Incubating egg white without any chickens – VTT LaunchPad turns top researchers into investment-ready entrepreneur
Finnish science startup incubator has attracted leading researchers with an entrepreneurial mindset to help them commercialize their inventions and impact the world.
Espoo, Finland (November 25th, 2021) Finnish science startup incubator VTT LaunchPad has successfully formed teams from a wide variety of industries to create companies of the future. The teams represent top technologies in fields such as carbon-negative construction, petit hydrogen peroxide steaming machines for disinfecting challenging spaces, and edible egg white – created without chickens.
These teams consist of leading researchers from their respective fields, bringing in their scientific know-how with an entrepreneurial mindset. Since the incubator’s launch in 2019, it has spun out two companies, Volare and eniferBio.
Teams can develop their technological solutions at VTT’s cutting-edge laboratories and pilot facilities. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is one of Europe’s leading technology research centres. The maturity and business readiness of the venture teams is eventually validated by their ability to raise early-stage funding from external investors.
In fall 2021, VTT LaunchPad is ready to introduce the teams to science-savvy startup investors from all around the world at Slush 2021. Investors are invited to explore investment opportunities into each of the teams to help the early-stage ventures launch their operations geared for international scale.
“Our researchers are on a completely different level compared to their fellow scientists because they come into VTT LaunchPad with a strong will to transform their research into a profitable business. Finnish companies are traditionally excellent in building unique and trailblazing technology, but when it comes to ‘born-global’ commercialization, we need help. That’s why VTT LaunchPad wants to speak with international investors that have experience in bringing to the table not just capital, but their personal know-how and international network for deep tech companies,” comments Lotta Partanen, VTT LaunchPad Manager.
Creating environmentally friendly solutions for super polluters like the construction industry and animal-based foods
VTT LaunchPad is committed to developing impactful and fundable spin-off companies with VTT inventions that can solve great problems in the world. Two examples of the current batch of teams are Carbonaide and EggPlant.
Carbonaide aims to change how concrete is created. Concrete is the second most used material in the world right after clean water, but in itself, it is currently responsible for 6–7% of global CO₂ emissions. Together with VTT, Carbonaide has created technology that utilizes CO₂ in concrete production, enabling a very low, and even negative CO₂ footprint for concrete.
Instead of creating 300 kg/m³ of carbon emissions, Carbonaide’s technology binds 60 kg/m³ of emissions while creating substitutes for cement and enables the use of alternative cementitious materials. Carbonaide is tapping into a huge market worth USD 107 billion with an annual growth rate of 5%. There is currently no other global solution for the use of concrete.
EggPlant has created an animal-free solution for egg white production. Egg white is one of the best sources of animal-derived protein, as well as a great ingredient for the food industry thanks to its nutritional value, binding, and coagulation qualities. By creating egg white replacement in the laboratory, EggPlant’s product will offer an alternative way for producing a valuable protein source for the food industry.
“The food system as we know it today will have challenges to respond to the growing human population and climate change impacts. Cellular agriculture has great potential to help with some of the biggest challenges of humankind,” says Jussi Joensuu, founder and CSO of Eggplant.
“VTT LaunchPad is helping us to understand the best ways of bringing our deep tech innovation to market. When your total market size is over USD 200 billion and the future of the planet is in question, it really pays off to make good preparations,” Joensuu concludes.
VTT LaunchPad gears up its operations with participation to Slush
Together with the teams, VTT LaunchPad will be participating in Slush, the biggest tech event in the Nordic countries, which is organized in December in Helsinki, Finland.
“We are really excited to meet with the top science-oriented startup investors face to face at Slush. It’s easy to convince investors with our teams’ technological skills, and now we look forward to those personal connections built between these future entrepreneurs and strategically best investors,” Partanen concludes.
Investors and media can meet with the VTT LaunchPad team and entrepreneurs at Slush stand 7B.5.
Full list of VTT Launchpad ventures
● CooliBlade: Groundbreaking cooling performance for power electronics.
● StealthLight: Revolutionizes light visibility with controlled range illumination (CRI) technology.
● Carbonaide: Carbon negative concrete.
● Obview: Dynamic privacy protectors for electronic displays.
● HTM Solutions: A unique application for monitoring thermal status of individuals - and enabling disruptive services in several business segments whenever thermal satisfaction is an issue.
● The Warming Surfaces Company: Warmth when and where you need it
● REPLICA Multiprocessor: enables ten times improvement in parallel processing performance compared to current multicore processors.
● HealthClean: Portable and affordable hydrogen peroxide vapor generators for contactless disinfection.
● Granarium: 100% renewable electricity storage based on high consistency nanocellulose.
● HyperMine: Laser-based hyperspectral imaging for underground mines
● EggPlant: Egg white without chickens.
For additional information:
Media kit with pictures
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Lotta Partanen, VTT LaunchPad Manager
+358 504802706
lotta.partanen@vtt.fi
About VTT Launchpad
VTT LaunchPad is a science-based spin-off incubator, where we bring VTT researchers and technology together with the best business minds and investors out there to renew industries. VTT LaunchPad supports incubator teams to develop VTT owned IPR into fundable spin-off companies.
Read more: www.vttresearch.com/en/vtt-launchpad
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
VTT is a visionary research, development and innovation partner. We drive sustainable growth and tackle the biggest global challenges of our time, and turn them into growth opportunities. We go beyond the obvious to help the society and companies to grow through technological innovations. We have almost 80 years of experience of top-level research and science-based results. VTT is at the sweet spot where innovation and business come together.
VTT – beyond the obvious
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