condenZero receives award

Venture Kick is providing financial backing to the Zurich-based start-up condenZero to the tune of 150,000 Swiss francs. Founded in 2019, the start-up develops and manufactures scientific instruments and components for research applications in ultra-high vacuum and ultra-cold (cryogenic) temperatures, as detailed in a press release issued by Venture Kick. This allows more efficient and more effective research to be carried out in the areas of materials research, life sciences and nanotechnology, saving time and money in the process, while also delivering greater scientific output.   

Denys Sutter and Dominik Rechsteiner founded condenZero in 2019 as a spin-off from the Laboratory for Quantum Matter Research of the University of Zurich. The start-up intends to use this grant of 150,000 Swiss francs for the development of new products in addition to financing company infrastructure and the expansion of its client base. The Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of Europe’s largest interdisciplinary research centers, has already placed pre-orders with condenZero. “The Venture Kick process has been a transformative experience. During that full year, the challenging jury and the Kickers Camps helped us tremendously to develop the company and our entrepreneurial skills”, comments CEO Denys Sutter in the press release.

Important technical and scientific applications are possible at temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 °C). These include quantum computing, investigating viruses and proteins in addition to superconductivity, which can be used in medical devices or levitating trains, according to the technical description of the project. In specific terms, condenZero’s focus is on developing and manufacturing a cryogenic sample holder for cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which would allow researchers to work more effectively. More than one thousand research centers are carrying out experiments in the area of cryo-EM, according to the press release, which ultimately opens up a market estimated to be worth 5 billion US dollars for condenZero.