Participated · Series A · Feb 2025

Largo.ai, led by CEO Sami Arpa, provides AI-driven solutions for the film, TV and advertising industries from its base in Lausanne, Switzerland. The company has developed patented core technologies that understand content by analysing cinematographic patterns and simulating real human behaviour. Those methods underpin advanced AI models that assess a project’s structural patterns, strengths and weaknesses, anticipated audience emotions, demographic reach, and expected audience size. Largo.ai’s solutions deliver both qualitative and quantitative insights into audience preferences and have been trained on extensive datasets: over 400,000 films and TV series, 950,000 talents, 59,000 scripts and 200,000+ ads. The company has a presence in Los Angeles, London and Istanbul. Largo.ai plans to use the new funding to drive growth and enrich its core business areas. Largo is an EPFL spin-off that provides next-generation storytelling tools to the movie and advertising industries via its SaaS platform, Largo.ai. Its AI engine uses a cognitive pattern understanding system to analyze video, audio, and text and convert those patterns into actionable insights for producers, writers, distributors, and ad agencies. Largo.ai is used by scores of producers in Hollywood and Europe and has been applied to hundreds of films for content insights, casting suggestions, and financial forecasts; some of those films have been released on Netflix and Amazon and nominated for major awards. The company recently launched an extension of Largo.ai for commercial and online video advertising in partnership with Zurich-based Stories AG. Largo says it will use new funding to accelerate expansion into new markets and to fuel its go-to-market strategy. The business model is SaaS-based, providing data-assisted intelligence across production and distribution segments. Largo has launched a new SaaS platform, Largo.A.I, which provides producers, writers and distributors with rapid analysis and forecasts of viewer reactions and film success. The company’s AI engine analyzes cognitive patterns from video, audio and text and converts them into actionable insights. Until now Largo delivered results via electronic reports; the new platform gives customers direct access to tools that return analysis within minutes. The team plans to use the recent financing to develop new tools, grow headcount and accelerate market entry. Largo will soft-launch the platform and showcase it at the Berlin Film Festival (23–25 February) as one of the selected Horizon 2020 start-ups. Management framed festival participation as an opportunity to pitch to industry players and find potential customers. Largo Films develops Sofy.tv, a video-on-demand platform dedicated to movies shorter than 40 minutes. Its technology enables targeted movie recommendations to the right audience, aiming to increase engagement. The platform was launched in May. Largo received a CHF 100,000 FIT seed loan from the Foundation for Technological Innovation and will use the support for technology transfer. The FIT seed loan program targets companies not older than one year to support prototyping and commercial development. Largo is presented as an EPFL-affiliated startup and was named among four Western Switzerland winners that together received CHF 400,000.

Participated · Equity · May 2024

Touch Sensity has developed a patented technology that makes objects and materials sensitive to physical interactions, enabling constant, real-time monitoring of damage and malfunctions. The company’s predictive structural-health system identifies where damage is located and measures its size and severity. Touch Sensity plans to use the newly raised capital to continue product development and begin commercialization of its technology. Its first offered solution is Sensity Smart Tank, designed to monitor hydrogen tanks for cars, buses, commercial vehicles and trains. The company targets major manufacturers in the automotive, railway and aerospace sectors and aims to shift customers from scheduled to condition-based maintenance. The article cites a market projection for structural-health monitoring growing from $2.2B in 2022 to $5B in 2028.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2023

Cognitive Design Systems (CDS) builds DfAM and generative-design software—notably its "Cognitive Additive" solution—that analyzes cost, feasibility and sustainability of 3D‑printed parts. The company has integrated modules into third‑party platforms including Synera and Stratasys's GrabCAD Print. CDS is also developing support for conventional manufacturing processes such as injection molding, die casting and machining. It aims to introduce AI and automation to assist CAD designers and reduce design cycle times. Platform development began in 2021, and the company plans geographic expansion and salesforce growth in Europe and the United States. CDS plans to use new funding to accelerate technology development and deepen integrations with major CAD platforms.

Led · Series A · Jun 2023

Tinamu Labs is an ETH spin-off that provides indoor drone monitoring systems and automated inventory monitoring for bulk cargo using patented technology, indoor flight know-how, and workflow automation. Its core offering is a flexible turnkey solution combining hardware and software to automate periodic stockpile volume measurements without piloting skills or GPS. The service is used by customers in mining, commodity trading, construction and logistics, including Kibag, and the company plans installations at multiple Trafigura locations. Launched in 2022 and based in Zurich, Tinamu has exported its solution to Belgium and France and is expanding to additional client locations in Europe. A technology partnership with Parrot will allow Tinamu to progressively upgrade clients to the ANAFI Ai drone to deliver a full turnkey package. The company recently raised CHF 1 million in a pre-Series A financing led by Alpana Ventures and DAA Capital Partners to accelerate growth. Proceeds will fund onboarding of upcoming installations, sales activities and planned hiring, and Tinamu is preparing for a Series A to support global expansion. Tinamu Labs, founded in 2018 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, provides a fully automated drone system that captures and analyses inspection data and shares insights in real time. Its patented, GPS-independent solution is designed for challenging indoor and outdoor industrial environments and requires no drone pilot. After deploying functional prototypes in June 2021, the company has closed annually recurring contracts in the six‑digit range and has deployed two systems nationally and one internationally. The startup is accelerating product development to move the early product to a scalable version and is hiring additional talent to support its go-to-market journey. To support commercialization, Tinamu has concluded a seed financing round extension and will use the funds to speed up time to market. The company’s early deployments and recurring revenues validate its business model while it prepares for broader global rollout. Tinamu Labs, founded in 2018 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, develops an automated end-to-end drone inspection system based on patented GPS-independent technology. The system autonomously collects data, performs cloud-based analysis, and delivers relevant information to customers without requiring a drone pilot thanks to remote access control. Its solution is aimed at indoor and challenging environments and is being evaluated by companies in the energy, mining, and commodity trading sectors, with Axpo as its first industry partner. The startup plans to use the new capital to expand its team and accelerate internal and international growth, with particular interest in entering the US market. Financially, Tinamu secured CHF 1.1 million in a seed round led by Alpana Ventures. As part of the round, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Alex Fries joined the board to support US expansion.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2022

Imverse has developed a proprietary voxel graphics engine capable of live capture, rendering and streaming of multiple holograms in real time for telepresence and volumetric content. Its technology creates full‑body volumetric humans at a fraction of the cost, without industrial cameras or powerful computing equipment, and with low latency, enabling delivery at rates comparable to mainstream video conferencing. Imverse Holo lets creators and businesses set up multi‑camera systems for live volumetric video capture with no green screens or cloud services, and enables producers and consumers to edit, interact and manipulate content in real time. The platform targets use cases including virtual teleconferencing, immersive education, healthcare, gaming and the Metaverse. Over the past year the company has secured partnerships with several large technology companies and expanded operations to France. Imverse is currently focusing on enterprise solutions and has raised funding to accelerate software development, team growth and global product rollout. Imverse is a Swiss VR start-up whose graphics software makes the creation of photorealistic 3D content 10 times faster and cheaper than current solutions. Its product lineup includes IMVERSE LiveMaker, which creates 3D universes from a single 360° picture, and a real-time hologram solution called “Elastic Time” that captures visitors and renders life-size photorealistic bodies in VR immediately. The company showcased these technologies at SIGGRAPH, holding the first-ever VR workshop in VR. Proceeds from its recent CHF1.5 million financing will be used to double the team and expand engineering, sales and business development, and to produce VR content for marketing. Imverse also plans to open an office in Los Angeles to be closer to customers, partners and investors. CEO and co-founder Javier Bello Ruiz said there is a clear market fit for both the holograms and the reconstruction software and that users are enthusiastic. Imverse builds a real-time mixed-reality engine that composites users’ actual bodies and other real-world objects into VR, aiming to increase presence and ease headset adoption. The team spent five years developing the technology at EPFL and debuted public demos at Sundance Film Festival, including the Elastic Time experience. Imverse is also developing LiveMaker, described as a “Photoshop for VR,” to let creators edit and build VR experiences from inside a headset. The company has a four-person core team; CTO Robin Mange brings roughly 12 years of specialization in volumetric rendering. Imverse has worked with content studios such as Emblematic Group and is planning a Los Angeles presence to accelerate commercial partnerships. Financially, the startup has raised $400,000 to date and is pursuing a multi-million-dollar Series A to fund expansion. Observers in the article suggested VR platform companies would likely be interested in acquiring the technology if commercialization falters.