Seeing What Otherwise Remains Hidden
Interview with Dr. René Heine, Managing Director of Cubert GmbH
Measuring chlorophyll content in plants, tracking hemoglobin flow, or detecting contaminations – the company Cubert from Ulm makes the invisible visible with hyperspectral imaging. Their specialty cameras perform complete chemical analyses in real time, where conventional technology fails. A conversation about technology transfer and sustainable business practices.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Dr. Heine, Cubert was founded in 2012. How did the business idea come about?
Dr. René Heine: We are a spin-off from medical technology and realized that medical technology often finds application in remote sensing because the topics are interestingly close to each other: both involve imaging, only in one case in a sterile laboratory and in the other case out in the field. We quickly found customers who were impressed by what we could achieve with spectrometers already. We then transferred this outside of the laboratory.
Wirtschaftsforum: What makes your technology so special?
Dr. René Heine: We can map spectroscopy with complete videos — this is a technique that did not exist before 2012. Back then, you could either record a point or a line. Through our research, we found a way to record complete videos with moving images, and at every point, there is a spectrum. Spectrum for us means chemical analysis. For example, we can detect how much chlorophyll a plant contains or how high the hemoglobin content of the blood flowing through the veins is.
Wirtschaftsforum: In which areas is your technology used?
Dr. René Heine: The fields of application are very broad. We have customers who can determine whether the chick is male or female while it is still in the egg – this helps them prevent culling. Then we have customers who can detect Alzheimer's disease via the eye while the patient is going for routine eye check-ups. And we have other customers who are dealing with plant diseases, fertilization, and environmental issues. Without our customers, we wouldn’t have the chance to cultivate these broad fields – they are the real experts.
Wirtschaftsforum: How has the company evolved and what is its current position?
Dr. René Heine: After two years of seed funding, the company has been standing on its own feet since 2014. Today, we have 20 employees in Ulm and an annual turnover of 4 million EUR – after Corona in 2020, we really entered into a growth curve. We sell much more abroad than to Germany. The market is almost evenly split between America, Europe, and Asia. 70% of our business is hardware sales, 30% is application development – that is, enabling our customers to find new solutions with our products.
Wirtschaftsforum: You have recently completed a Growth Capital Deal. Why this change in strategy?
Dr. René Heine: Until now, we have grown organically – we have reinvested the money we earned. This is good for building a company with low risk, but at a certain point, we no longer see the potential to grow organically in our market. We now want to invest money in order to sustainably increase our business – both through investments in our own operations and in partner companies that we are targeting.
Wirtschaftsforum: How do you use artificial intelligence in your company?
Dr. Rene Heine: We use neural networks for the data analysis of our cameras, and many customers use AI for data analysis with our devices. I personally spend about an hour each day on AI for my CEO activities. Each of our employees now has their own account for AI support. If you know how to use the tools, they are an incredibly good tool - the increase in efficiency that can be achieved with them is still greatly underestimated.
Wirtschaftsforum: Where do you see your company in the coming years?
Rene Heine: We want to position our company as a solutions provider for complete robotics. Currently, automation can only perceive what the human eye can see – which are red, green, and blue. We aim to augment this age-old system so that the systems become more powerful and see the whole spectrum. This helps in medicine, quality control, waste prevention, or reducing fertilizers in agriculture. We see this as a major contribution to the sustainable development of the world – and that drives us.
Wirtschaftsforum: Do you have a political message?
Rene Heine: I wish us the best in Germany. It is time that we think beyond party lines. We have a task to solve – as a society. I would like for politics to achieve this. It would help everyone if the current government is successful – we should all remove our political glasses for once.