Eldico Scientific develops, manufactures and sells novel instruments for electron diffraction in crystallography, enabling nanocrystalline solid-state analysis in the submicrometer range. Having completed a proof of concept in 2018, the company is actively developing its product with the support of suppliers and development partners from five countries including the Swedish company Excillum, the German companies Axilon and SmarAct, and from Switzerland, Dectris, the world's leading manufacturer of 2D detectors is supporting the startup.
Less than one year after its foundation in June 2019, the company is now valued at around CHF 6.5 million after the closing of CHF 1.5 million seed round led by BERNINA BioInvest. Private investors from Germany and The Netherlands, the Aargauische Kantonalbank (AKB) and Venture Kick also participated in the round.
The funds will flow into product development as the company plans to launch the first electron diffractometer specially designed for nano-crystallographic research – an instrument that does not yet exist today. The first instrument should be ready for use at the customer's premises in the first quarter of 2021. Customers of the technology include research institutes in science and industry, pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations (CROs), agrochemical companies and companies in the advanced materials sector.
Eldico emerged from a research project that was sponsored by the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) in 2018 and, as one of its outstanding achievements, was named a Top 5 "Breakthrough of the Year" by the scientific journal SCIENCE. Since then, ELDICO has won numerous prizes and grants, including the European Union's EUR 50,000 SME instrument. Most recently, the company was awarded second place in the competition for the prestigious “Pionierpreis” of Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) and Technopark Zurich. ELDICO was also included on the list of the most promising Swiss engineering start-ups of the year 2020.
(Press release/ran)
Photo L-R: Gustavo Santiso (Chief Scientific Officer), Nils Gebhardt (CFO), Eric Hovestreydt (CEO), Gunther Steinfeld (CTO)