Cyltronic capital increase June 28, 2021
Cyltronic AG secures funds totalling over 1 million Swiss francs
Cyltronic AG develops electric cylinders and wants to replace conventional pneumatic cylinders, such as those found in industrial plants all over the world. In her first round of financing, she succeeded in convincing three angel investors and one venture capitalist of her vision and the Cyltronic team. A total of CHF 700,000 is contributed by investors, and Cyltronic receives a further CHF 310,000 in the form of grants.
According to founder Jeremias Wehrli, electric cylinders are the future when it comes to linear movements in industrial plants. It is not only the energy savings of up to 95% compared to traditional compressed air cylinders that speak for this, but also the increasing demands of machine manufacturers, who have to cope with ever more complex movement processes.
Automation is making significant progress and Cyltronic is right in the middle of it. With the electric cylinders from Cyltronic, machine builders are finally able to implement precise linear movements without expensive servomotors.
The first 100 cylinders in the pilot phase
Cyltronic is currently implementing cylinders for machine end users in various industries. “100 cylinders should be in use by the end of the year,” says Wehrli. In doing so, Cyltronic wants to show how easy it is to integrate the cylinders into existing systems and how much energy can be saved as a result.
The pilot phase is supported by the Federal Office of Energy and the Swiss Climate Foundation. Both have recognized that compressed air is one of the biggest sources of energy costs in industry and that the energy saving potential of electric drives is enormous. The combined financial support of the two amounts to CHF 310k.
CHF 700k from three angels and a VC
The three angel investors Christoph von Bergen, Roland Lüthi and Marco Garbani as well as the venture capitalist, Privilège Ventures, are investing a total of CHF 700k. They are convinced — with the investment, the Cyltronic team will be able to successfully place their electric cylinder on the market and scale it quickly.
“We are proud that we were able to convince a venture capitalist to invest in Cyltronic in our first financing round,” says Wehrli. “We were positively impressed,” adds Jacqueline Rüdin Rüsch, General Partner at Privilège Ventures - “both by the team and by the technology. The due diligence process went smoothly and Jeremias was always available to answer any questions we might have. We are happy to add Cyltronic to our portfolio companies and look forward to a successful joint project.”
Von Bergen new board of directors
Christoph von Bergen becomes part of Cyltronics' Board of Directors as lead investor. The startup is convinced that the company can benefit a lot from such an experienced entrepreneur in VR, who himself has built up a company from 4 to 400 people.
Market entry in the DACH region
With the investment, Cyltronics team will complete the pilot phase, finance further development of the product and enter the DACH market. In doing so, Cyltronic is pursuing a distribution strategy and will establish a network with various distributors domestically but also in Germany and Austria.
