled so far. Their complementary skills and strengths add huge value to the projects - Lunaphore, Abionic, Rovenso, Mirrakoi, and Seed Biosciences are successful examples where its interns have become core founding members of the company.
As well as its own funding, enable uses its expertise and network to help innovators obtain further nondilutive pre-seed funding – this can be substantial, reaching between 500k to 1M per project.
A recent development of enable is the creation of the enabled by design platform which connects promising technologies to the design community. While this is at the very early stages of development, the team is excited to be bridging the gap between the two disciplines and using design to accelerate innovation in Switzerland. This initiative is supported by the Gebert Rüf Foundation. “We hope to help engineers understand the value of good design and expose young designers to the challenges of creating the technology of tomorrow” says the Head of the Program.
Supporting 20+ projects a year
When enable first started, it had 3 projects. Now it deals with 20+ projects a year. The enable programme is part of the technology transfer office and the projects must have a filed a patent application, or be in the process of preparing it. Other than that, the program welcomes all types of projects – from smart glasses to computer aided manufacturing to new cancer therapies or rehabilitation technologies.
enable’s vision is to be the recognized as the starting point for creative inventors looking to move their idea out of the lab. Speaking about the future, André Catana explains that the program will be increasing its support to raise non-dilutive funding, in particular PoC (proof-of-concept) funding from Swiss and European institutions. The program wishes also to strengthen its activities around design and bring it closer to its entrepreneurs: "Design and transformative technology go hand in hand and we want to help facilitate this". Last but not least, enable wishes to explore crowdfunding for its promising new projects: “We think there’s an opportunity for them to gain visibility and funding streams through a relatively simple platform. We’re planning to launch a dedicated initiative by the end of this year.”
(ES)
Picture: EPFL
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