E87 [AI-Translated] Kickfund | Startup Selection | AMI | ETH | B2C Revival | Hyperscale | Seprify | Rivia | Rhonexum

In this episode of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss new dynamics in the Swiss and international venture capital market. In the news segment, they analyze Kickfund’s highly scalable VC model with more than 100 portfolio companies in less than two years, discuss the new Startup Selection Switzerland ranking launched by NZZ and ZHAW, and break down Yann LeCun’s record-setting billion-dollar seed round as a sign of increasingly extreme power-law dynamics in the AI market. The featured topic is a conversation with Frank Floessel, Head of ETH Entrepreneurship. They discuss ETH Zurich’s record year with 46 new ventures, the new ETH start-up label, faster licensing processes, and how ETH is evolving from an incubator into a broader startup and scale-up engine. In the listener question, they explore whether consumer startups are making a comeback. The focus is on new success factors such as product quality, omnichannel distribution, repeat purchase behavior, and much more disciplined unit economics than during the first D2C wave. The episode concludes with four transactions of the week: Hyperscale Power (solid-state transformers, Seed) Seprify (cellulose-based industrial materials, Series A) Rivia (agentic AI for clinical trials, Series A) Rhonexum (cryogenic electronics for quantum computing, Pre-Seed) An episode about new VC models, ecosystem transparency, ETH entrepreneurship, consumer revival, and next-generation deep-tech infrastructure.