The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Aug 2021

Pabio offers personalized interior-design proposals with photorealistic renders and generates a 3D model from customers' floor plans and photos, then supplies, installs and insures subscription furniture. Customers subscribe monthly (one-bedroom furnished often under €200/month) rather than buying disposable furniture. The company emphasizes durable, refurbishable furniture that is returned, refurbished and eventually recycled after multiple rental cycles. Founded in Switzerland a couple of years ago, Pabio has expanded geographically and today announced a launch in Germany. It is currently deploying its service to around 100 homes. The recent funding will be used to expand marketing and to enter additional European countries. Pabio is a Bern, Switzerland-based rent-to-own furniture tech startup that provides sustainable, long-durability furniture combined with personalized interior design. Customers upload a floor plan and photos; Pabio generates a 3D model and photorealistic renders of a fully furnished apartment. If customers sign up, Pabio delivers and installs the furniture and charges a monthly subscription fee that contributes toward ownership. The company offers full insurance on items and optional add-on services such as electricians and bi-weekly cleaning. When customers move out, Pabio takes back, renovates, and re-circulates furniture at discounted prices to maximize reuse. Pabio is backed by Y Combinator and aims to offer an affordable, sustainable alternative to fast furniture.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2021

Supersapiens builds an ecosystem that integrates with the Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor to give athletes real-time glucose data tied to athletic performance. The company focuses on energy management systems to help athletes sustain high-intensity work, manage glucose for recovery, and improve performance gains. Its product set currently centers on software and integrations with Bluetooth-enabled CGM sensors, and the company is developing its first hardware wrist wearable, the Supersapiens Reader Version Zero, to display live fuel data. In its first 12 weeks on the market the company enrolled more than 2,000 paying athletes on the system. The Abbott Libre Sense biosensor used in the ecosystem is intended for athletes and is not intended for diagnosis, treatment, or monitoring of disease. The service is available across several European markets including Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; it is not yet for sale in the U.S.

Led · Seed · Dec 2020

Gilytics offers the Pathfinder GIS cloud platform that automates routing, monitoring and management of linear infrastructure projects including powerlines, cables, pipes, rail, roads, renewables, telecom and offshore works. The software leverages big data and an algorithm to identify lowest-cost or lowest-impact routes and provides realistic 2D, 3D and AR visualizations for rapid scenario analysis. Users can accelerate greenfield and brownfield project delivery through automated infrastructure routing, improved design, visualization and communication. The company plans to use its recent seed financing to develop features for construction monitoring and operations for solar and wind projects and to expand its distribution network. Gilytics was founded in 2017 as an ETH spin-off by Stefano Grassi, Heather Pace Clark and Philippe Bieri and has generated commercial traction with industry-leading players in Switzerland and abroad. It also benefits from support and partnerships including the European Space Agency, Venture Kick and the CO3 Project (Horizon 2020).

Participated · Seed · Jan 2019

Eyeware is a Martigny, Switzerland-based 3D eye-tracking startup spun off from Idiap Research Institute and EPFL. Founded in September 2016 by Dr. Kenneth Funes, the company develops software that enables consumer devices, cars and robots with 3D cameras to sense and analyze user attention. Its technology can use time-of-flight cameras to estimate driver attention for in-cabin monitoring and infotainment, and was presented at CES 2019. Eyeware has prototyped industrial applications such as the BionicWorkplace with Festo, shown at Hannover Messe 2018. The company closed its first venture seed round of CHF 1.9M to bring a 3D eye-tracking development kit ready for integration into consumer applications. It plans to use the capital to ready the development kit and to expand corporate partnerships in the US and China. Eyeware develops AI-based 3D eye-tracking and computer vision solutions that monitor human vision to capture attention, intention and interest and to identify the objects users are looking at. Its technology is designed to make machines more aware of their environment and interact accordingly with users. The company highlights applications across retail (to assess consumer behaviour), assistive technology (a “virtual mouse” for paraplegic users), and proactive assistance for robots and cars. Prototypes for cars, robots and computers are already available. Eyeware plans to launch two new prototypes aimed at the assistive-technology market and research in social behaviour. The startup will use recent funding to continue product development and to file patents on its computer vision algorithms.