EPRoC GmbH

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is the only analytical technique that can unambiguously detect paramagnetic species and free radicals. In everyday life, EPR is used to characterize the quality and shelf life of foods such as cooking oil and beverages, to study free radicals in (bio)medicine for their high correlation with cancer and cardiovascular disease, to detect defects in semiconductors, to measure the state of charge of vanadium-based batteries, and to monitor the degradation of automotive lubricating oil. Unfortunately, the instruments to perform EPR analysis are still bulky, power-hungry, and expensive. Our startup aims to fill the need for small, portable, and affordable magnetic resonance instruments.

The business idea is based on setting up a spin-off company to produce and sell portable EPR sensing devices for industrial and medical applications. Our devices are expected to be much more compact than other commercial competing devices, while providing better sensitivity at a competitive price. The business will be organized on the production and the sale of EPRoC to customers for each specific application where it is necessary to detect free radicals and paramagnetic states. EPRoC will be a very versatile device, and we will be able to customize it according to the need of our customers. We plan the use of it in the food industry for the analysis of the edible oil and animal fat, in the beer industry, in the automotive industry, in the medical and battery field. EPRoC will be integrated with a software that will make the device user-friendly, and the customers will not need any specific knowledge to use it. We are looking for a co-founding member with a background in economics/business administration. We target a highly competent member with an entrepreneurship spirit to develop the product and its associated markets with us. We expect fluency in German and English, strong communication skills, and an excellent team spirit.

Our intended product is a fairly complex engineering system including many custom-made hardware components and software packages. The design phase will present challenges in finding a good balance between performance, robustness, cost, and time to market. We need to keep a close contact with potential customers in many different fields. Finally, there are challenges in competing with the big players in the target markets.