DTU entrepreneurs battling for half a million

Ten out of 20 hardware entrepreneurs in this year’s Danish Tech Challenge have links to DTU. In January, they will compete for the top prize of DKK 500,000 (EUR 67,000).

Danish Tech Challenge is a four-month acceleration programme which gives selected companies access to advisers, mentors, and potential investors—as well as a prototype workshop.

The programme, a joint venture between the Danish Industry Foundation and Scion DTU science park, was launched in 2014 as a development process aimed at technological hardware entrepreneurs who are working to bring new physical products to the market. Read more about the DTU participants here:

Aqubiq 

Cluster: Cleantech

Each Dane uses approx. 40,000 litres of water a year. But hardly no one knows what the water is actually used for. A new technology will make people aware of their consumption. The aim is to save 15 per cent of water consumption. With a single meter, sophisticated software algorithms, and an intuitive app, the intelligent water meter tells you how much water you are actually using, e.g. when washing your clothes, taking a shower, or flushing the toilet. The initiator of Aqubiq is PhD (Applied Mathematics) Peter Nørtoft.


IPM—Intelligent Pollutant Monitoring 

Cluster: Optics and sensors

IPM—Intelligent Pollutant Monitoring—develops an innovative sensor that can both measure polluting substances in the environment and transmit data directly from a mobile phone or a computer. The product can be compared with an online minilab which continuously carries out high-resolution monitoring of pesticide and nitrate concentrations on fields, in the groundwater, or at waterworks. The product development takes place at DTU Nanotech and DTU Danchip. The driving force behind the start-up is PhD student Jafar Safaa Noori from DTU Nanotech. 

Nordic Firefly 

Cluster: Cleantech

The team behind Nordic Firefly has developed a ‘plug-and-play’ solution that can easily be installed in a solar cell lamp. The solution consists of a small box housing electronics and a battery that harvests energy from the lamp’s solar cell during the day, stores it in the battery, and releases it to the lamp’s light source when it gets dark. This is done without the major energy loss usually experienced in connection with solar energy conversion. Jørgen Kejlberg, AIS, Rasmus Ploug, DTU Electrical Engineering, as well as Peter B. Poulsen and Sune Thorsteinsson, DTU Fotonik, are the driving forces behind Nordic Firefly.

QTranSA 

Cluster: Optics and sensors

QTranSA designs and manufactures molecular spectroscopy-based measuring equipment that addresses the challenges of the fermentation industry. QTranSA’s products meet the needs for real-time monitoring of fermentation processes. The technology is based on four patents, and QTranSA is a spin-out from Professor Anja Boisen’s group at DTU Nanotech. The initiator of the start-up is Associate Professor Tomas Rindzevicius, DTU Nanotech.