Starting this year, >>venture>>, has been revamped. The competition has launched a leaner version in 2019 which now consists of submitting a 10-20-page business case under one of the following 3 verticals: Health & Nutrition, Hardware, or Software & Services. At the same time the prize money has been doubled to CHF350,000 which was given to the 10 winners. DePoly has been crowned as the >>venture>> Grand Prize winner. The team from EPFL has developed a novel solution allowing the chemical recycling of PET plastic as alternative to just crushing it. The prize and the prize money are important for the project. “It allows us to incorporate in Switzerland and to plan the next steps without having to look for money elsewhere”, explained Samantha Anderson (Picture above) at the award ceremony. The technology is already working in lab scale as the team demonstrated at the event yesterday. They will now work on scaling up the process. The jury selected the Grand Prize winner DePoly from the three vertical winners. DePoly won the Hardware vertical. The two other verticals were won by Sleepiz and Legartis. Both received CHF50,000. Sleepiz, winner of the Health & Nutrition Vertical, developed a touchless device that captures vital signs and sleep environment data in real-time without a single cable or electrode. With the device patients can be screened for sleep disorders in a more efficient way. The team is now in the process of obtaining certification. Legartis, winner of the Software & Services Vertical, developed a contract intelligence software. The Software-as-a-Service solution automates the process of creating and analyzing legal documents allowing companies and lawyers to identify, classify and understand contracts in seconds. The company is already working with several customers. The audience award went to Planted. The ETH Zurich spin-off took home a CHF 10,000 cash prize. Planted creates meat substitutes with pea protein, pea fiber, sunflower oil and water. The products stand out with its texture which makes them almost indistinguishable from chicken. Picture on top: Samantha Anderson, DePolyPicture above: The nine winning teams of >>venture>> 2019.(SK)