Three start-ups join the Cyber Valley Start-up Network

Feyer

Feyer is building a European frontier AI lab for automated physical invention. The team develops AI systems designed to explore complex physical design spaces and create new technological solutions, with potential applications across areas such as photonics, precision instrumentation, and quantum technologies.
The company emerged from the research group of Mario Krenn, Professor at the Cluster of Excellence “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science” at the University of Tübingen. The founding team consists of Jonathan Klimesch, Sören Arlt, and Mario Krenn and has already reached an exciting milestone: Feyer was selected as one of ten teams for the first stage of SPRIND’s Next Frontier AI Challenge, together with Ontic Labs.

Ontic Labs

Ontic Labs is building a foundation model for physical intelligence, giving machines a working understanding of how the physical world behaves.
The Tübingen-based startup develops physics-aware world models that enable machines and robots to perceive, predict, and act in complex real-world environments. Its approach brings states, actions, and sensor data into a shared representation, allowing physical properties such as contact, forces, and object coherence to emerge from training rather than being manually programmed. The goal: a single world model that can transfer across robots, embodiments, tasks, and environments.
Founded by Omid Taheri, Mikel Zhobro, Georg Martius, Wieland Brendel, and Gerard Pons-Moll, Ontic Labs brings together expertise from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the University of Tübingen, the Tübingen AI Center, and the ELLIS Institute Tübingen. The team was also selected as one of ten teams in SPRIND’s Next Frontier AI Challenge.

SPRIND's Next Frontier AI Challenge

The two start-ups from Tübingen are among just ten teams across Europe that have been selected and will receive €3 million to develop technologies beyond today's AI models. Of the three selected teams from Germany, two originate from the Cyber Valley ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg as spin-outs from several of Cyber Valley's academic partners, including the ELLIS Institute Tübingen, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen AI Center, and the University of Tübingen. Their success highlights the growing momentum with which AI research is being translated into innovative companies and how excellent AI research from Baden-Württemberg is playing a key role in the European race for frontier AI models.

Read more about the success story here:
https://cyber-valley.de/en/news/two-cyber-valley-start-ups-selected-to-shape-europe-s-frontier-ai-future

OneAI

As AI adoption accelerates across organizations, questions around governance, security, compliance, and control are becoming increasingly important. OneAI is addressing exactly this challenge: enabling companies and public organizations to use AI securely, transparently, and in compliance with regulatory requirements.
The start-up is a spin-out from relyon AG, already part of the Cyber Valley Corporate Network, demonstrating Baden-Württemberg's powerful research-to-innovation pipeline. Mirko Tochtermann, Founder & CTO of oneAI, shared his perspective on secure AI adoption and governance at one of our latest Cyber Valley IMPULSE events.

The research-to-market journeys of these start-ups highlight how transferring academic expertise into application leads to tangible impact, powering industry and driving Europe's sustainable future. Cyber Valley is delighted to welcome these three start-ups to its community!
 

The Cyber Valley Start-up Network

The Cyber Valley Start-up Network brings together more than 100 innovative AI and robotics start-ups across Baden-Württemberg, forming a strong and growing entrepreneurial community within one of Europe’s leading AI and robotics ecosystems. The network spans a broad range of applications and industries, from foundational AI technologies to applied and industry-specific solutions. Connected through their close ties to Cyber Valley, members benefit from access to world-class research, industry partners, investors, and public stakeholders, jointly strengthening the region’s AI and robotics ecosystem.