From Code to Company: Bridging Academia and Industry with Urbio's CTO at ETH Zürich

Discover insights on building a successful tech company, shared by Urbio's CTO on stage at ETH Zürich.

The transition from academic research to commercially viable, market-ready software is one of the most critical bottlenecks in the urban energy transition. At the recent "From code to company" event hosted at ETH Zürich's Audimax, leading digital energy innovators gathered to discuss the lifecycle of modern energy planning tools—from initial hypotheses and open-source code to scalable ventures.

Dr. Nils Schüler, CTO and Co-Founder of Urbio, joined a panel of Swiss digital energy startups to reflect on market needs, product evolution, and the future of software for district heating planning.

Scaling District Heating Network Planning

During his presentation, Schüler detailed Urbio’s rapid trajectory since its founding in 2020, which was driven by a mission to accelerate the decarbonization of the existing building stock. Today, the platform serves over 50 energy providers and consulting offices across four countries.

Schüler highlighted how the platform streamlines the entire workflow required to plan and design district heating networks. By providing plug-and-play data, Urbio allows users to begin designing immediately without bringing their own datasets, while also offering a "data factory" for those who wish to merge custom local data. This capability powers digital twins of building stocks at a national scale, allowing customers to quickly identify market opportunities and design optimized district heating networks.

Looking ahead, Schüler announced that Urbio is releasing new functionality to model multiple geo-referenced heating centers and the energy flows between them, further cementing its position as the leading tool for complex district heating network planning.

A Deep-Rooted Collaboration with ETH Zürich and CEA

The ETH Zürich event was not just a showcase of startups, but a celebration of collaboration within the energy ecosystem that has influenced the current generation of urban energy tools.

Urbio’s collaboration with ETH Zürich and the CEA ecosystem goes back years, actively shaping how the industry approaches urban decarbonization. This long-standing synergy between academic rigor and commercial software application was previously highlighted in a breakdown of an innovative tech stack for district heating network planning in Lisbon. In that award-winning project, Urbio operated in tandem with CEA and QGIS to bridge the gap between complex spatial data and actionable infrastructure optimization.

Panel Insights: User Experience and the Founding Team

During the panel discussion featuring founders from Planeto, Sympheny, UUen, and Urbio, Schüler underlined the critical importance of User Experience (UX) to support customers in their workflows. The participants agreed that providing a seamless, intuitive interface is what ultimately drives adoption and reduces onboarding friction for techno-commercial users.

Nils Schüler, CTO of Urbio, on stage with moderator Christian Schaffner, Executive Director of Energy Science Center at ETH Zürich, and co-panelists.

When asked to provide core advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in the energy space, Schüler emphasized the human element behind the code. He advised future founders to take the time and effort to carefully identify their co-founders. Acknowledging that the startup journey is a long ride with inevitable tough times, he noted that sticking together as a team and moving in the right direction is what makes the endeavor both successful and enjoyable.