InkVivo wins the 2021 Boldbrain Startup Challenge. The audience award goes to Arcadia

The winners of the 2021 Boldbrain Startup Challenge, the acceleration programme for innovative ideas organised by Fondazione Agire with the support of USI Startup Centre, and sponsored by the Department of Finances and Economy of the Canton Ticino and BancaStato, were announced at the final event held on Thursday, December 2, at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano. InkVivo won the first prize, a cash cheque of CHF 40.000 and a full scholarship for USI EMBA worth CHF 52.000. The audience award was won by Arcadia.

The national jury, chaired by Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier, assessed the ten finalist projects and announced the five winners, who were awarded cheques for a total value of CHF 120.000, as well as in-kind services that will enable them continue with the development of their project. The sixth prize of CHF 10.000 was awarded by the audience via an electronic vote in the auditorium.

The first prize went to InkVivo, who received a cheque for 40.000 Swiss francs, a full scholarship of 52.000 francs to study for the Executive Master in Business Administration at USI, and a 12-hour package of legal advice from Bär & Karrer worth 5.000 francs. The CHF 30.000 cheque for second place went to PepperZone, while Talent4gig came third, receiving a cheque for CHF 20.000. Finally, the fourth and fifth place winners DolcePack and Arcadia each received CHF 10.000. The audience award went to Arcadia.

The top three winners of Boldbrain Startup Challenge are given the opportunity to participate in the Swiss Economic Award and MassChallenge Switzerland programmes, which support the development of late-stage start-ups, as well as coaching vouchers from Connect Switzerland and consulting days at yourCFO. In addition, all finalists receive a voucher from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property for an initial patent search.

Sponsor Hemargroup awarded its two special prizes to Ethafa and motuSML, who will have the opportunity to start working on the prototyping of their idea. Finally, the new special prize awarded by Fondazione Agire will provide Ethafa, Lealty, and PepperZone with a workspace at the Tecnopolo Ticino in Manno.

The winning project: InkVivo

InkVivo has developed a biopolymer which, when imbued with pain-relief and anti-inflammatory drugs, can be applied on patients after surgery, releasing progressively the painkillers and thus reducing suffering.

The other prize-winners

Second place: PepperZone

The powerful computers that gamers use have everything that the gaming software needs to run efficiently: space, computing power and connectivity. Now, with PepperZone, gamers can make these resources available and get paid for it. Users download and install the application on their computers and in this way they can immediately start sharing their excess power, which is used when they are not playing games.

Third place: Talent4gig

Talent4gig is a global data-driven platform that connects the right professional skills to the best job opportunity. Talent4gig's artificial intelligence allows to test candidates' skills while solving the needs of companies and job seekers. Candidates can test their skills in a playful way, and then showcase their achievements to attract the right companies.

Fourth place: DolcePack

It offers a modern, versatile machine for packaging products in flexible, recyclable pouches. The technology developed saves time and energy during packaging and considerably reduces the space needed to pack the same quantity of products compared to other machines. At the same time, it requires little maintenance.

Fifth place and Audience prize: Arcadia

Arcadia selects human- and environmentally-safe bacteria that can transform demolition, mining and wood waste into useful objects of any form, such as bio-cement blocks, bricks, tables, tiles and even houses made of recycled wood.