S2S Ventures boosts three startups

S2S Ventures was established in 2021 with a mission to guide entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through their journey from early stage to growth. With a CHF 10 million fund and a dedicated committee comprising students with different science and business backgrounds from the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, University of St. Gallen, and EPFL, S2S Ventures not only offers financial investment of CHF 25’000 to selected companies, but also provides hands-on operational and foundational support.  

The VC firm’s portfolio has continued to grow – most recently the firm made investments in three startups which address challenges in sustainable chemical manufacturing, information management platform on earth matters and construction delays.  

Schlieren-based startup Biosimo develops a process that uses bioethanol, a renewable resource, as the primary feedstock for fossil-free, sustainable chemicals and solvents, which make up the basis for a variety of consumer products. The compay currently offers industry-grade acetic acid with plans to expand the product line to include bio-based acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate. Biosimo’s solutions reduce carbon emissions and promote the circular economy, offering a sustainable replacement to traditional fossil resource-based processes. This deal was led by S2S’s investment partners Jaques Schmidt and David Campbell. 

Founded as a spinoff from the University of Zurich (UZH), ETH, and EPFL askEarth developed a powerful user-friendly query engine based on Large Language Models (LLMs) to democratize access to geospatial intelligence even without data science skills. The platform provides users with real-time accurate, trustworthy and up-to-date Earth observation imagery information, thus combating disinformation. Investment Partners Mikhail Stoliartchouk and Sa.rper Melik Ertekin led this investment deal for S2S Ventures.  

ClimaLinks from Zurich aims to make weather data more useful for companies vulnerable to weather disruptions through a sophisticated weather prediction engine. The company’s flagship solutions ClimaLinks Weather Relations Management (WRM) Software and ClimaLinks Data-as-a-Service help project developers and construction managers to make informed decisions based on the weather forecasts, resulting in reduced delays on the construction sites due to unexpected weather conditions. The deal was led by Investment Partners Tobias Teslof and Moritz von Contzen and closed in January 2024. 

(SR)