It gives us great pleasure to announce that three more companies will benefit from Biopôle’s Start-up Fund over the coming year. Voltiris has been selected for its first year of funding, while Limula and Parithera will enjoy a second year of support. The programme offers up to CHF 90,000 each year – for up to three consecutive years – to boost research and development. It now supports a total of eight promising life sciences companies.

Voltiris is a renewable energy company whose technology allows greenhouses to be used not only for crop production, but also to generate electricity. This is possible through the installation of solar modules that allow ‘spectral filtering’: some components of light are used to grow crops, while unused light is converted into renewable energy. This means growers can be more energy-independent, profitable and sustainable.

‘Voltiris has come up with a very interesting offering that combines energy efficiency and production yields,’ said Pierre-Jean Wipff, Innovation and Partnerships Director at Biopôle. ‘We’re thrilled to support this innovative company and to accompany them in the consolidation of their understanding of how spectral filtering can positively drive plant biology such as increased nutritional content.’ Voltiris will use the funds to buy tools that will further its expertise and market its existing solutions.

Meanwhile, Limula has developed a tool to help bring cell-based therapy to more patients. Although cell therapy has huge potential to save lives, production is currently expensive, laborious and highly manual. This means only a small portion of those who need treatment receive it. Limula is building a platform to automate steps in the manufacturing process to increase capacity.

‘We believe smart automation is the only way to make cell and gene therapies widely accessible,’ says Luc Henry, CEO of Limula. ‘Over the past 12 months, the Biopôle Start-up Fund has supported our laboratory activities at StartLab. We will use the fresh funding to build a series of functional prototypes that early adopters can test to collect user feedback.’ The team is on track to build an MVP (minimal viable product) by the end of 2024.

Antoine Herzog, CEO of Parithera

Parithera’s mission is to save lives by providing a minimally invasive diagnostic instrument that analyses cancer treatment resistance. This will allow clinicians to adjust a patient’s treatment when the current one isn’t working, thus increasing their chances of survival. ‘Last year’s grant was pivotal in advancing our R&D and building our first prototype,’ commented Antoine Herzog, CEO of Parithera. ‘Thanks to Biopôle’s ongoing support, we’re excited to use this year’s funds to fuel data generation and pave the way for our upcoming seed round.’