Although only founded five years ago and also hit hard by the pandemic, the startup company Fixposition from Dr Zhenzhong Su (CEO) and Lukas Meier (CTO), based at the Innovation and Young Entrepreneur Center IJZ at Rütistrasse 14 in Schlieren for two and a half years, is on the road to success. And the young entrepreneurs feel very comfortable in Schlieren.
The two scientists got to know each other through an ETH Zürich funding program and soon realized that their research areas and business plans could be optimally combined. In April 2017, they decided to unite their teams and companies, and the startup Fixposition was founded in August 2017.
Their Vision RTK 2 positioning device (the 2 stands for second generation) is currently unrivaled. In addition to the two satellite receivers, the positioning device has a camera, which in [GPS] challenging conditions (and these occur often in our densely populated world), it provides a marked improvement in positioning.
Patents are not the ideal way to protect the product. "The really specialty of our sensor is the programming," says Lukas Meier. "Here we are market leaders, and only through continuous software development by our highly qualified employees, can we secure this position."
At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the two were looking for new premises and met the Schlieren location promoter Albert Schweizer. "A stroke of luck for us," Lukas Meier reminisces. CEO Zhenzhong Su also highly appreciated the support from the city and in particular from Albert Schweizer. In addition, the environment of many innovative and active companies in Schlieren is also very inspiring. In return, Lukas Meier got personally involved by taking over the presidency of the association "Start Smart Schlieren" from Andreas Geistlich in the spring of this year!
Investor search as a challenge
Always top of mind for startup companies, is the search for investors to ensure the required growth. "Since we just successfully completed an investment round," Zhenzhong Su is satisfied, "although we are currently quite relaxed in this regard, the search will start again soon."
However, Fixposition has already been able to build up a good customer base in many countries around the world, which is of course an important argument in investor acquisition in addition to the quality of the product. However, both young entrepreneurs look back gratefully on the initial support of ETH Zurich and the European Space Agency ESA. These start-up supports were essential for the start-up phase.
Original story in German: https://www.schlieremer.ch/fixposition-ist-auf-erfolgskurs/
