News out of the world of Fraunhofer startups

Heidelberg/Würzburg, March 31, 2021 - Multiphoton Optics GmbH has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidelberg Instruments Mikrotechnik GmbH. The pooling of development capabilities and technologies for producing microstructures further underscores the global importance of research, development and production of direct-writing laser systems “Made in Germany”. The merger also extends the company’s market position in the micro-optics sector.

NexWafe GmbH wins the Fraunhofer Founder Award 2020 endowed with 5000 euros. The start-up convinced the high-caliber panel from Fraunhofer Venture and High-Tech-Gründerfonds with a revolutionary new approach for the photovoltaic industry.

Threedy is a spin-off from Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD in Darmstadt, Germany. It has now raised early-stage venture capital to commercialize its instant3Dhub platform. This platform primarily supports visualization, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, and will initially serve companies in the automotive, aerospace and energy industries, as well as users of building information modeling (BIM) solutions. The investment is led by the Industrial Technologies fund of btov Partners, in association with High Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Fraunhofer.

Although periodontitis is a widespread infectious disease affecting around 30% of the global population, there are currently no effective treatments available — yet. PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals, a Fraunhofer IZI spin-off, has developed a novel treatment strategy that works to specifically eradicate the major bacterial pathogens of periodontitis, thereby tackling the root cause of the disease. With the help of bmp Ventures AG (through the IBG-Fonds), i&i Prague, Fraunhofer Venture and a strategic partner, PerioTrap now plans to advance its drug development programs.

The tech-business of the future will combine the world’s leading science & technology sources and outstanding entrepreneurial capabilities – and you could be part of it. Last Monday, the AHEAD-Team kicked off a pull-workshop with scientists and entrepreneurs to create dedicated matching and collaboration opportunities for future ventures – here is how a pull-workshop connects stat-ups / entrepreneurs and Fraunhofer Technology:

At first sight, reseachers and startup-entrepreneurs seem to work at different ends of the value chain: While researchers solve sophisticated technical problems through forward-looking technologies, startups pilot practicable market solutions for real customer problems. But the reality at Fraunhofer is quite different and even Joseph von Fraunhofer himself started a successful business based on his groundbreaking findings in the field of optics.

Arioso Systems GmbH, provider of a new disruptive micro-transducer technology announces the completion of its first financing round. Arioso Systems 2,6M€ financing round is led by Brandenburg Kapital (Potsdam, Germany), a subsidiary of Brandenburger Förderbank ILB, and supported by High-Tech-Gründerfonds III (Bonn), Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (Dresden) and business angels.

Prolupin, the innovative plant-based protein company based in Grimmen, Germany, today announced the first closing of a double digit million growth financing round which will enable the company to expand its B2B and B2C offerings. After exceptional year-on-year growth since market introduction of its vegan Made with LUVE brand in 2015, the new financing will allow Prolupin to address the mass market for further growth and international expansion.

Nanoplus Nanosystems and Technologies GmbH (nanoplus) from Gerbrunn and Multiphoton Optics GmbH from Würzburg closed a production agreement to produce miniaturized optics on laser sources for IR sensor technology using MPO technology. This is the first time that the two-photon polymerization (2PP) process of pioneer MPO is used worldwide for the industrial production of miniaturized components in a pay-per-use model.

"Accelerating DeepTech collaboration!" Fraunhofer Venture organized the CoInnovation Day 2019 in Berlin under this motto on the November 28.