The life of a company is made up of numerous challenges that often have to be met simultaneously. The mission of the Alliance and platinn coaching services is to help companies in Western Switzerland meet these challenges. Demonstration with Cortexia, which was coached by both entities between 2018 and 2023.
To support companies in Western Switzerland in their various growth phases, measures are put in place by the cantons as part of their economic promotion efforts, and also jointly with the Swiss Confederation through the Regional Innovation System of Western Switzerland(RIS-SO). These include the Alliance and platinn coaching services.
Both organizations support companies in their innovation challenges. While Alliance specializes in technological innovation, platinn focuses on business innovation. Cortexia, for example, is one of the companies in the French-speaking part of Switzerland to benefit from this complementary approach.
Cortexia's promise to take control of urban cleanliness
Since 2016, the Châtel-St-Denis-based company has been designing solutions that enable cities to measure urban cleanliness accurately and objectively. Thanks to hardware installed on the utility vehicles that criss-cross the city (sweepers, garbage trucks, etc.), the company collects data that is analyzed using AI and made available to road services via a web platform. This mapping enables machines and personnel to be assigned where they are needed, resulting in a more efficient allocation of resources and a reduction in environmental impact.
Developing your technology with the support of Alliance
Start-up Cortexia has benefited from Alliance support for Innosuisse projects on several occasions, with the aim of improving its solution through technological innovation. One of these projects was aimed at optimizing resources through AI. Once the data had been collected, it was necessary to automate the analysis process so that the sweepers' routes could be predicted, thereby optimizing the routes of the entire fleet of vehicles, knowing which streets or neighborhoods would be dirty at which times.
Andréas von Kaenel, co-founder of Cortexia, is a former Alliance consultant, so he immediately thought of contacting the coaching platform. Robert Van Kommer, an innovation advisor in the ICT sector, helped him set up the project with a view to obtaining Innosuisse funding.
The first key step was to identify the right academic partners. Indeed, while Cortexia wanted to collaborate with EPFL's LTS5 signal processing laboratory for the predictive part, they didn't know who to turn to for fleet optimization. Robert Van Kommer suggested they work with Sacha Varone from HEG, and then helped them structure the Innosuisse application. And his support goes even further: "Robert thinks right away about the fundamental questions of industrial property and patents," explains Andréas von Kaenel, "he has a very competent input in this area."
Calling on Alliance enabled Cortexia to properly size the technological development of the project. "For a start-up, it's vital to be supported from the very beginning of an innovation project, to set it up. It's a real value," explains Andréas von Kaenel. In Switzerland, we are fortunate to have schools that are able to collaborate with companies and understand industrial issues. And we have organizations that put partners in touch with each other, enabling us to find the right skills for each project. Companies that go through Alliance are much more likely to obtain Innosuisse funding.
Within the management team, we had no experience of financing start-ups. Without platinn's support, it would have been very difficult for us. Marie-Laure Berthié helped us put together the right documentation for our potential investors. She bridged the gap between our two worlds and helped us define responsibilities so that everyone's objectives were met. We appreciate her proactivity. She anticipates potential difficulties. She ensures that negotiations with investors progress in parallel, so that each relationship reaches a coordinated conclusion.
Raising funds with platinn's support
After receiving support on cooperation, business and organizational aspects in its early years, the company benefited from platinn coaching by Marie-Laure Berthié on the financial side.
Like all start-ups, Cortexia has gone through several development phases, each of which required funding. Initially self-financed, the company needed external funding when it came to industrializing its solution. This was made possible thanks to business angels. A new phase is now underway to support international deployment and the technological development of the platform for new applications.
During these two phases, Cortexia's management was supported by Marie-Laure Berthié at various stages: putting together the dossier, monitoring relations with investors and managing the timing to reach a timely conclusion.
Future projects and developments
Today, Cortexia is active not only in Switzerland, in cities such as Basel and Geneva, but also in France and Germany. The company is now turning its attention to the Benelux market, while continuing its technological development with a new axis of innovation focused on improving the quality of collected household bio-waste. For this new development, Cortexia has been awarded the Swiss Accelerator 2023.
When you're creating or working in a start-up, you're in a vehicle that's going at full speed, and you've got to hit the ground running. You can't afford to lose time. And you can quickly lose yourself, because there are so many demands on your time. The most important thing is to be able to concentrate on the key stages for the company, i.e. product development and financing. The Alliance and platinn coaching programs enable you to concentrate on these fundamental stages.
Cortexia in brief
Founded: 2016
Head office: Châtel-Saint-Denis
Team: 14 collaborateur∙ices at May 31, 2023
Products: Platform for measuring the cleanliness of an area
Innovation: Waste detection using cameras mounted on road vehicles
Coaching platinn: coaching finance from 2021 to 2023
Coaching Alliance: 3 Innosuisse projects submitted and Swiss Accelerator winner in 2023
Contact: www.cortexia.ch
Alliance and platinn
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Article written in collaboration with platinn