By Yifan Li, Junior Project Manager - Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Venture Leaders China 2020, the Swiss national startup team composed of ten Swiss deeptech startups, are selected with the chance to engage with Chinese investors, mentors, experts and potential business partners to pitch their ideas and raise funds. This year marks the seventh edition of Venture Leaders China and the first-ever Virtual Demo Days to launch this special edition in consideration of the global pandemic.
On September 14th and 15th, swissnex China together with Venturelab held two virtual roadshows with startups divided into two groups under the themes of “Agritech, Foodtech, Cleantech” (Day 1) and “Biotech, Medtech, Instruments” (Day 2) respectively based on their industry. Ten Swiss startups attended this event - AgroSustain SA, Bluetector AG, Daphne Technology SA, NEMIS Technologies and SwissDeCode AG on Day 1, Elthera AG, Kemiex AG, PB&B SA, Positrigo AG and Scientific Visual SA on Day 2.
Opened by Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO of swissnex China, and moderated by Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner of Venturelab, Venture Leaders China 2020 Virtual Demo Days began at 3:00 pm China time / 9:00 am Switzerland time.
Day 1: Agritech, Foodtech, Cleantech
The first presentation was given by Olga Dubey, CEO of AgroSustain SA, who first talked about the challenges and current solutions to provide freshness extension, and then introduced their products – biological coating and biological fungicides. They are currently calling for 5-7 million USD investment.
David Din, founder and CEO of Bluetector AG was the second presenter. He listed the damages caused by excessive manure in a global level and provided their solution which is to turn manure into water. They are currently looking for a strategic partner in the Chinese market and are open for direct investment.
With the beautiful name from Greek mythology, Daphne Technology SA founded by Mario Michan is a startup focusing on air pollution control in the marine industry. Mario described the challenges and their decarbonization strategy plan for the next three decades. Currently, they are seeking 10 million CHF to take Daphne to the next level.
Arnaud Muller, CEO of NEMIS Technologies, shared his concerns about food safety problems caused by pathogenic bacteria and proposed their patented AquaSpark technology. He further introduced that their solution could be expanded from food safety testing to other fields, such as clinical diagnostics. They hope to collaborate with local partners to explore the Chinese market.
SwissDeCode AG also focuses on the food market. Gianpaolo Rando (Chinese name: 冉坚博), its co-founder and CTO wants to make the food product certification process faster. At this moment, they are looking for channel partners and hope to develop the market together with them.
Besides the five startup entrepreneurs, six experienced juries also joined us on the first day of the roadshow – Xiaowen ZHU, Venture Director in Plug and Play China; Anqiang ZHANG, Deputy Director in the R&D Department in China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group; Dee ZHENG, Principle in Bits x Bites; Li LI, Investment Director in BASF Venture Capital; Nigel WONG, Consultancy and Head of Project Delivery in Rouse; Sam PRIESTMAN, Founder and Managing Partner in 8 Hours Ahead. With their expert knowledge and years of experience in the Chinese market, many in-depth questions were talked over in the Jury Q&A session after the presentation of each startup.
Day 2: Biotech, Medtech, Instruments
Anne Schmidt, CEO of Elthera AG, gave the first presentation of Day 2 about their novel efficacious immunotherapy for pancreatic and ovarian canter patients. Vivid pictures are used to illustrate the medical concept. They plan to initiate Series A financing round in early 2021 aiming at 15 million USD for the preclinical development.
Kemiex AG, a B2B trading and information platform for raw materials in the health and nutrition industries for humans and animals, regards itself as the ‘Bloomberg’ for life-science and chemical industries. Oriol Saludes, its co-founder and COO, said that their experienced team are looking for more world-class partners.
PB&B SA is a life-science startup focusing on aesthetics. Its CEO and co-founder, Anthony Aho, showed us that losing fat tissues could cause sagging and wrinkles, and introduced that their patented technology could be used to increase the adipose tissue volume. They would like to meet and partner with top Chinese dermatologists and/or plastic surgeons.
Positrigo AG is an ETH spinoff focusing on early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Jannis Fischer, CEO of the startup, first stressed that “Alzheimer’s disease affects everybody” and then showed their dedicated brain Positron Emission Tomography (PET) device. Currently they are looking for ventures to participate in their series A financing.
Frédéric Falise, COO of Scientific Visual SA, gave the last presentation of our roadshow about their quality control systems for raw semiconductor substrates. He emphasized the fact that China is the biggest producer of semiconductor substrates and claimed that their solution could detect defects in the early processing stage and thus save cost.
The jury panel of the second virtual demo day consists of Luna JI - Director of Search and Evaluation in MSD (Merck in North America) in Pacific Business Development and Licensing Hub, Alvin YAN – Executive Director in Highlight Capital, Carrie WU – Principal in 8 Hours Ahead, Nigel WONG - Consultancy and Head of Project Delivery in Rouse, and Bin SHENG – Senior Advisor in SDIC Fund. Same as the first day, great questions were discussed, and potential collaboration opportunities were developed.
With the virtual demo days wrapped up nicely, we’re looking forward to the time when all the ten startup entrepreneurs are able to come to China physically for the onsite roadshows to exchange with local industry players, and potentially enter the Chinese market in the future.
Thanks to our program partners VISCHER, Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Canton de Vaud, Canton of Zurich, EPFL and ETH Zurich for making this possible.
We would also like to express our thanks to the startups for sharing with us your technologies and products, to the juries for your expertise and insights, as well as the audiences for your time and interest. Please do not hesitate to contact us or the startups directly should you have any questions.
Brochures about the startups can be found as follows:
Day 1 - Agritech, Foodtech, Cleantech:
- Startup Brochure (English & 中文)
Day 2 - Biotech, Medtech, Instruments
- Startup Brochure (English & 中文)
