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Founding Angels Initiative
The non-profit Founding Angels initiative was founded to promote the Founding Angels’ business model to bridge the gap between academic research and the commericalisation of the research results. I created the term Founding Angels during my PhD thesis work at ETH Zürich between 2007 and 2009 and presented the business model for the first time at the R&D Management Conference 2008 in Ottawa.
Meanwhile I have co-founded 16 start-ups as a Founding Angel and have made 3 exits with TES Triton Environmental Solutions in 2009, Butalco in 2014 and Dispendix in 2018. Therefore, I can say that this business model works quite well.
My personal ambition is to build up a network to convince more people to act as a Founding Angel as I believe that this model could improve the economic development through more entrepreneurship and more innovation.
Please also visit the dedicated website under www.founding-angels.com.
Current investments
Aquarray
Aquarray, founded in 2018 as spin-off of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, develops, produces and sells droplet microarrays for performing miniaturized, parallel and fast cell screening experiments.
Applications are high-throughput screening (e.g. drug discovery of pharmaceutical or diagnostics companies), cell based disease diagnostics (e.g. cancer diagnostics) or applications within personalized medicine (e.g. personalized drug compatibility tests).
Within Aquarray I am one of the co-founders and, after bringing in a new CEO, currently the main investor. Furthermore, I am supporting the management team especially regarding financing and organisational aspects as well as global business development activities.
More information
CasCat
CasCat, founded in 2014 in Straubing/Germany, designs novel processes for the production of chemicals on the basis of renewable resources.
These innovative process routes are performed in a unique cell-free approach which allows the combinatorial set up of biocatalysts and chemical catalysts. Additionally, an own product portfolio of fine and special chemicals is currently under development.
Within CasCat I am supporting the management team especially regarding global business development activities.
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Cerefort
Cerefort was founded in 2020 and has developed a new range of consumer products supporting cellular fitness, in particular neuronal survival and function, based on research by a Max-Planck scientist. These ingredients can be used to supplement existing food products or to develop novel genuine products.
Within Cerefort I am co-founder and deputy CEO responsible for all business and commercial aspects.
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DNA Essence
DNA Essence is a biotechnology start-up company founded in 2015 with focus on the development of innovative DNA based ingredients for the beverage industry and other industries.
The DNA is produced artificially by biotechnological methods, so that the product offers a possibility to obtain the necessary ingredients with no harm to animals.
My role is deputy CEO responsible for all business and commercial aspects of DNA Essence.
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NanoLockin
NanoLockin, founded 2018 as a spin-off from the Adolphe Merkle Institute located at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, developed the lock-in-thermography to detect and characterize nanoparticles in association with other materials.
A prototype is currently in construction and the serial production of the instruments has just started.
Within NanoLockin I am one of the co-founders and, after bringing in a new CTO, one of the main investors. From the beginning I have been supporting the management team especially regarding financing and organisational aspects as well as global business development activities.
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SenseUp
SenseUp, founded in 2015 as a spin-off of the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany, is a biotechnology company developing integrated strain and process-development in ultra-high throughput based on intracellular genetic sensors.
Various development partnerships with German and Chinese companies have already been established.
Within SensUp I am co-founder and supporting the management team especially regarding financing and organisational aspects as well as global business development activities.
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Successful former investments
TES Triton
TES Triton Environmental Solutions acquired a waste water technology from Evonik Industries in Germany and further developed this technology. The core elements of the technology are special grades of powder rubber which are able to absorb waste waters with high oil content.
After reaching important milestones, TES Triton Environmental Solutions was bought in 2009 by the German company Triton Water AG. The technology is currently implemented in Singapore with the shipping industry as main customer.
I was founder of TES Triton and, until the acquisition by Triton Water, CEO of the company.
Butalco
Together with the biology professor Eckhard Boles, I founded Butalco in 2007 as a spin-off of the University of Frankfurt and acted as CEO.
The company developed and commercialised yeast technologies to produce second generation biofuels. The company was bought by the French company Lesaffre & Cie SA in July 2014 and integrated, as own legal entity, within the industrial biotechnology division.
Dispendix
Dispendix was founded in 2016 with the support of the Fraunhofer Society as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart/Germany. Focus is the development, production and sale of nano dispensing systems for liquid samples down to a volume in the nanolitre range.
I was co-founder and main investor until Dispendix was sold to the Swedish company Cellink at the end of November 2018.
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