EthonAI

Eloise Martin
17. Nov. 2025
2 Min. Lesezeit

THE MISSION

EthonAI develops an AI-powered platform that combines quality inspection and root cause analysis in manufacturing. The company's no-code applications can be easily used by factory operators and engineers without writing a single line of code.

We started our venture during our PhDs. My (Berhard's) research was very theoretical, which I enjoyed, but I wanted to have a direct impact. In contrast, Julian spent most of his PhD in factories. This is where we decided to collaborate to bring state-of-the-art AI to manufacturing. As a team, we complement each other to a great extent.

When we started to dive into the entrepreneurial path, we experienced an entirely different way of thinking. There were so many learnings that we took with us throughout this semester. We were, for example, surprised by how long fundraising takes. However, Talent Kick connected us to the right people. With constant feedback from the advisory board, the steering committee, founders, and the Talent Kick team, we improved at a very high speed and were able to get into the Pioneer Fellowship program at ETH. It was so fascinating to experience how quickly we could get from scientific research to actually building a product. Finding a mentor for our team showed us that a very successful entrepreneur believes in us. We are proud that we got so much clearer on our common vision, our product, and the next steps with our startup.

Talent Kick is the one program that is designed for people who are still in university. Throughout the semester, we got immediate feedback on our idea and product. Aside from this we got to know many like-minded peers and had many networking opportunities. Talent Kick made us realize that becoming an entrepreneur is not only one of many career options to consider, but it really is what we wanted.

During the Talent Kick program, we transformed our scientific research into a minimum viable product. We were also able to raise non-dilutive funding by, for example, receiving the ETH Pioneer Fellowship grant. In October 2021, we incorporated our company and initialized our first industry pilot.

Talent Kick also gave us access to an incredible network of experienced entrepreneurs and top-notch investors. Thanks to the constant mentoring we accelerated our go-to-market by several months and were intensively prepared for the fundraising process.