The industry’s brightest entrepreneurs will take the stage in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts, pitching revolutionary technologies.
Hey everyone Welcome to the pitch off now I know These interviews have been great but This is going to be the best part of the Show I absolutely promise that TechCrunch has long featured early Sage Companies and we do this through Multiple ways including pixels since 2008 we featured over a thousand Companies in our Marquee program called Startup Battlefield and that takes place Every disrupt so next year in 2023 we're Going to have a brand new batch of Companies presenting at disrupt but Today you're going to see three Companies present and now these are Early stage companies most of them have Raised seed funds some of them have MVPs But they're early the judges are going To be evaluating the companies based on Their potential for impact on either Socially or financially so you there While you're sitting and watching think As a venture capitalist think that these Guys are coming in to see you in your Office they're going to pick to you for Four minutes with a deck and then think Through their process which one of these Companies will have the best potential For impact so with that that I'm going To bring out the three judges and then We're going to bring out the companies Okay Judge number one we have are they coming
Out yes We have Mark Mark Bogut from seraphin Space Mark is a Pioneer in space Tech Having co-founded seraphim space manager Generational space space accelerator and So much more he's been a fun Representative on Boards of range of Global space tech companies including Leo Labs fire Global and Hawk i360. next We have Tess hatch you might know tests From the last two hours of the program And she's also a partner at Bessemer Partners where she helps Foster Entrepreneurship and Frontier Technologies specifically the Commercialization of space drones Autonomous vehicles and food technology She currently serves on the board of Drone deploy Iris automation Phantom Auto inspired Global lastly we have Emily Henriksen principal of root Ventures at root Venture she helps Investments in three areas the tools and Infrastructure low-cost Robotics and Hardware and data science prior to Joining root Venture she worked as a Propulsion engineer and designed flight Hardware for the SpaceX Falcon and Supervised builds for scheduled critical Missions with that I'm going to go over The the interviews format one more time They'll bring out the first companies These companies are going to present for Four minutes and then they're going to
Get six minutes of questions and answers From the judges all right so the first Company presenting we have Arc Rift Presenting for Arc rep Rift is founder And CEO Emily come on out Emily There's All right Emily the clock's right down There you have four minutes starting now Space Gold Rush is here Space tourism to Future commercial space Stations more and more people are Visiting space but space is dangerous Accidents like depressurizations can and Will happen and the equipment we're Using to protect people in vehicles is Very outdated Spacesuits fun haven't fundamentally Changed in over 60 years And all of the spacesuits and safety Technology we have was built for NASA to Protect government astronauts and Obviously the needs of government Astronauts are much different from those Of commercial astronauts and Commercial Launch providers Our drift will be the Levi's of space We're building technology to protect the Next generation of astronauts Commercial astronauts care much more About experience than government Astronauts and with that in mind we've Made our first product which is an Instant emergency space helmet Our proprietary helmet technology can
Protect people of any skill level Without impeding their experience or Their work The way it works is it stows completely Away and in an emergency automatically Deploys to provide supplemental oxygen And impact resistance For the past three years we've touched As many different methods of deployment And the one we've currently settled on Is a spring-based deployment mechanism Which will work well in an unpredictable And rapidly changing pressure Environment Ship alarms will trigger deployment in An emergency and the Dome will be clear To allow for greater visibility The helmet can be integrated into a Flight suit for so brutal flight or Replace a helmet of an existing Iva suit For orbital flights We have five or provisional patents and We're one of the only companies in the Country working on spacesuit technology Currently if you want to go to space There are two intra-vehicle safety Options clicked on oxygen masks which Are usually used for suborbital Commercial flights or full Iva suits Which are usually used for orbital and NASA commercial proof flights Quickdown oxygen masks require Passengers to find and put them on in an Emergency
Given their limited amount of training And the fact that useful Consciousness In a depressurization is only about five To ten seconds this is a super bad idea Full Ida suits on the other hand are Safer but they're incredibly expensive Uncomfortable heavy and their helmets Suck Iva suit helmets don't turn with Your head and severely limit your field Of view Since our helmet stows until needed you Have an unobstructive view of everything Around you since it deploys Automatically it doesn't require any Training to use And it will be less prone to user error Our beachhead Market is suborbital Commercial space flight we expect this To grow a lot in the coming years given All of the space projects in the work That will require humans living and Working in space Using what we've learned in space we Plan on adapting our deployment Mechanism for use in high-risk Terrestrial jobs like chemical plants And mines We chose spaces our beachhead because It's an emerging market so it's easier To enter and we can do the most good There Also having a space proven helmet will Help us differentiate Us in the Industrial safety Market
We are constantly building and testing New prototypes but we plan on doing our Final validation testing to go to space Next year and go to market in early 2024. If you would like to join us in being Part of the future of space feel free to Reach out thank you Thank you very much That was very good Emily thank you Mark Let's start with you with the first Question yeah so Emily well well Presented and what an interesting Business that you have there and so We're investors in people so I'm Interested in your back story what was The Catalyst for you creating this Business how did you lead to that point Yeah so I've been interested in space my Entire life I love space and I was a bit Concerned about the safety of like Commercial launch providers and Obviously we're sending less trained People up and I was like Hey like this Is gonna get dangerous if we don't have Technology to protect them and I was in College at the time and I was like hey I Could just build something better Instead of just being concerned about it So I founded this when I was 20 and in Undergrad and we got grant funding while I was still in school and it's been About four years now Emily
Um yeah I have a question just about the The product and the technology and how It works works exactly so is that the Helmet I understand it's like a spring Mechanism that sort of deploys if There's uh I seem like a drop in oxygen And a station or a shuttle um is is the Source of the oxygen is that something That the the astronaut would wear or is It more like centrally located and then There they walk around with tethers I'm Just trying to understand like how Someone wears the full product so we're Probably gonna do tank oxygen attached To it because we have done a lot of Interviews with commercial astronauts Both like people who've been to space And people who are going to space yep And the one thing they keep saying is Like it can't be tethered I want to Float around so we're probably going to Do a tank we have looked into like Chemical oxygen generation but obviously That's like super exothermic and Probably a bad idea So cool It's us great presentation thank you Help me understand who you're going to Sell this to especially because The existing spacesuits or people who Are companies that are sending people to Space have already designed their own Um so we're targeting suborbital like Commercial like space tourism companies
Blue origin Virgin Galactic and that's Our beachhead Um SpaceX is really the only one who Builds their suits in-house everyone Else contracts for it and there's like Only about three companies that will Build you suits so very few actually Build in-house surprisingly especially For IBA suits Mark do you have another question yeah Absolutely at this presumably Terrestrial Market application for this And what is it and why wouldn't you Start there and then develop into space Rather than you know starting with space And moving into other markets after So Right now it's like more of a safety Risk and Terrestrial markets are very established And they're very established large Competitors like conglomers we have to Compete against we're a space we can Actually grow with that market and we Can get in now and safety devices are Very sticky so it's kind of like we go Into space and kind of plan to long-term Grow with that market and then pivot Into industrial safety and then kind of Scale in industrial safety so then we're Kind of planning our company for the Next like 50 years We can make a lot of money in like Industrial safety in the next like 10.
So there are existing companies that are Making this kind of this kind of Capability to rest really no there isn't I mean we're replacing an emergency Escape respirator but that still Requires you to find and put it on an Emergency so we're just basically Automating an emergency escape Respirator I got a question I was hoping you can Explain where you are in the process of The company have you devote have you Deployed anything yet do you have Customers Um so we're Finishing up our prototyping right now Um kind of where we're at we've been Talking to a lot of people in the Industry and Kind of just Finishing our prototyping great thank You Tess Emily oh I was going to just Say uh the your like your vision of Being the Levi's of space I thought was Very interesting I'm curious like uh Safety seems like a smart play this Place to start but I'm curious like what Is the biggest version of this company To you like the Levi's face sounds Pretty cool like um what other Interesting space apparel and like Whether it be for safety or just like Performance or function like do you Envision going into in the future yeah
So we want to go and we want to be like The main supplier of like all space Safety like you go to space for any Reason you work in space we're your Supplier Um and then also maybe move into Consumer and like do some fun things in Consumer Um but we're actually working on some Like side projects right now also in Space so like making a hydrochromatic Suit so like most of the suits right now Are like white or blue and if you bail Out in the ocean you can't see them very Well so we're trying to make a suit that Changes color into like International Safety orange if they hit the water so Then we can rescue them more easily so Then you still have that like style but Then you also have the safety function So I think that's kind of our thesis is Like we wanted to be stylish and we Wanted to be comfortable and look good But we also wanted to be as safe as Humanly possible It's us last question I was also going To double click on the product roadmap Of of what's next maybe then you had on Your last Slide the goals you're hoping To achieve and validation and quality Testing I believe what about other from A company perspective yeah team funding Etc Like where are we planning to go or what
We're hoping to be a year from today if We were standing back here Um we are raising our seed and um right Now we have about like two people on our Team and we're gonna build that out Hopefully to a lot more Um and after we're done with like space Helmets we're probably gonna move on to Other suits and move on to Industrial Uses because we really want to build out Our food technology so Great thank you very much Emily give Them a round of applause This room I don't know if you know but I Can feel it up here and I appreciate That because it is really hard to come Up here and present to you you're Literally all rocket scientists and so It's great that you can they can come Out present you and make sure you give Them good energy back we have two more Companies next we have fluic or fluix Startup names are hard flux all right Come on out Abby Thank you All right sir there's your timer you Have four minutes starting now To start I want to remind everyone of Humanity's ever-growing dependence on Data and communication Which is exponentially growing by the Way with no signs of slowing down All of this data is hosted within the Global data center infrastructure
However there's one huge problem with This infrastructure Data centers are projected to consume 20 Of the world's power consumption by 2040. 43 percent of which will be used To cool down servers alone and although There have been advancements in liquid Cooling there needs to be further Advancements in cooling to meet the data Demand of tomorrow Hi I'm Abby sastry CEO and founder of Fluix and at fluix through Nanotechnology liquid cooling we're Enabling data centers efficient enough To be powered by renewable energy and Built anywhere on the planet For fluix this is a huge opportunity as The global data center infrastructure Market is a 27 billion dollar industry With major customers such as AWS Google And Microsoft But as I mentioned cooling Technologies Of today need to improve to meet the Data demand of Tomorrow the two major Drawbacks for even the most efficient Cooling systems of today is they still Use a significant amount of energy and Moving parts to work This is where fluix is developing the Next generation of cooling with our Pumpless and self-boiling liquid cooler Called project Stellar with our solution We're eliminating a majority of moving Parts allowing cooling to have net zero
Energy consumption but still being able To cool high performance chips and this Is how we're doing it The next Secret in innovation of cooling Is unlocked in microgravity because we Know that fluids and heat transfer Behaves differently in space fluids Don't boil in space instead the bubbles Created by the heat coalesce together And do not separate leading to a lack of Heat transfer by solving this bubble Separation problem we'll be able to Create an ultra efficient coolant that Allows for easier boiling here on space This is our Innovation flux is Developing proprietary Nano suspensions That have the ability for the Nanoparticles to pierce bubbles in space Allowing for a heat transfer and we're Already working with some of the top Developers of the Next Generation space Station to make this happen Why are we so focused on microgravity It's because there's no other viable Substitute on the basis of nanoparticle Dispersion and showing nanoparticles Piercing micro bubbles we have to bring Light to the fact that intermolecular Forces behave differently without Gravity vector And there's no easy way to simulate this Using computational fluid dynamics so There needs to be the ability for us to Do a microgravity experiment and we're
Proposing multiple missions to low earth Orbit with our partners to be able to do This And having completed microgravity Experiments and when we optimize this Fluid solution we would be able to Implant project Stellar into the global Data center infrastructure enabling data Centers so efficient they can be powered By renewable energy without having Built anywhere on the planet without Having access to high complex power Grids or large water sources Afflux we have done fifty thousand Dollars in Revenue selling our coolers To computer manufacturers we recently Went through a techstars deep Tech Accelerator and we're looking to build a Larger engineering team so for the Engineers out there please come and see Me and for the government partners and The companies out there we're looking to Build a lab so if you're interested in Helping us please come see me after Afflux we're unlocking the next Generation of cooling for data centers Through microgravity thank you Good picks you got you got tests to lean Into that one so we're gonna start with Her well it's because I'm a little blind So I was trying to to read the slides Without my glasses I love this Application I I very uh Manufacturing and space is usually
Pulling fiber optic cables and z-blind For com so I will be using another one Where the effects of zero gravity has a Very useful application I'm curious I Saw because I did read a little bit of It that you did some tests on the ISS at What scale and you sold that where are You at in terms of how much you're able To produce up there for Meaningful use Down here all that we have done so far We haven't done any microgravity testing At this point we've done mostly Simulation testing that's what we've Found out how bad simulation models are In software so if there's someone out There that has figured out simulation Models using ansys or computational Fluid dynamics for specific chemical Change please I'd love to hear from you But we've done a lot of simulation work But what we have done is work with Two-phase boiling immersion cooling Providers and providers that are already Doing boiling for cooling here and we so We understand a couple of things we need To understand the constraints and we Understand where they're lacking and That's where we want to pull in so Although this is why we're here to test We want to meet people like you we want To meet the community to really get us On the next payload to to do these Experiments great mark Um well great presentation and I could
Really see your passion for this Business coming through so that's that's Really important Um tell me a little bit about where the Technology comes from is that uh is it Is it a spin out of you have you Licensed it or is it being developed Internally give us a bit of the history Yeah so our background currently the Product that we sell is cold plates we Attach directly our copper coal plates Onto high performance processors found In gpus CPUs of some of the most highest Performance servers so the cooling Solution that we sell right now is Coldplay technology we are using our Third-party solutions to to to fine-tune Our our liquid cooling solutions but What we found is in our lab we have the Ability to fine-tune not just the cold Plate but also the two-phase immersion Coolant so we looked in ourselves why Don't we just develop the solution Ourselves so the basis is a nanoparticle Solution it could be titanium dioxide Silver nanoparticles metal nanoparticles In a glycol based Solution that's what We're trying currently testing so we're Looking to develop it ourselves Emily yeah I look a clarifying question Just so I understand You're using microgravity to develop This the proprietary cooling system and Then sending it back to Earth for Earth
Applications like data centers on Earth In other cooling applications on Earth Is that correct that's right okay cool Yeah so then my follow-up question how Do you do the like how do you how do you Compare like Developing a more performant Cooling in In microgravity sending it back to Earth Versus just like building more data Centers that are maybe potentially less Performant Um but like have you know a less Expensive coolant like how did you think About like those two options and why are Do you feel very compelled that um you Know this micro microgravity is the key To unlocking like better data centers in The future great question so it all Depends on the data center application Some of our investors previously through Techstars was Oak Ridge National Laboratory and they learn they run some Of the largest Subaru computers in the World they run their workloads at 100 Workload so m family for use cases that Run 100 workload we're not geared Towards old data center we're geared Towards the highest performance data Centers on the planet so where we really See our space is yes they'll be hosting Data centers they'll buy a server for 3 500 bucks you use it until the end of Lifespan but we're really looking for a Data center that uses their performance
They care about the one to two percent Performance and that's what we play and That's where the optimizations of what We're doing with our coolant really Matters so for the the power users out There that really care about that one or Two or three percent Improvement that Can mean a lot when it's 900 servers in The data Ram space I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs in Pictures over the years and I've never Seen anybody nearly as enthusiastic About cooling as you are what why is That what what is this well I got my Degree in aerospace engineering Um and but I I didn't really go to class As much I should have gone to class more but What I was doing in college I was Building a business building and selling High performance PCS I sold gaming PCs Workstations to scientists even at my School and what I found was even from Crypto miners to Gamers to workstation And scientists Everyone Cared about Cooling so that's how I kind of got into The space of cooling and guys I'm a Tinkerer whether it's working on my car Working on PCS I'm in the lab working With my team and my Engineers on this Stuff because it's pretty damn cool when You can see a water cooled system and You know you developed something that Got that extra boost in performance and
That led to someone either saving time Or money because they got their Processing done faster so that's where We geek out a good good or a good answer Anything left I've got one more have you Spoken to any data centers Data Center Owners about this and what do they say We have and currently that's the Customers that we sell to so we sell to High performance server manufacturers And the end users Data Center and when We're looking at some of the end user we Have five customers right now with a Small to medium-sized Data Center and What they're telling us is you have the Coldplay technology that you're showing A performance increase for this next Performance increase we want to we want You to show efficiency per square Footage so instead of uh you developing Something where moving Parts can fail or Something can fail why don't you go in With something where you can sell us on A basis of the actual material that we Buy and Implement so don't just sell the Coolers to us but sell us a raw material That we can use our current existing Solutions which is the coolant so that's What we're learning test says one last I Don't have a question but you asked for Help to get up there and I think I see Sven from ISS cases in the audience who Can help you get your payload up there He controls experiments that go up and
Down so that is venom in the audience Thank you test for the call out I Appreciate that that was very nice give Them a round of applause And and I'll take this moment to say That all these companies presenting here Are also exhibiting out behind this Ballroom too so go meet them and say Hello and last we have one more company The last company presenting is plasmos Presenting for plasmodes is Ali Ali come On out All right you have four minutes there's Your clock starts now thank you hi Familiar faces here my name is alibander And CEO of plasmos we are building Reusable third stage similar to how a SpaceX build first the stage second the Stage reusable we are building a third Stage Um Well my background I've built and flown Over 200 Rockets uh burnt myself twice As well which is not written there I Think it should be Um I've been a director at Airbus when I Was 25 years old sold my first company Actually eight months ago so that also Has to be corrected yeah Um recipient of Einstein Visa within two Weeks after I applied I think U.S Government is pretty fast and Um so the problem I'm trying to solve is Satellites can't still get to their
Final orbit As the SpaceX is building this giant Infrastructure to launch satellites into Or payload in into different uh planes In a space and as you can see there from 1957 to 2021 uh it has been a pretty Pretty crazy increase of number of Satellites just 2021 about 1700 Satellites being launched there they Can't still get to their final Destinations and if they can it's pretty Expensive so what we think is that The answer is build a reusable Spacecraft to meet this demand and That's that's kind of what we are trying To do so with that I'm introducing space Truck truck space space truck So what what that is is that you can put Payload around it which can carry around 200 325 kilogram payload around it can Carry it up to 20 kilogram payload Inside it and the entire vehicle is 3D Printed and can wait almost 60 kilogram Only it's a spike no stick can sit on Any vehicle can sit on a SpaceX 15 inch Aspiring and can sit on a virgin orbit System as well and with that we can get You to a specific destinations or bring Back a payload The market for that in the next 10 years Is anticipated to be 15 000 satellites To be launched out of that 15 000 Satellites we are expecting to charge About 500k for each of those satellites
Or launches and that comes to a 8 Billion dollar market We move fast Um I move fast to the United States but Also the company is moving fast from the Ideation to to where we are we built a Very special engine which hasn't been Done uh before it's working in electric Mode and chemical mode so sort of like Prius in a space and the idea with that We designed it we manufactured it we Tested it it works and now we are Manufacturing the first spacecraft which Is being demonstrated on 10th of February exactly one year after I have Got to the United States and we are Launching this system in January 2024 to A space to demonstrate its capability So everyone is invited Thank you All right thank you Ali Knows a few things about reusable Spacecraft so uh let's start with her Yeah sure um thanks so much for Presenting this was an awesome Presentation Um I have a question about how you think About the role of this the product a Third stage like this Um relative Um to space tugs which there are a lot Of companies that are building tugs that Stay in orbit and will rendezvous with a
Satellite to take that satellite to a Higher orbit and you don't actually need To launch that like the pitch is Essentially you don't need to Lost That Launch that extra mass and um so I'm Curious how like the economics differ Like why have you gone with a third Stage rather than actually a tug that Exists in space and does repeat missions Um yeah would love to a little more Color on that yeah so um I think those Companies have a great Mission but they Also see that there is it's pretty hard When I look at companies that Manufacture satellites and when I go in Their clean room and I'm like oh you Know always hit this is really hard to To move it's very sensitive equipment That you want to touch on the center of Gravity in every satellite is is Different so when you look at those Elements I I saw a heart shape in Designing a universal system that can Grab any satellite and and Tow them to Another destination so I said well why Don't we you know build a spacecraft That is super lightweight or spacecraft Is very light and integrate things on on The earth launch it to a space and then Bring back their spacecraft so customers Don't have to pay for an entire system To get up there which is probably what's Going to happen in the first you know Years of these tugs being launched so I
Wanted to to be kind of a bit greedy in The business economics to say I want to Get the revenue while we are proving out Even the concept so even if the reusable Part doesn't work the system is is very Cheap because the engine tanks the whole Thing is printed in one print 170 hours So for us it's like well let's make that With the engineering manufacturing side Of it uh efficient enough so we can get Value out of it and on the other side we Can deliver things in where they can go And bring back our system And the economics are actually very Interesting happy to dig into the Details of that as well Mark Well you've got my interest and Particularly that you've uh you've Already built and sold another business Thank you so uh that that that's good I Like the way that you're seemingly doing Everything very quickly Um it's quite incredible the uh the time Frame that you've set for yourself uh Which I which I fully support doing Things quickly Um one of the things that you said that Really interested me was about um Bringing the payload back did you mean That this same vehicle can actually Um come come back to earth Yeah so um that's a big Market in its Own right I believe it's a big Market in
Its own and it has got since we started Pitching this concept as a generic Concept we've got customers that are Actually interested to say hi I'll give You the spoiler you can do on orbit Servicing with it and you can bring it Back or we can give you this payload you Can bring it to another destination Since you can land it in a controlled Way so it's it's both big markets we are Really focused on building that Universal technology that can land my Focus my background is also partially in AI so my interest is to get the data for Re-entry kind of double down on that in The long run so we know how to how to Deal with re-enteries and if we can Handle re-entry on Earth from orbit we Can handle re-entry on any other planet As well so that's kind of my vision for Very far-fetched future so the re-entry Is something much further down in your Development plan absolutely Test I first want to clarify that your demo Day wasn't February isn't February 9th 2022 it's next year right yeah 23. we Haven't missed it no no demo 23. yeah Yeah but February February 9th yeah Sunnyvale okay okay yeah it's coming up Just make sure we didn't that's it What about the Competitors in the space Handful of folks already go public pave
Paths what makes What makes plasmos different than some Of the others that space tug and help Deliver satellites to them so most of The companies that are in this area and Thanks for the question Um such as launcher impulses space and Momentous and others they are focusing On delivering a payload into a specific Orbit which is great this is what we are Also interested to do but they are not Reusable which we are so that's the main Differentiator So we bring back our system They don't Great anything else any other questions All right how much money are you Planning to raise for uh for this and is The money required in order to deliver Against your ambitious plan So 13 million dollar uh for the first Launch if that's what you're asking Um but for the entire you know to get to The profitability we are counting on uh Close to 60 million dollar to get the Company on its own wheels Thank you all right great thank you very Much Ali give a round of applause Okay I'm gonna take the judges backstage And we're going to confer and talk about These companies a little bit each one Individually and again just to clarify We're going to judge the companies based On their potential for social impact or
Financial impact somebody might make a Lot of money and some people might Change the world and we we put those on The same level now if you have a space Company or any other startup this marks We're opening the applications for TechCrunch Battlefield at disrupt for 2023. please apply any stage companies Will be fantastic with that thank you Very much we'll see you guys next time
