AET BioTech and BioXpress Therapeutics to Co-Develop Biosimilar Adalimumab (October 25, 2012): AET BioTech, the separate biosimilars business within the generic drug developer AET (Alfred E Tiefenbacher) Group and BioXpress Therapeutics SA, a Swiss-based biotechnology company developing monoclonal antibody (MAb) biosimilars have entered into an agreement for the co-development of a biosimilar version of the TNF inhibitor MAb Adalimumab. AET BioTech and BioXpress will be jointly responsible for the development, registration, and manufacture of the biosimilar, which is based on BioXpress technology. The development strategy devised and implemented by the partners incorporates regulatory requirements for marketing in countries worldwide. Beside active involvement in the development of the MAb, AET BioTech will in particular be responsible for providing further investment in the biosimilar based on committed long term financing. AET BioTech is also responsible for any future commercialisation of the product. Adalimumab as currently marketed by Abbott had 2011 global sales exceeding $10 billion USD. Read more [...]
Debiopharm Group invests in Searchbox SA, a semantic search engine for professionals (October 17, 2012): Debiopharm Group™ acquires a minority stake in Searchbox SA (formerly SalsaDev SA). Searchbox SA is closing its Seed B investment round, thanks to the support of existing shareholders, and welcomes new ones, such as Debiopharm Group™ (Debiopharm). These also include Michael Schmitt, formerly Engineering Director at Google. This new investment will allow Searchbox to continue growing and to finalise the online launch of its semantic search engine for professionals as of this winter. The original press release can be found there.
The footage of the inauguration of the Cleantech Cluster is now on line (October 03, 2012): for those who did have the opportunity to join us at the inauguration of our new cleantech cluster, have a look at the video summarizing salient moments of this unforgettable day!
The Cleantech Cluster is up running (September 04, 2012): Swiss federal Councilor Doris Leuthard joined Geneva officials on September 3rd for the inauguration of a cleantech business incubator. Small companies specializing in green technologies and renewable energy are placed together to give the cleantech sector a boost. Mrs. Leuthard says that by investing in renewable energy, Switzerland is creating jobs and reducing its dependence on fossil fuels. The centre hosts three organizations funded and supported by the cantonal government of Geneva that are geared to attracting green firms to Geneva. The canton’s three organizations are: (i) the foundation for business aid (FAE), (ii) the Genevan foundation for technological innovation (FONGIT), and (iii) the office for the Promotion of Industry and Technology (OPI). These organizations have assembled in one location core skills in management, strategy, finance, fund raising, communication and promotion, which are readily available to new ventures, start-ups and businesses in the green industry. The organizations are already studying several cleantech projects with a goal of establishing a centre of excellence in environmental technologies, with the intent on becoming a centre of excellence for cleantech by 2020. The Geneva centre is one of several planned around Switzerland as part of a Federal Master Plan to coordinate resource efficiency and renewable energies. The national plan envisages a partnership of the federal government, the cantons, the private sector and academic players.
Merck Serono Announces the Creation of Quartz Bio, a Bioinformatics Company Formed Through Its Entrepreneur Partnership Program (September 03, 2012): Merck Serono Announces the Creation of Quartz Bio, a Bioinformatics Company Formed Through Its Entrepreneur Partnership Program (September 03, 2012): Merck Serono, a division of Merck, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today the creation of Quartz Bio, the second spin-off company resulting from its Entrepreneur Partnership Program launched in April 2012. Quartz Bio will offer biomarker data management and exploratory biomarker analysis services for the pharmaceutical industry. The company will be hosted in the Blue Box offices of FONGIT, a start-up accelerator located in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, and supported by the Geneva authorities. Merck Serono intends to use the services provided by Quartz Bio and is planning work orders amounting to around € 2 million for the next two or three years. Announced in April 2012 in the framework of the efficiency measures being taken by Merck Serono, the Entrepreneur Partnership Program (EPP) is part of a € 30 million commitment to support the creation of spin-off and start-up companies focused on continuing activities and compounds that originated at Merck Serono. More information can be found there.
Fongit at Swiss Mobicamp 2012 (August 16, 2012): We will be at the Mobicamp 2012 this November. Mobicamp is dedicated to helping it’s audience understand, navigate and prosper in the global mobile ecosystem through a high-octane blend of keynotes from industry veterans, 1-1 sessions, workshops, start-up pitches and great networking opportunities. More info can be found at mobicamp.ch
Searchbox launches its online semantic search engine (July 30, 2012): Searchbox (which formerly was known as salsaDev) has launched Searchbox, its new online semantic search engine. Semanticweb.com presents what semantic search can do for your enterprise in its piece entitled “Taking Search To The Enterprise Streets“.
The new cleantech officially launched in September 2012 (July 11, 2012): Under the law recently adopted by the Grand Council of Geneva, FAE, FONGIT and OPI relocated to the same premises to better orchestrate and foster the development of cleantech activities in Geneva. The objective is to strengthen synergies between all organizations and stakeholders supporting innovation by offering tailored services to technology companies. The new cleantech incubator dedicated to green technologies is operational and it will be officially launched next September. Contact us and Apply here.
The new cleantech incubator is hosting its first companies (July 6, 2012): Fongit is expanding its start up accelerator by adding 100 work spaces for high tech ventures. This brand new venue is designed to provide outstanding work and creative environments to entrepreneurs. It is a One-Stop Shop for entrepreneurship tailored to stimulate the development of technological and industrial companies in the region. Fongit partners with Geneva’s departments for Trade and Industry that all committed to support the development of this initiative. Space is limited. Apply here.
inZair Raises $570’000 for ZMS, the Next Generation Mobile Messaging Service based on Geolocation and Time (July 4, 2012): inZair, a start-up based at FONGIT has raised $570’000 in May for its next generation mobile messaging platform, ZMS. inZair is reinventing SMS by introducing its new ZMS mobile messaging application which combines rich multimedia content with space and time concepts. ZMS turns mobile messaging in a rich, personalized and enjoyable experience by leveraging the power of geolocation and time. It allows anyone with a Smartphone to send and receive messages for free, from one person or more using text, pictures, video and audio. It also lets you share your location easily and send location based and time scheduled messages. Under development for more than a year, inZair launched the ZMS app on December 8th 2011, during LeWeb start-up competition program in Paris. inZair has been selected as one of the 16 finalists amongst 600 participants from all over the world. More recently, in February 2012, inZair won the AlpICT & Accenture Innovation Award at LIFT’12 Geneva. In May 2012, inZair was among the 10 Swiss finalists at the Swiss Venture Forum and was selected for the final at the European Venture Summit in December. Based on strong geo-location integration and full respect of consumer privacy, inZair also enables businesses and brands to engage people in a very effective and targeted way trough the ZMS application. Since its launch, ZMS has been downloaded from more than 54 countries all around the globe and ZMS traffic is growing with our user base. The new funding will be used to cover a wider range of Smartphone devices including Windows phone and more. A large budget is allocated for the marketing organization in order to develop towards international customer acquisition in Europe and the USA. In Q4 2012, inZair will also introduce its Web business platform. In its seed stage, the start-up had previously raised a first round of $200’000 in order to launch the company in January 2011. Last fall, inZair has filled an international patent application based on its ZMS technology. contact@inzair.com. Get ZMS.
InZair awarded at the 2012 Swiss Venture Forum (May 23, 2012): InZair’s mobile application – it allows the seamless creation of media-rich islets popping in space (geo-localized) and time – was awarded at the 2012 Swiss Venture Forum (SVF). SVF 2012 gathered venture capitalist firms (including seed and early stage), corporate investment funds and the top forty Swiss high-tech ventures active in the Life Sciences, Clean Technology, and ICT industries. The Swiss Venture Forum was part of the 2012 European Venture Contest Semi-Final. The European Venture Contest (EVC) 2012 finds, evaluates and awards world-class innovative companies with the potential to dramatically impact their industry and contribute to increasing European competitiveness and growth. EVC accelerates the growth of young innovative companies by providing access to top-level international partners, advisors and financiers and supports the global leaders of tomorrow at an early-stage by updating the skill set they will need to grow and expand their businesses successfully. SVF was supported by Europe Unlimited and the Canton de Vaud.
FloWatch Pulmonary Artery Band article in national UK newspaper (May 10, 2012): The Daily Express (link) ran an article about a child who was implanted with a product produced by Leman Medical Technologies SA. Peter Grove CEO of Leman Medical Technologies SA commented “It is always gratifying to read an article that supports the message about your product. The FloWatch pulmonary artery band a highly effective and reliable product using technology developed in Switzerland. We are actively marketing the FloWatch PAB in Europe and the Middle-East and are interested to use the FloWatch technology in new products.” The FloWatch pulmonary artery band is an implant used in children with certain congenital heart defects where blood flow requires adjustment and controll in the pulmonary artery and lungs. It uses wireless remote control to not only adjust the band but also to supply the energy required to allow repeatable and exact adjustment of the band. For further information please email contact@lemanmedical.com
Fongit Seed Invest invests in Abionic (April 30, 2012): Fongit Seed Invest, Polytech Ventures & Cie SCPC, Blue Ocean Ventures, Business Angels Switzerland (BAS) is part of the consortium, led by MedHoldings, that invested CHF 2 million in Abionic. Several independent business angels have also taken part in this first round of investment. As a spin-off from EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland), Abionic uses the most advanced technology to supply physicians with a novel point-of-care diagnostic tool and thereby provide patients with personal allergy profiles. Its portable biomedical diagnostic devices – abioSCOPE and abioDISC – detect the most common type pollen, food and animal allergies. Its patented nanofluidic biosensors allows to drastically speed-up in vitro tests and its products are a reliable and cost-effective alternative to classical time-consuming blood tests and standard painful skin tests.
InZair wins the Venture Night at Lift12 (Feb 23, 2012): inZair was awarded at LIFT 2012 the AlpICT Innovation Award for ZMS, its stunning space-time travel application. Anyone can then share, surprise and inform friends and others easily in a click. The application enables real-time conversation with more than one friend at a time, geo-localized filtering and by topic discovery (video). ZMS enables everyone to broadcast messages at a specific time, location and recipients from an IPhone or Android smartphone. Fongit is proud to have InZair in its portfolio. InZair was finalist at LeWeb 2011.
The new incubator operational by April 2012 (Feb 22, 2012): Fongit is expanding its start up accelerator by adding 100 work spaces for high tech ventures. This brand new venue is designed to provide outstanding work and creative environments to entrepreneurs. It is a One-Stop Shop for entrepreneurship tailored to stimulate the development of technological and industrial companies in the region. Fongit partners with Geneva’s departments for Trade and Industry that all committed to support the development of this initiative. Space is limited. Apply here.
François Gilardoni (FONGIT) will mentor at the next Startup Weekend Lausanne (March 2-4, 2012): it will take place at the Rolex Learning Center, on the campus of EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). Startup Weekend are 54h events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and start up enthusiasts come together to share ideas, forms teams, builds products, and launch start ups! Attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team in a 60 seconds pitch. Over Saturday and Sunday, teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Start up Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday evening, teams demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts. Click here to register ! Start up Weekend is an affiliate of The Kauffman Foundation.
FONGIT attending the CleanTech Investing Seminar (Dec 7&8, 2011): Following our successful inaugural event, Campden Conferences is delighted to announce that the second annual CleanTech Investing Seminar will once again unite forward thinking investors with cutting edge cleantech companies seeking the vital investment they need to flourish in today’s continuously challenging economic climate. Along with a plethora of presentations from innovative cleantech companies and those all important one-to-one meetings for you to discuss new business opportunities, this year’s plenary and roundtable sessions have been comprehensively researched, updated and improved, focusing in particular on investment opportunities for significant families and their family offices. This unique event will unite family offices, private investors, blue chip corporations, and venture capital and private equity firms, presenting companies and will feature a stellar speaker line up of exceptional cleantech experts. Click on the below link to find out how you can become a delegate or innovative presenting company. Find out more about The CleanTech Investing Seminar.
The cleantech incubator is already underway (Nov 11, 2011). The brand new cleantech incubator – located at the Bluebox building in Plan-les-Ouates – is on schedule in the deployment of the technical infrastructure designed to serve 100 work spaces for new cleantech companies. Fongit has an instrumental role in the development of this business incubator fully dedicated to Cleantech. Fongit is partnering with Geneva’s departments for Trade and Industry, scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 2012.
The cleantech incubator gets full support from the State Council of Geneva (Oct 4th, 2011). The State Council introduced Tuesday morning a bill that brings together the expertise of three cantonal agencies – FAE, Fongit and OPI, namely – to serve and sustain projects in the field of clean technologies. Geneva is fully committed to Cleantech by supporting the inception and expansion of a dedicated cleantech incubator that will be based in Plan-les-Ouates, in the outskirt of Geneva. The Bluebox building in Plan-les-Ouates will house 100 work spaces for new companies with the goal of developing the areas like urban mobility, waste management, energy efficiency and solar energy. The State Council intends to achieve an objective of the legislature. “This is an ecological and an economic opportunity,” said Unger. He said that Geneva can rely on its universities for research, its dense economic fabric and its legal framework favorable to start-ups. A pilot project of the Cleantech incubator is already underway. “Combining the Geneva Public Transport, Industrial Services of Geneva and the equipment manufacturer ABB Sécheron SA, the project “TOSA” aims to create electrical connections to bus stops to recharge”, said Jean-Luc Favre, CEO of ABB Sécheron SA. The incubator is scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 2012.
Cleantech: a center of excellence for Geneva and Western Switzerland (Sept 20th, 2011). The department of regional affairs, economy and health (DARES) today unveiled the findings of an analysis report on the creation of a center of excellence Cleantech in Geneva and Western Switzerland. The analysis shows that Geneva and Western Switzerland have real assets to establish a competence center of international Cleantech. The main directions are the establishment of an incubator for applied research and development, the strengthening R&D activities, the creation of an international reflection on Corporate Policies on sustainable development and cleantech, the opening of the incubator to countries that do not meet the adequate framework conditions, including the creation of regional institutes, and the development of financial activities related to certificates of Cleantech and “carbon offset trading.