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CLIMADA scoops first prize at Venture Awards

Eighteen start-ups were awarded prizes at this year’s Venture Awards, including five ETH Zurich spin-offs. CLIMADA won first prize in the Finance & Insurance category.

by Corinne Landolt
Winning photograph of the entrepreneurs behind Climada, the winners holding the prize in their hands
Founder and CEO from CLIMADA Technologies Sebastian Glink (left) and Head Business Development Alvaro Pacheco. (Photograph: Venture)

ETH spin-off CLIMADA Technologies scooped first prize in the Finance & Insurance category at the Venture Awards held yesterday evening, 17 June 2024. The company, which grew out of the Professorship for Weather and Climate Risks (D-USYS), offers an event-based simulation platform for the socio-economic impact of weather and climate events.

external page CLIMADA uses mathematical models to compile risk assessments. These enable companies, the authorities and other decision-makers to prepare better for rising weather and climate risks.

As the models are calculated globally for cyclones, heat waves and droughts, floods and forest fires, their impact can be calculated not only historically but also probabilistically – that is, for weather extremes that have not yet actually occurred but are physically plausible. This way the impact of events can be assessed extremely precisely.

Four further ETH spin-offs awarded prizes

The following four ETH spin-offs were also singled out at the Venture Awards:

  • Procavea Biotech (second place in the Health & Nutrition category)
    This ETH spin-off has developed a protein-based solution for administering medicines that enables drug molecules to be carried directly into the cells and take effect directly. This serves to make existing medicines more effective and reduce side effects.
  • Optiml (second place in the ICT category)
    This spin-off offers intelligent decision aids for the real estate sector. Its AI-supported software assesses investments and renovation measures while considering cost and environmental aspects.
  • RTDT Laboratories (second place in the Industrials & Engineering category)
    RTDT Laboratories AG contributes to the profitability, reliability and performance of wind farms by combining real-time measurements with high-performance analysis methods. The spin-off builds digital twins of the turbines that enable it to provide information on their structural condition, energy performance and remaining lifetime.
  • qCella (third place in the Industrials & Engineering category)
    qCella’s technology minimises heat loss: the spin-off has developed adjustable and ultra-thin heating mats that regulate the temperature – in car interiors, for instance – more efficiently than previous solutions.

About Venture

Venture is Switzerland’s leading start-up competition and is organised by the not-for-profit Venture Foundation in cooperation with ETH Zurich, McKinsey & Company, Knecht Holding, Innosuisse and EPFL. It was started in 1997 with the purpose of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in Switzerland. Each year, participants can submit entries in one of the following five industry categories: Finance & Insurance, Health & Nutrition, ICT, Industrials & Engineering, Retail & Customer Services and Social & Environmental Impact.

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