CyanoGuard receives Horizon 2020 funding to end to Cyanide Poisoning

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23.10.2017
Cyanokit

CyanoGuard, a Zurich based startup developing solutions for detecting toxic substances in water, food extracts and blood samples, has been selected for funding under Phase 1 of Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument. The funds will be used to study how CyanoGuard’s CyanoKit tackles societal challenges with focus on food and water safety.

Horizon 2020 funds high-potential innovation through a dedicated SME instrument, which offers seamless business innovation support under the section Societal Challenges. With a budget of € 3 billion for the period 2014-2020, the SME Instrument finances feasibility studies for potentially disruptive new products.

In the recent selection, the Zurich startup CyanoGuard announced that it was among the innovative SMEs that received Phase 1 funding from the Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument. Phase 1 funding is available for exploring and assessing the technical feasibility and commercial potential of a breakthrough innovation that a company wants to exploit and commercialize.

CyanoGuard will use the funds to study how its CyanoKit tackles societal challenges related to climate change, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials, with close attention to food and water safety. In 2015, less than 10% of all the proposals submitted to the European Commission under Phase 1 received funding.

“This award is a game changer for our company” said Benedikt Kirchgässler, CyanoGuard’s founder and Managing Director. “To be recognised by the European Union as an innovative player in our continent’s food and water safety is a huge achievement for us, especially since we are a very young company,” he added. “It is an honour to be part of the small list of Swiss companies that have received funding from this instrument. We are coming a step closer to our vision of a world where fast and simple pollutant detection is available to everyone,” he said.

Last year, CyanoGuard’s innovative technology won the second prize during the Royal Chemical Society’s Emerging Technologies Competition in London and an interest free loan from the Volkswirtschaft-Stiftung. The company recently closed its seed funding round and is a 2017 W.A. De Vigier Nominee.

More information about Horizon2020 and the SME instrument can be obtained from Euresearch.

About CyanoGuard
CyanoGuard AG is a chemical technology company based in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in August 2016 as a spinoff from the University of Zurich, the company develops new testing methods to improve food and water safety, environmental monitoring and emergency healthcare globally. CyanoGuard’s first commercial product, CyanoKit, enables everyone to detect cyanide in any setting at any time. Following successful partnerships with early adopters from the mining, electroplating and chemical industries, CyanoKit will be formally launched during the fourth quarter of 2017

(Press release)

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