From product ambition to working prototype.
Papaia is the Zurich innovation team that turns hard product challenges into engineered reality — fast. Bring us the problem your team can't crack alone.
Some product challenges don't fit your roadmap.
They stall inside normal processes. They don't need another workshop full of sticky notes — they need a team that can move fast, think technically, and build proof.
No technical path
You have the idea, but no clear route from concept to something that actually works.
An aging product
It's losing ground while competitors move, and it needs reinventing — not just patching.
A team at capacity
Your people are brilliant and completely booked. The new challenge has nowhere to go.
A deferred question
"Is this even feasible?" keeps getting pushed to next quarter. The decision stays blocked.
We turn uncertainty into evidence.
Papaia compresses the distance between a product idea and a working result. We design, engineer, prototype, and test — so you get something tangible, not a theory. Every engagement ends with something real you can build on.
Frame & imagine
We sharpen a fuzzy challenge into a buildable problem and generate directions worth pursuing.
Prototype it real
Hardware, software, or both — we build the most promising direction into something you can hold and test.
Test against reality
We pressure-test it against users, performance, and constraints, then tell you what's actually true.
Challenge in. Evidence out.
No long discovery phases. No theory without proof. Each stage produces something tangible.
Frame it
We frame the real problem with you, fast.
Explore it
We generate directions and pressure-test feasibility.
Build it
We build the most promising direction for real.
Test it
We test against reality and tell you what's true.
Decide it
You get a confident path: build, scale, or pivot.
Small team. Serious firepower.
We're engineers, technologists, and creators rooted in the ETH ecosystem — one of the densest concentrations of technical talent on the planet. Small enough to move at startup speed, rigorous enough to be trusted with hard engineering. No account layers. No filler. The people who pitch you are the people who build your solution — hands on the problem.
Fast
Startup pace, not consultancy pace.
Technical
Real engineering depth, not slideware.
Imaginative
We attack problems others avoid.
Hands-on
We build, test, and prove.
The people who'll be in the room.
No account managers, no hand-offs. Papaia is a tight group of ETH-trained engineers and builders — the same people who scope your challenge are the ones who design, build, and prove the solution.
Operations · InnovationJeremia Geiger
Raised inside two industrial family businesses, Jeremia leads ambitious multidisciplinary teams — from product design and software to data science. He turns industrial complexity into momentum.
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Systems · Electronics · RoboticsDr. Claas Ehmke
Built his first robotic system in high school and never stopped. An electronics and embedded expert with deep hands-on hard- and software skills, and an affinity for medical tech and autonomous systems.
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Robotics · Intelligent SystemsYaohui Huang
Turns advanced models into robust real-world behaviour. Award-winning work in mechatronics and soft robotics, with analytical clarity and a sharp systems perspective on hard problems.
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Embedded · Sensor ElectronicsDavid Werder
Bridges hardware, sensing, and reliable implementation into compact, robust systems. A structured, detail-driven engineer who gets concepts to working prototype.
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Product · Rapid PrototypingDaniel Gisler
Innovation manager at Align Technology. Turns early ideas into testable concepts fast — reducing uncertainty through experimentation and building the first functional version of complex systems.
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Robotics · Learning Control · AIViacheslav Sydora
Connects analytical depth with hands-on implementation, from learning-based control to robotic systems that make complex algorithms tangible. Research-driven, practically minded.
LinkedInPhilipp Kopp
A natural leader with entrepreneurial drive and deep-tech expertise in software, computer vision, and machine learning. Co-founded his first deep-tech startup before graduate studies.
LinkedInJasan Zughaibi
An expert in control theory and its applications, with a portfolio of award-winning robotics projects. Researching at ETH's Multi-Scale Robotics Lab and the Max Planck Institute.
LinkedInProof beats promises.
We'd rather show you a prototype than tell you about our process. (Placeholder snapshots — swap in real projects.)
Sensor concept → working rig
Turned a stalled feasibility question into a tested proof-of-concept.
Aging product re-engineered
Modernized architecture and a prototype of the new direction.
Vague brief → clear path
Framed the challenge and shipped a demo that unblocked the decision.
Bring us the challenge your team can't stop thinking about.
Tell us where you're stuck — or where you want to go. We'll tell you, fast, what's possible and how we'd build it.