June 7, 2023
Home » INiTS

INiTS

Uncategorized
LuxActive
evat Posted On April 3, 2015


About us.

[reference id=”4403″]

Our one-line pitch is…
Our product oHA (online Holiday Assistant) is a lightweight tourist information system for hotels and tourism associations which provides guests a bundled and innovative search experience for location based activities inside the local WiFi.

The core of our team…
Marian is the founder of oHA. Stefan brings insights from the tourism sector and is a passionate barkeeper for luxury hotels. Tatiana is coding the bundle of data behind the scenes and has very good analytic skills. Andrei is an all-rounder for back-end and front-end development.

Our office in looks like…
Starbucks, a bar, a meeting room, a home… To be honest, we are very flexible and get together where it suits us best. This flexibility helps us to keep an eye on the relevant things.

The person that inspires us most…
Jeff Bezos, for example. He laughs problems away and keeps track on his vision – we want to be the Amazon for tourism. Also various youtubers like TotalBiscuit or Spoony who showed that there are more ways to make a living than a 9 to 5 job. Our family. We say, just stay attentive and open minded.

About our journey so far.

Before we started we were…
Most of us are/had been students from the Technical University of Vienna. Furthermore we also have work experience in the areas we are now dealing with in our startup.

We received our initial capital through…
INiTS, the startup incubator for innovative projects from universities. And from the AWS impulse XS program (http://awsg.at) because we designed a completely new marketing tool with oHA for tourism associations.

Our most difficult time so far was…
To incorporate the feedback from interviews with potential customers into our solution (Hardware and Software) and to make a stable product (scaling complete solution) for our lead customer.

Our current development state is…
Scale

About little steps and big dreams.

Our next target is…
To bring our product to new customers (mass). Our target market is Austria and later on Europe. We have cooperations with content providers (points of interests and tours) and want to strengthen and expand them. We developed a clear strategy to get their data better and to gain a win-win situation.

If you say investment we say…
It would be worth it. We are the right smart guys to keep going. We have a really lightweight solution for many fields. An app-like modern and scalable user interface with marginal download size. And anew innovative search experience which makes classical tagging of content obsolete.

The one thing, we couldn’t go on without is…
Tatiana: My smartphone connects me with everyone I want. My bike brings me everywhere I want. Andrei: Coffee, definitively coffee!!!! Marian: My Mountainbike. During moutainbiking I have the time for ordering, re-thinking and prioritising my ideas.

In five years we want to be…
The next Amazon for tourism in B2B.

This story is brought to you in partnership with AplusB, a programme funded by FFG.


Continue Reading
0
181 Views


Uncategorized
Easy as ab&cd
michaelb Posted On March 24, 2015


[reference id=”1673″]

“I’m really Viennese, but with a German passport,” says Dr. Amitava Kundu (39), founder of ab&cd innovations – a Vienna-based startup that provides sustainable and resource-efficient solutions to the chemical industry. Born in Berlin to an Indian chemist father and a German kindergarten-teacher mother, Amitava and his family moved to Vienna while he was still a baby. Bored by his chemistry classes at school, he initially chose to study medicine, but he didn’t want to end up working in a stressful hospital environment. What he did find interesting, though, was spending time in the laboratory, so he began studying chemistry at Vienna’s Technical University in 1997.

After eventually getting his PhD from the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Vienna in 2009, he could have followed in his father’s footsteps by landing an academic position or, like so many of his colleagues, obtained a well-paid, risk-free job in the petrochemical or pharmaceutical industry. But Amitava is not your typical, white-coated lab scientist. Despite having no entrepreneurial background to speak of, he just knew that he was the entrepreneurial type. “It’s just in my makeup. I like to take action, to realise things, not just have the idea. I always knew that I can be more passionate about doing something on my own as opposed to for another company or person.”

C3H8O3 to C3H6O3

A some point after his PhD studies, Amitava made his big discovery. But even more importantly, he figured out a way he could capitalise on it.  

He knew that the global supply of glycerol – a waste by-product of the biodiesel and fatty acid (palm oil and soy oil) industries – is abundant; and that the biggest consumers of glycerol are the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. What he observed, however, was that the steadily increasing oversupply of glycerol did not translate into selling more glycerol-based products. “Glycerol prices dropped from 1,500 euros to 150 euros per ton. I realised I could close the gap between the oversupply of glycerol and the rise in demand for lactic acid, which can be used in various industries, is the main feedstock for biodegradable plastics (polylactic acid) and is very useful for many specialised products, such as bio-absorbable medical implants.”

After finishing his studies, he knew that he had to act quickly. “I knew I couldn’t afford to build my own lab and obtain the necessary public licenses,” recalls Amitava. “So I asked my former Dean at the Institute for a small lab space to do my own research. I offered to buy my own chemicals and pay rent.” This is how he ended up in his small, narrow lab at the University of Vienna’s Institute for Inorganic Chemistry.

Before starting his research, Amitava took business courses for about three months and acquired valuable info on how to manage and market a business. He then went back to the laboratory and after another three months obtained the results he’d expected. Always focused on starting a business, not just publishing his results, he spent more time finding a way to make his results profitable. Finally, he wrote up a business plan and started to look for funding.

From an idea to a business

The best thing I got from INiTS was the network – connections with other startups and connections to patent authorities.

Amitava Kundu, CEO of ab&cd innovations gmbh

Every few months, INiTS – the Viennese centre of Austria’s AplusB entrepreneurial business incubator – held presentations at the university. “I attended one called ‘Have an idea? What next?’ I was inspired,” Amitava remembers. He did exhaustive research on different sources of public funding. “AWS seemed the best possibility for me and the most flexible in terms of my needs.” In 2011, he received pre-seed funding of about 190,000 euros, was accepted into INiTS’ incubator program and founded ab&cd innovations in February. “ INiTS knows that most of us scientists are great inventors but lousy businesspeople,” Amitava says. Their workshops, seminars and one-on-one mentoring were invaluable to me. The best thing I got from them was the network – connections with other startups and connections to patent authorities.” Indeed with a national patent already secured, Amitava is now working on obtaining an international one.)

At the top of the list

ab&cd stands for “Advanced Biocommodities and Chemically Developed” Innovations, but the real reason for the acronym is “so that we are always listed first, alphabetically,” says Amitava with a wink. “I started off on my own, but after six months I took on my first employee – a chemist. She did most of the lab work and I did everything else, from the business plan to the patent applications, developing more ideas, finding potential customers and partners for new projects.” A third person was added to the team in 2013 to do marketing and communications.

Amitava knew that he had to diversify his product offering, not only to lower risk but to generate some revenues while the main glycerol-lactic acid innovation awaits its pilot project. They developed some sustainable, eco-friendly industrial cleaning agents. They also offer consulting services to industries seeking ways to recycle their waste products into value-added chemicals. The latter earned them a partnership agreement with Saubermacher, Austria’s largest private waste-disposal company.

There are also other planned products and cooperations in the pipeline.“We now have a lot of ideas but not enough people to make them happen,” bemoans Amitava.

Financing gap

“Right now our turnover from our other products and cooperations is not enough to run the whole business, but perhaps we’ll break even next year.” In 2015, he also plans to complete a medium-scale pilot project for the glycerol conversion and finally be able to begin scaling it up for industrial levels.

Amitava estimates that he currently needs about 800,000 to a million euros of investment: “We have to put a lot of time and money into development. Investors expect to get a quick ROI, so the first few years have to be financially viable. At this time, we haven’t talked with VCs but are still searching for public-sector support.”

“When the pilot project succeeds,” says Amitava confidently, “we’ll go back and optimise. It won’t fail, but it might take a bit longer than expected.” He sees little risk in the enterprise: “the other ways to convert glycerol into high-value chemicals are either not cost-effective or yield products not as lucrative as lactic acid. Amitava claims to have a long list of potential customers for lactic acid on standby, just waiting for industrial-scale production to begin.

Having fun and looking forward

Years ago, Amitava made a decision that no matter what he’d ended up doing, he’d have fun with it. “Now I think about 90% of what I do is fun for me,” he boasts. He has no regrets about hanging up his white lab coat: “If I want to, I can get back in the lab. But more exciting is developing new ideas.”

ab&cd’s ideas have already won awards and recognition. In 2013, the company won the Environmental Award of the City of Vienna, followed in 2014 by the Vienna Energy Globe prize.

Would Amitava ever simply sell his idea and patent outright? “Even if someone offered that to me I’d still want to have some part in the development. I don’t want to sell my company and go to Hawaii or Thailand, but rather reinvest in my efforts, bring on more employees to work on several projects at the same time.”

If he strikes it big, he also envisions being a business angel to others in his field. “Scientists will be more willing to become entrepreneurs if they see that others are succeeding at it. It’s not too common that people in my field also have business know-how, but if someone asked me, I would definitely help them out – right now, not financially, but absolutely as a mentor.”

This story is brought to you in partnership with AplusB, a programme funded by FFG.


Continue Reading
0
68 Views


Uncategorized
Making Lives Better, Spotless
bernhardk Posted On March 3, 2015


[reference id=”1653″]

“I have always been an inquisitive and independent person. Even when I was working for somebody else I had my own ideas and tried to develop them inside the organization ,” says Sanja Selak, founder and CEO of ORIGIMM, a company that began in 2011 as a project to develop simpler and more reliable research methods that deliver better vaccines.

“Vaccination has become a controversial issue these days,” says Sanja. “It is on the one hand perceived as helpful, on the other hand as something harmful that is put into the body but does not belong there. Most people are not aware that vaccination is an everyday biological process within our bodies. We are vaccinating ourselves every day by coming into contact with all kinds of viruses and bacteria, however some of these bugs are able to hide or diminish the effectiveness of immune system. It is the job of biotechnology to come up with methods of helping our bodies with that.”

The proteins which can be used for a vaccine or immune therapy development are called antigens. Identifying these proteins is ORIGIMM’s s core competence, which is reflected in their name: “ORIGins of IMMunity”. Their flagship project aims to identify most protective antigens  for treatment and prevention of acne vulgaris.

The ‘Origins of ORIGIMM’

Sanja Selak was born in Yugoslavia, and during the Balkan Wars she and her parents fled to Canada, where she went to school and university. It was there that she formed her first business, a music store and school. “This taught me the basics about things like customer relationships, management or marketing,” she remembers, but admits that ORIGIMM’s customer base – pharmaceutical and biotech companies that develop vaccines and therapeutics – is very different. “Now it is all business-to-business. And that, not only legally, makes a big difference.”

In 2014, Tamás Berke, a medical doctor from Hungary, joined Selak as co-founder, and they foundeda GmbH. Being a biotechnology professional with more than 20 years of experience , he brought in not only scientific know-how, but also valuable experience in project management of vaccine development. Sanja and Tamas had previously worked together at an Austrian biotech-company.

As of now, there are four people inthe ORIGIMM’s management team, Sanja Selak (CEO), Tamas Berke (COO) together with Thomas Fischer as CFO and Andreas Pilz, Head of Vaccine Research and Development.

Are scientists good entrepreneurs?

As a scientist, you have more time to develop your ideas. Business is much more timeline-constricted. CEO Sanja Salek

Both Selak and Berke are entrepreneurial types, both have owned businesses before ORIGIMM. But they are well aware of the different demands on scientists and managers.

“As a scientist, you have more time to develop your ideas. Business is much more timeline-constricted,” says Selak. “You have to be very quick in decision-making and take into account not only scientific reasoning, but also the health of your business. For me, searching the quick way to success was a bit difficult, because as a scientist, I wish  to work on a project as creatively and extensively as possible. As a business-person, I can’t branch out as much as I would like  to. I have to keep my focus.”

Private Investors wanted

Financing biotech companies  is a difficult piece of work. “Biotechnology is expensive,” says Selak, “and it is a risky investment.” Initial steps were supported by INiTS, the academic business-incubator of the Vienna university that is also the Vienna branch of the AplusB programme by the Austrian Ministry of Innovation and Technology. Additional larger funds were secured via Austrian Wirtschaft Service (AWS) and Technology Agency of the Vienna city (ZIT).

After getting started with the help of grants, ORIGIMM  now looks for private investments to further develop their projects. “We are targeting individuals as a first step, and after that, we will be looking for larger professional investors,” says Berke who admits readily to the hazard that giving money to a biotech-company poses. “It is a risky investment that can, however, pay off very handsomely. That is why we are looking for somebody with experience in biotech companies”. “Biotech investment can be very lucrative if it is approached in the right way: for example, investing in a portfolio of different biotech companies can diversify the financial risk.”

“Someone who should not forget that they could finance something that has the potential to better millions of people’s lives,” adds Sanja Selak. Financing by going public is not on ORIGIMM’s radar in  the near future.

Austria as a place of business

Biotech investment can be very lucrative if it is approached in the right way: for example, investing in a portfolio of different biotech companies can diversify the financial risk.

Finding experienced biotech  investors proves difficult in a risk-averse society like the Austrian. Whereas both Selak and Berke love Vienna as a place to live, they would sometimes wish for a business-culture more willing to take a risk.

“I like that the Austrian government is showing more and more initiative in supporting startups, especially in very cost-intensive fields like high-end technology. Private funding, however, is much harder to get. And that is a major obstacle for growing young, innovative  biotech companies,” says Selak. “Furthermore, there is an underdeveloped culture of venture capital in Austria, so Austrian companies have to search forventure capital  outside of Austria.”

“On the plus-side, Austria has a strong economy and stable, predictable political system,” adds Berke. “These are vital elements that enable us as a company to plan ahead.”

The future

Both Selak and Berke emphasize that they want ORIGIMM  to grow steadily and in an economically healthy way. “As a company, we have to try and stay as lean as possible. We have a team of six and are now  hiring a seventh person. Growth is inevitable, and it comes from success. Our goal for the next two years is to get our vaccine-project running and have two more projects in the pipeline. As of now, we are outsourcing some of our work so we can stay flexible and focus on our core competence. We will employ more people when we have reached the next stage of our development.”

Founding a company as a young natural scientist can be more tricky than, say, in IT-business. “I would advise everyone to work for a while in academia and get a sound scientific professional experience,” says Berke. “Getting a biotech-business running certainly takes endurance. Whereas it is important to have the business-side of things covered, you must have a broad and viable scientific background.”

Defining success

Both Selak and Berke agree that success is a two-sided medal. “As business-people, we have to define success in business-terms. But of course we are also scientists. Our work is about finding and developing something scientifically valuable.”

But which  of the two is closer to their heart? “We want to help the patients, and we want to build our team. For me, it is more about the patients. Making money comes second,because if we think of money first, we will lose the focus on the quality of our products and in the end it will not be a success for either the patients or our shareholders,” says Sanja Selak. To which Tamás Berke as a physician can only agree: “Making life better for people – that is ultimately why we do it”.

 This story is brought to you in partnership with AplusB, a programme funded by FFG.


Continue Reading
0
242 Views


Uncategorized
Re-compose
Team Posted On February 28, 2015


About us. 

Our one-line pitch is…
We unlock human performance. We achieve this by delivering personalised music that enables you to enter different states of consciousness so that you can fully reach your individual human potential (physically and mentally).

The core of our team…
Stefan M. Oertl, the original founder of the company and current CEO with a background in science – in charge of technology and research. Roland Trimmel, a serial entrepreneur with 10 years in Internet tech who leads product, operations, marketing and anything else that needs to be taken care of.

Our office in looks like…
We are working in the fabulous Sektor 5 coworking Space in Vienna. We love it, seriously – it’s a creative space that isn’t shy to try new things. And, that’s exactly the kind of environment we need for taking novel approaches that combine science and music. It’s also lovely located in Vienna, and has great people.

The person that inspires us most…
There isn’t a single pick for us. Rather, it comes down to a handful of individuals who are able to bring body and mind in unisono and thereby unlock their full potential. Ayrton Senna, legendary F1 racing driver, was one of them. Deeply sophisticated, but always a high achiever.

About our journey so far. 

There was a lot of critical, harsh feedback – but, we turned it around in opening a dialogue with those people and we are still listening to them. 

Before we started we were…
Stefan is a researcher at Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, specialising in altered states of awareness and peak experiences. He also studied at USC in Los Angeles, working with Hollywood film composers. Roland was in startups before, he helped scale Wappwolf to 100k users in six months.

We received our initial capital through…
Research grants from AWS, FFG and iNiTS. And, we invested our own money into venture to back up these grants.

Our most difficult time so far was…
Building up customers for our first product Liquid Notes was hard, especially when you’re new in the industry. There was a lot of critical, harsh feedback – but, we turned it around in opening a dialogue with those people and we are still listening to them. It may be hard, but it’s also the best learning.

About little steps and big dreams.

Our next target is…
We want to bring a mood-changing app using our technology for a new generation of music player to the market. This app will enable personalised music for consumers, so they stay more focused and energised, or relax better. At sports, games, work and perhaps even therapy.

If you say investment we say…
We are looking for strategic partners to join us on our journey of rethinking music. Preferably, these should be people with an understanding of the salutogenetic benefits of music – so, ideally from music, sports or related fields such as psychology and cognition.

The one thing, we couldn’t go on without is…
Friends, and music. Music really does wonders, it’s an amazing medium that everyone of us uses and can’t get enough of.

Our current development state is…
Scale

In five years we want to be…
We want to bring personalised music to the masses by having our technology embedded in fitness/health apps, games, etc. And in five years form now we want to have made some leaps forward in the scientific domain when it comes to broaden our understanding of music.

 This story is brought to you in partnership with AplusB, a programme funded by FFG.


Continue Reading
0
832 Views