PERL Prize: Lausanne invites you to elect your best company

The 22^e edition of the Prix Entreprendre Lausanne Région (PERL) will once again award its trophies to the most promising companies in the Lausanne metropolitan area. They will be rewarded during a ceremony scheduled for May 15. In the meantime, votes are open to the public from this Monday at this address. If the first prize consists of a check for 50,000 francs, the four other winners will receive 10,000 francs. to develop their business. The public can thus award a prize for the same amount, which brings the total envelope to 100,000 francs.

This year, the jury chaired by Lausanne municipal councilor Pierre-Antoine Hildbrand ruled on the 44 applications submitted to it. The jurors, of which “24 Heures” is one, were convinced by projects which once again demonstrate the diversity of entrepreneurs in the region.

Entrepreneurial diversity

Promote neurodiversity in business, transform the most confidential conversations into written and secure documents, design drones specialized in the inspection and monitoring of energy assets, simplify access to legal information and offer planning and management solutions. visualization and communication for urban development: these are the winning projects which, according to the jury, demonstrated a capacity to innovate, while contributing to the influence of the 27 municipalities of Lausanne Region.

To get an idea before voting, “24 Heures” offers a presentation of the five winners. Please note that the public vote constitutes an opportunity to participate in the gala evening. Around fifteen invitations will in fact be allocated to the first voters.

Atipikey

Far from technology, the small company based in Lausanne is interested in neuroatypical people. The term brings together a series of dysfunctions that we are talking about more and more: attention disorders, autism spectra or even the constellation of “dys” (dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, etc.). All are neurodevelopmental disorders that the project Atipikeyfounded by two occupational therapists, promises to include in business.

The idea is that these people’s disorders give them a sensitivity that can also benefit others by improving the comfort of a workplace, for example. “By improving the light sources, by offering a quiet room that certain people need, the company can improve the working conditions of everyone,” believe the two founders, Zoé Prisse and Valentine Perrelet. Thus, Atipikey has already supported the Museum of Fine Arts of Lausanne in improving its accessibility and its signage thanks to evaluations carried out with a small group of young people.

Another project, not yet made public, is underway. Ultimately, Atipikey intends to focus on the professional integration of young talents. This is because neurodevelopmental disorders do not prevent genius. We know, for example, that Albert Einstein was dyslexic.

csky.ai

As we know, the services offered by artificial intelligence are most often linked to an online connection with servers. Questions of confidentiality then arise. That is why csky.ai addressed the problem by developing ClearMind, an assistant based on artificial intelligence entirely local. Without an internet connection, the device allows conversations, interviews or meetings to be handled securely and confidentially. It can then produce structured documents, such as a report or a report.

The small company operated from the start with few resources, explains the director and founder, Hugo Flayac. However, a recent fundraising will allow it to expand its development activity. But the service offered by csky.ai is already in operation in a meeting room at the Unlimitrust Campus in Prilly, which hosts the start-up. “It is used more and more by other companies on this site,” indicates Hugo Flayac.

Already tested in a psychiatry office, among other areas of application, ClearMind was presented at the high mass of digital technology, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) from Las Vegas. It was there that he attracted the interest of a French bank, which signed a partnership with Prilly’s small company.

Elythor

With a name that could have been that of an 80s superhero, Elythor had to provide a little extra compared to the competition. This is what the start-up from EPFL is doing by developing a drone intended for the inspection of industrial works, mainly in the field of energy production.

“To inspect the condition of a wind farm,” explains co-founder and technical director Nathan Müller, “you need to be able to move over long distances while having the ability to fly very close to the turbines.” The drone developed by Elythor combines the capabilities of a device equipped with wings and those of a drone similar to those found in the general public, “copters”.

It is thanks to a system of wings capable of adapting their configuration to wind conditions that this novelty brings together “the best of both worlds”, in the words of Nathan Müller. This morphing system, patented by Elythor, allows the device to fly long distances at 100 km/h and adapt to winds blowing up to 36 km/h.

The capacities of this 2.5 kilo machine will be further increased by a future version, heavier but even more efficient. But already, the current model flies so well that it can wander through the turbulence of a wind turbine without needing to stop for inspection. An argument that should appeal to manufacturers.

Ex Nunc Intelligence

Legal information for all? This is what promises Ex Nunc Intelligence. Founded in Écublens by lawyer Kyriaki Bongard and tax specialist Zoé Berry, the start-up is developing a tool allowing users to quickly obtain answers to complex legal questions, which cites its sources, while respecting the reasoning and methodology law. His Silex tool has not yet been demonstrated in public, but it promises to seriously speed up the work of lawyers, in particular. It is currently being tested by legal professionals.

Although it is not certain that this tool will replace legal professions, artificial intelligence could well change the entire legal sector. The new Ex Nunc Intelligence tool is awaited with great interest because it is based on a database which centralizes the sources of law available in Switzerland. A small feat in a federal state which multiplies legal constraints.

This is the part that the company works on before launching its product on the market. Certain of seeing competition toughen up in this sector, the two founders should launch this year. In the meantime, the list of interested people is growing, says Kyriaki Bongard.

Uzufly

How to best visualize a construction project, to take into account its impact on its environment? Uzufly offers an answer that is convincing more and more municipalities, as well as big names in construction. The small company has in fact developed a way of modeling the terrain using aerial images. All that remains then is to place the three-dimensional image of a new building there and walk through this landscape in order to visualize its rendering.

A project has just linked Uzufly with the eight municipalities of western Lausanne, which should be able to use its services to better understand vibrant urban planning. But the small company, which operated without external financing from its beginnings, has already attracted others and is continuing its path towards an even wider audience. “We are developing the Uzuverse platform, which will allow you to visualize planned developments, by opening it to architects and urban planners,” indicates the director and co-founder, Romain Kirchhoff.

Like a realistic video game, the system developed makes it possible to integrate a quantity of information, such as cast shadows. For Romain Kirchhoff, this type of approach makes it easier to communicate with residents of a neighborhood affected by a real estate project.

Alain Détraz has been a journalist for the Vaud section of “24 Heures” since 2005. After covering various areas of local news, he has been in charge of the Vaud Economy page since 2022.More informations

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