qCella receives CHF 1.3 million in pre-seed financing round

qCella has raised 1.3 million Swiss francs in fresh capital. The company, which was founded in 2023 as a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), has raised this sum in a pre-seed financing round. In addition to the Kick Foundation (Venture Kick), the Kickfund, the ETH Foundation and the Swisspreneur Syndicate, business angels from networks such as Business Angels Switzerland, Aare Ventures, Business Angel Club Kanton Aargau and Winti Ventures also participated.

qCella has developed a new technology that heats people directly instead of heating entire rooms and car interiors. Instead, the company relies on heating mats made from copper-cellulose hybrid fibres that can be cut to any size and integrated cost-effectively into the end product to be heated. Unlike commercially available heating wires, these thin and smooth heating mats are designed to heat evenly everywhere and are also more energy-efficient because no cushioning layer is required between the mat and the human body.

Using the funds from the financing round, qCella intends to scale up the production of its copper-cellulose hybrid fibres and work with external partners to manage the transition from batch production to the roll-to-roll paper manufacturing process. In addition, the heating technology is to be tested in an end customer product at the end of 2025. The start-up has reportedly already secured paid pilot projects for the current year, ranging from heated shoe insoles to surface heating for electric vehicles and systems for heating food.

Located at the ETH Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials, qCella was supported by the Winterthur-based RUNWAY Startup Incubator, among others. In its own press release, RUNWAY says it is ‘excited to see what the future holds for qCella and what further impact the groundbreaking technology will have’. ce/mm