Cyltronic capital increase June 28, 2021

Cyltronic AG secures funds of more than 1 million Swiss francs

Cyltronic AG is developing electric cylinders and aims to replace conventional pneumatic cylinders found in industrial plants worldwide. In its first round of financing, it succeeded in convincing three angel investors and one venture capitalist of its vision and the Cyltronic team. A total of CHF 700,000 will be contributed by the investors, and Cyltronic will receive another CHF 310,000 in grants.

According to founder Jeremias Wehrli, electric cylinders are the future when it comes to linear movements in industrial plants. Not only the energy savings of up to 95% compared to traditional pneumatic cylinders speak for this, but also the increasing demands of machine builders who have to deal with ever more complex motion sequences.

Automation is making strong progress and Cyltronic is right in the middle of it. With Cyltronic's electric cylinders, machine builders are finally able to implement precise linear movements without expensive servo motors.

The First 100 Cylinders in the Pilot Phase

Currently, Cyltronic is implementing cylinders in various industries at machine end-users. “By the end of the year, 100 cylinders should be in use,” says Wehrli. In this way, Cyltronic wants to show how easily the cylinders can be integrated into existing systems and how much energy can be saved.

The pilot phase is supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the Swiss Climate Foundation. Both have recognized that compressed air is one of the biggest energy cost drivers in industry and that the potential for energy savings through electric drives is enormous. The combined financial support of the two amounts to CHF 310k.

CHF 700k from Three Angels and One VC

The three angel investors Christoph von Bergen, Roland Lüthi and Marco Garbani as well as the venture capitalist, Privilege Ventures, invested together CHF 700k. They are convinced about the team ability to execute and place their electric cylinders in the market while scaling quickly.

“We are proud that we were able to convince a venture capitalist to commit in Cyltronic already in our first financing round,” says Wehrli. “We were positively impressed,” continues Jacqueline Rüdin Rüsch, General Partner of Privilege Ventures — “about both the team and the technology. The due diligence process was smooth, and Jeremias was always available to answer our questions. We are glad to add Cyltronic to our portfolio companies and we are looking forward to a successful venture together.”

Von Bergen new board member

Christoph von Bergen becomes part of Cyltronic's board of directors as lead investor. The startup is convinced the company can benefit a lot from such an experienced entrepreneur on the board of directors, who himself built up a company from 4 to 400 people.

Market entry in the DACH region

With the investment, Cyltronic's team wants to complete the pilot phase, finance further development of the product and enter the DACH market. In doing so, Cyltronic wants to pursue a distributor strategy and will build a network with various distributors in the domestic market but also in Germany and Austria.