The sharpest laser sword in the world
LIDROTEC, the cutting technology for the semiconductor industry.
The sharpest laser sword in the world
LIDROTEC builds laser systems for cutting microchips and sells them to the semiconductor industry.
The team
This start-up uses technology that was developed in the doctoral theses of three of its young founders, all of whom studied laser applications technology at Ruhr University Bochum. These three founders – Alexander Kanitz, Jan Hoppius, and Jannis Köhler – studied different aspects of laser machining in liquids.
The fourth founder, Alexander Igelmann, joined the founder team on account of his long-standing friendship with Alexander Kanitz. Thanks to experience he has accumulated in previous jobs in the banking industry (e.g., working for Goldman Sachs), he brings the necessary business expertise to the table.
The USP
Our products allows companies in the semiconductor industry to reduce their failure rate when separating chips from currently 10% down to virtually zero, thus increasing both productivity and profitability. Unlike our competitors, our technology uses laser machining in liquids to achieve this goal – and this is our unique selling point.
The challenges
The success of a start-up is 1% the idea and 99% implementation. In the same way, the constellation of the team is much more important than the technology on which the start-up builds. Hardware-based start-ups like LIDROTEC face a variety of challenges. The leap from academic research to founding an actual business is huge. One of the decisive things we’ve learned as a team is that we have to tailor all our actions to customer needs. If you develop a product without paying attention to what customers want, you’re almost certainly doomed to failure.
Another issue is that it’s very difficult in Germany to find funding for a start-up that focuses on hardware. The market for venture capital in Germany is far less advanced than in the U.S., for example, so it’s much harder to find funding here. In order to master these challenges, we as a team of founders were forced to develop and grow to meet the various demands.
What we learned
Customer needs are the most important criteria for product development.
Challenges we mastered
Ongoing development to mold a team of three research scientists and one business administration graduate into a team of CEOs.
What we achieved
We managed to complete one round of financing with capital investors to help our company grow. We’ve established a company that now has 19 cool employees – so cool that we all enjoy spending large portions of the working day together!
The status quo
We’ve already successfully cut microchips for companies working in the semiconductor industry and are set to supply our first pilot system to a customer in the second quarter of 2024.
Good reasons for cooperating with a university for young founders
Thanks to a grant from the EXIST program, we were able to turn our research idea in the RUB’s laser applications technology faculty into reality. From the start, RUB was a strong supporter of LIDROTEC and remains so to the present. Whether it was using the premises and facilities or negotiating patents, RUB consistently acted in a start-up-friendly manner. We don’t know of any other universities that support student start-ups as well as RUB does.
Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs
Put together a team that includes members not only with technical expertise but also with the business expertise you’ll need. Right from day one, talk about your vision for your company. A team of founders will only succeed if they’re all pursuing one and the same vision. Validate your idea with the market. In other words, before you spend time and money, talk to potential customers to see whether your idea actually solves a problem and whether you’ll be able to make money with it. A product is only good if customers are willing to pay money for it. Solicit as much external expertise as possible. A successful team of founders might only consist of two to five members, but it will have a hundred people in its network that they can ask for advice.
