Pilas made of tequila? Swiss Embassy promotes Mexican startups

Turn science projects into products and services It is not easy, it is necessary to analyze if there is a market and create a business model that takes that idea to the final consumer.

To make this process easier, the Swiss Embassy in Mexico launched the second edition of Academia-Industry Training (AIT) México, which helps Swiss and Mexican startups scale their solutions so that they can be brought to market and generate social impact and benefit communities.

There are 10 Swiss ideas and 10 Mexican ones that will receive the support that consists of an entrepreneurship program and the possibility of winning a innovation prize of 10,000 francs Swiss (approximately 205,000 pesos), which will be awarded to the most promising project in Switzerland and Mexico to support its scaling.

In addition, the program supports the participants in their business plans, in establishing contacts with the industry, clarify intellectual property issues, create networks at an international level and promote new links and collaborations in Mexico and Switzerland.

The projects

Among the Mexican projects are the creation of a squid sausage, which provides up to 40% more protein than traditional sausage, is also working on the creation of lithium battery from waste from the tequila industry.

Other developments are: a download device that prevents the leak in the toilets and an intelligent monitoring system that calculates the weight and size of the farm shrimpspecifically the amount of feed needed, which improves shrimp production.

Switzerland is among the most innovative countries in the world. Recently, the Global Innovation Index named Switzerland the most innovative country for the eleventh consecutive year.

The AIT is an initiative of the Swiss-Latin American Center of the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland and the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), with the support of the Swiss Secretariat of Education, Innovation and Research (SERI).