Spin off companies

Although this is by no means expected from ICREA researchers, it so happens that sometimes they hit on something that shows promise of becoming a powerful new technology, but it seems impossible to develop that further without significant investment of time and money. In these cases, many choose to explore the option of creating a spin-off company dedicated to the concept.

List of spin off companies

  • QUSIDE

    Supported by the Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) and ICREA.
    Entrepeneurs:  ICREA Research Professors Morgan Mitchell and Valerio Pruneri
    Formalised in September 2017.

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    QuSide Technologies S.L. is set up to develop quantum technologies for the cyber-security and super-computation worlds. By exploiting photonics technologies and by leveraging the maturity of the semiconductor manufacturing industry, QuSide products bring unprecedented security and performance to the information era.

  • RADIANTIS

    Jointly supported by the Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) and ICREA.
    Entrepreneur: ICREA Research Professor Majid Ebrahim Zadeh.
    Born in July 2005.

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    Radiantis is a specialist manufacturer of
    advanced wavelength conversion technology for
    the laser and photonics market. Founded in
    2005 as a spin-off company from the research
    laboratory of Professor Majid Ebrahim-Zadeh at
    ICFO in Barcelona, the company is now
    established as a leading supplier of state-of-theart
    ultrafast optical parametric oscillators (OPOs)
    and harmonic wavelength generation systems in
    the world, with best-in-class performance in the
    sector. The products offered by Radiantis
    provide uniquely versatile laser light tools for a
    variety of scientific and technological
    applications in biophotonics, nanophotonics,
    optical microscopy and imaging, time-resolved
    spectroscopy, semiconductor research,
    frequency synthesis, comb generation, quantum
    optics, and surface science. The products are
    designed and developed with the highest
    technological standards, and focus on delivering
    maximum flexibility, functionality, and utility for
    end-users. As such, substantial effort is
    dedicated to transform laboratory prototypes to
    highly engineered, fully automated, and
    computer-controlled systems for maximum
    reliability, stability, and ease-of-use. The turnkey
    systems manufactured by Radiantis are capable
    of reaching difficult spectral regions from the UV
    to the mid-IR, not available to lasers. The
    company is now established as a certified
    supplier of frequency conversion systems to one
    of the largest suppliers of laser technology in
    the world, Newport/Spectra-Physics, USA. (www.
    newport.com).

    The flagship products manufactured by Radiantis
    are the uniquely versatile, hands-free
    femtosecond OPOs–InspireTM OPO Series–with
    an unprecedented gap-free wavelength
    coverage from the UV to near-IR (340-2500 nm),
    and a sealed cutting-edge femtosecond OPO–
    ORIA® IR–with full automation and interventionfree
    operation, providing continuous tuning
    across 1000–4500 nm in the near- to mid-IR. In
    2014, Radiantis further expanded its portfolio
    into instrumentation systems by introducing two
    new products to the market– a highly versatile
    compact spectrometer, and a laser beam
    stabilization module. The company has also
    established effective sales and distribution
    channels in Europe and Asia, and is actively
    involved in several collaborations with other
    leading manufacturers of laser technology
    worldwide, with the goal of developing new
    innovative products, strengthening its market
    position and consolidating its growth. Radiantis
    also participates in various national and
    European collaborative projects aimed at the
    development and commercialization of
    emerging and future technologies. Today,
    Radiantis is well integrated in the academic and
    research community and has a broad network of
    satisfied scientists deploying its advanced
    products across the world. The mission of the
    company is to maintain a leading position at the
    forefront of photonics technology worldwide by
    providing cutting-edge products with
    unsurpassed performance through continuous
    innovation.
    www.radiantis.com

     

  • Logo de SixSenso
    SIXSENSO TECHNOLOGIES

    Supported by the Institute de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) and ICREA.
    Entrepreneur: ICREA Research Professor Valerio Pruneri.
    Born in October 2020.

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    SIXSENSO TECHNOLOGIES

    SixSenso Tech is a spin-off from ICFO- The Institute of Photonic Sciences which is based on research performed by the Optoelectronics group led by ICREA Prof. Valerio Pruneri. 

    SixSenso engineers are working towards the creation of high impact sensing technology platforms. These solutions are designed to be extremely accurate, portable, cost-effective, and easily integrable within a process stream for real-time measurements. The project aims to address very relevant sensing challenges in various industries in the water sector. 

    Our main objective is to develop commercially viable solutions to support your specific sensing challenge. 

  • Treellum Logo
    TREELLUM TECHNOLOGIES

    Supported by the Institut Català d'Investigació Química (ICIQ) and ICREA.
    Entrepreneur: ICREA Research Professors Julio Lloret, Ruben Martin and Paolo Melchiorre.
    Born in July 2020.

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    TREELLUM TECHNOLOGIES

    At TREELLUM TECHNOLOGIES SL we create advanced technological tools for scientific research. Our mission is to provide the research community with reliable photoreactors to ensure reproducible experiments.

    Nowadays, novel synthetic processes fulfilling green chemistry approaches and efficiency are highly required. The field of photocatalysis has attracted increasing interest among the scientific community and the chemical industry due to its low cost and attractive efficiency compared with standard approaches. More importantly, photocatalysis allows new synthetic pathways and molecules not possible through other methodologies. However, the lack of reproducibility and scalability of photochemical processes limits the application of these powerful reactivity procedures.

    Currently available commercial photoreactors are limited and not adapted to the different emerging fields of chemical research and industry. For instance, the current commercial batch photoreactors do not control the light intensity and temperature, resulting in poor experiment reproducibility. This is even more problematic in reaction scale-up processes, which slows down the synthetic methods' innovation and applicability. The poor control over the reaction parameters is also a significant difficulty in the transferability to industry, in which tight control about the composition of synthesized products is mandatory. Thus, there is a need for photoreactors offering exquisite control of reaction parameters, such as light intensity and temperature, to ensure reproducibility, and there is no commercial solution so far.

    Treellum Technologies applies patented technology to offer first-class photoreactors that will boost the spread of photochemistry in academia and industry. Treellum Technologies first photoreactor consists of 16 reaction-vials distributed in four independent groups. Its circular design provides a constant magnetic stir to the temperature-controlled reaction vials (with a -20 to 80 ºC range). Each vial is irradiated by an independent wavelength customizable LEDs set, allowing to modify the intensity of light for each experiment. These features give chemists a versatile tool that finally offers the reproducibility needed for photo-chemical experiments to do excellent science. With Treellum Technologies research can span the range of scenarios to obtain detailed information: from running kinetic or mechanistic studies of reactions to molecule screening for drug discovery or lead generation.

    The target sector of photoreactors involves the global photocatalyst market, which is forecasted to grow at a rate of 11.2% from USD 2.32 billion in 2019 to USD 5.23 billion in 2027. Nowadays, Treellum Technologies main target national, Europe (particularly UK and Germany) and USA markets. But, we are also evaluating the Asian market, in particular China and Japan.

     

    Treellum Technologies aims to develop, manufacture and sell cutting-edge technological instruments and tools for research while considering the research community needs for precise instruments, expanding our current product portfolio.

    Further information:

    [1] Lloret-Fillol et. al. (2017) patent WO2018220008A1 (2020) EU patent EP3612300

    [2] Lloret-Fillol et. al. (2020) USA patent US16/618,349

    [3] www.treellumtechnologies.com

    [4] A. Call, C. Casadevall, F. Acuña-Parés, A. Casitas, J. Lloret-Fillol Dual cobalt–copper light-driven catalytic reduction of aldehydes and aromatic ketones in aqueous media Chem. Sci. 2017, 8, 4739-4749

    [5] N. Alandini, L. Buzzetti, G. Favi, T. Schulte, L. Candish, K. Collins, P. Melchiorre

    Amide Synthesis by Nickel/Photoredox-Catalyzed Direct Carbamoylation of (Hetero)Aryl Bromides Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 5248–5253

    [6] Cong, F.; Lyv, X. Y.; Day, C. S.; Martin, R. Dual catalytic strategy for forging sp2-sp3 and sp3-sp3 architectures via beta-scission of aliphatic alcohol derivatives

    J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 20594

  • VIRTUAL BODYWORKS

    Supported by the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) and ICREA.
    Entrepeneurs:  ICREA Research Professors Mel Slater and Mavi Sanchez-Vives
    Formalised in December 2015.

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    VIRTUAL BODYWORKS

    Virtual Bodyworks S.L. founded by Mel Slater and Mavi Sanchez-Vives is a spin-off company from ICREA/UB/IDIBAPS. The investigator from UB Dr Bernhard Spanlang is also a partner in the company. The objective of Virtual Bodyworks S.L. is to apply immersive virtual reality in the context of health improvement, both physical and mental. To this end the company has developed several prototypes and applications that have been tested and evaluated in our incubator, the EVENT Lab (Experimental Virtual Environments in Neuroscience and Technology Lab) as well as by professionals from various institutions.

    The development has been funded so far by ERC Proof of Concept to MS (System for Embodied Relational Experiences, Project No. 620256) and FIPSE (Foundation for the innovation and future development of health in Spain) to MVS-V. A further ERC Proof of Concept to MS has recently been retained for funding and is currently under negotiation.

    Until recently immersive virtual reality was confined mainly to the laboratory due to the fixed nature and cost of the equipment installation. However, based on new consumer level hardware the company has acquired the capability for our virtual reality system to be moved ‘out of the lab’ into society.  A virtual reality system has many different components that need to be integrated and the company owns software that does this integration across multiple devices, facilitating the development of applications.

    Virtual Bodyworks S.L. won the first ever given prize to a virtual reality application by The App Date, in December 2015. This was for an application called ‘Freud-me’ that provides an immersive tool for people to give themselves counselling about personal problems from the perspective of another person, for example, in this case Dr Sigmund Freud (http://www.freud-me.com).

    An application of the technology under commercialisation by Virtual Bodyworks S.L. is currently on display at the CCCB in Barcelona in the exhibition in the exhibition ‘HUMANS+’ (http://www.cccb.org/en/exhibitions/file/human-/129032). This shows an interactive virtual environment that is simultaneously shared by others where people carry out tasks together. It illustrates the power of virtual reality both to transform a person to another space and to work collaboratively with people who physically remote, and yet are represented in a shared virtual world.

    Virtual Bodyworks SL has been selected  for participation in the accelerators ESADE EMPENTA and MUNICH RE.