Move from idea to evidence.
Papaia is the Zurich team that takes your toughest product question and hands back something real — engineered, built, and proven in days.
We trade guesswork for working proof.
We shrink the gap between a product idea and a result you can hold. Design, engineer, prototype, test — every engagement ends in something tangible, not a deck.
Frame & imagine
We sharpen a vague brief into a buildable problem, then generate the directions actually worth chasing.
Build it real
Hardware, software, or both — we turn the best direction into a working prototype.
Test the truth
We pressure-test against users and constraints, then tell you what's genuinely real.
Six formats, one outcome: proof.
Choose the engagement that fits your moment — a tight sprint, a deep build, or an open-ended partnership.
Innovation Sprint
From open question to a concrete direction in days, not months.
When you need momentum now.Rapid Prototyping
We turn "maybe" into "look at this" — something to test, demo, and decide on.
When you need to see it work.Feasibility & Concept Development
A credible technical verdict — can it be built, and how — before a single franc of budget is committed.
When budget is on the line.Product Reinvention
We re-engineer what an aging product could become — technically and conceptually — and prototype the next chapter.
When it's losing ground.Engineering Development
Senior engineering firepower to build the real thing — or the hard part of it.
When you have the direction.Innovation Partnership
An on-call strike team — your external R&D capacity for whatever's next.
When innovation never stops.Challenge in. Evidence out.
No endless discovery, no theory without proof. Five stages, each leaving something tangible behind.
Frame it
We nail the real problem with you — fast, sharp, and honest.
Explore it
Directions generated, feasibility pressure-tested.
Build it
The strongest direction, built for real.
Test it
Run against reality; we report what's true.
Decide it
A confident path forward: build, scale, or pivot.
The ones who'll be in the room.
No account managers, no hand-offs. A tight crew of ETH-trained engineers and builders — the same people who scope your challenge design, build, and prove the answer.
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.
LinkedIn ↗Philipp 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.
LinkedIn ↗Jasan 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.
LinkedIn ↗We'd rather show than tell.
A prototype beats a promise every time. (Representative snapshots — real projects swap in here.)
Sensor concept → working rig
A stalled feasibility question turned into a tested proof-of-concept on the bench.
Aging product re-engineered
Modernized architecture, prototyped the new direction.
Vague brief → clear path
Framed the challenge, shipped a demo that unblocked the call.
Small team. Serious firepower.
Engineers and creators rooted in the ETH ecosystem — one of the densest pools of technical talent anywhere. Fast as a startup, rigorous enough for hard engineering. The people who pitch you are the people who build.
Fast
Startup pace, not consultancy pace.
Technical
Real engineering depth, not slideware.
Imaginative
We attack the problems others avoid.
Hands-on
We build, test, and prove.
Some challenges don't fit the roadmap.
They stall in normal process. They don't need another workshop — they need a team that moves fast and builds proof.
No technical path
You have the idea, but no clear route from concept to something that works.
An aging product
Losing ground while rivals move — it needs reinventing, not patching.
A team at capacity
Your people are brilliant and fully booked. The new challenge has nowhere to land.
A deferred question
"Is this even feasible?" keeps slipping to next quarter. The decision stays blocked.
Bring us the challenge you 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.