DTU was represented in as many as nine of the 20 projects that made it to the finals and in four of five possible categories in this year's Venture Cup Idea Competition 2014. DTU projects ended up winning two of the categories—Cleantech & Environment and Life Science & Medtech.
For the past 13 years, Venture Cup has been working to help and inspire young entrepreneurs, and it has now grown to become one of Europe's largest non-profit organizations helping young entrepreneurs get started by providing financial support, networking opportunities and guidance.
PhD student Mickey Pierre Madsen from DTU Electrical Engineering is one of the driving forces behind Nordic Power Converters which won the category Cleantech & Environment and the prize of DKK 25,000:
In brief, what is the idea behind your project?
"Nordic Power Converters has developed a cutting-edge power supply technology enabling global market penetration of LED lighting. Nordic Power Converters' new, patented power supply technology increases overall lifetime of LED bulbs considerably and reduces size and price without compromising with efficiency. Further to LED lighting, the technology can be used in everything from small devices to the space industry."
How did you get the idea for Nordic Power Converters?
"I got the idea for Nordic Power Converters in the spring 2012 when I was working on my master’s thesis dealing with a new type of power converters," says Mickey Madsen and continues: "As I was working on my thesis, I invented a new way of producing inexpensive, small and long-lived power converters. DTU applied for a patent on the idea, and at the same time, I started thinking about ways of commercializing the idea. This type of power converter has proven very suitable for LED lighting, which is a booming market demanding the possibilities that these power converters provide."
What is your role in Nordic Power Converters?
"My role has been to head the project and gather the right people to help me with the technical development. In addition, I have continued working on a business plan and an IPR strategy, and I have also started cooperating with companies and investors. As a result, our team now consists of five to six people working to commercialize the patent family created for this type of power converter over the last two years."
What is the potential?
"The potential is huge! On the LED market alone, earning more than DKK 100 million a year in royalties is a realistic possibility. But the technology is also suitable for a wide range of other applications."
PhD student Mickey Pierre Madsen
"Our main focus is to get one of the three leading LED manufacturers to use our power converters in their products in exchange for payment of royalties from the money saved by using our technology. The potential is huge! On the LED market alone, earning more than DKK 100 million a year in royalties is a realistic possibility. But the technology is also suitable for a wide range of other applications."
What will be the next step?
"We have recently received funding for the next six months, which is the time set aside for finishing our first fully functional demonstration model to be presented to investors, potential customers and strategic partners. We also need to ensure the necessary level of investment to establish a solid and viable spin-out capable of realizing the full potential of the technology."
How will you spend the prize money?
"The DKK 25,000 will be spent on establishing the company structure and ensuring world-class financing from Silicon Valley, for instance."
The project NEMdose with participants from the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School won the category Life Science & MedTech.
NEMdose is a complete pharmaceutical production platform providing automated compounding of personalized swallable dosage forms. NEMdose is a novel approach for preparation of single drug or "poly drug" dosages to improve medical care of patients and reduce healthcare costs.
From the prize ceremony. Research Assistant Jakob Mønster (left) and Entrepreneur Regnar Paaske (Photo: Venture Cup)
The idea competition participants have the chance of winning DKK 25,000 in each of the five categories as well as the People’s Choice Award of DKK 25,000.
Participation means access to advisers, workshops and an extensive network of investors, experts from the industry and other entrepreneurs. All the participants receive feedback from our qualified members of the jury.
See all the categories and finalists here.
The main competition, Venture Cup Start-up Competition 2014, will kick off later in the year, and the overall winner(s) take home DKK 200,000.