Salzburg sports student Lukas Schwaiger spent two years tinkering and developing a warming massage roller against muscle tension. In the course of the development work, he was also supported by Salzburg Research. Now the entrepreneur has successfully attracted four investors at the startup show “2 Minuten 2 Millionen” (2 minutes 2 million) on the Channel Puls 4.

The massage roller combines the advantages of a traditional fascia roller with the comfort and positive properties of massage and heat therapy – a combination that is a world first in this form. The development phase was accompanied and supported by the InnovationLab of Salzburg Research as part of the Interreg Italia-Austria-funded project Labs.4.SMEs. The aim of the cooperation project was to strengthen the cooperation between the company SWAIG by company founder Lukas Schwaiger and the open workshop HappyLab Salzburg and to support the young inventor in the implementation of the innovation project. In the period from 10/2018 to 04/2019, intensive work was carried out on the implementation of different prototypes for heated fascia rolls. Various heating options and various materials and approaches for seamless wrapping of the roll were tested. See also: SWAIG: The Heated Fascia Roll With Effect

Investors Search at “2 Minuten 2 Millionen”

In May 2020 Lukas Schwaiger appeared on the start-up show “2 Minuten 2 Millionen”. The aim was to attract investors in order to be able to produce in Europe. He succeeded across the board. Since the broadcast date, the Thermaroll has been available for regeneration, relaxation and wellbeing online.

• SWAIG-Website: swaig.at
• The SWAIG pitch at “2 Minuten 2 Millionen” (Puls 4): Swaig-im-Pitch

The Labs4SMEs Project

The project Labs.4.SMEs (2016 – 2019) funded in Interreg Italia-Austria pursued the goal of strengthening the cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and Labs in order to make the innovation process in companies more efficient, cheaper and faster. In addition to other activities, a project idea competition was held in 2018. A total of 20 submitted cooperation projects were selected by a jury, which were implemented with a lab in the period from 10/2018 to 04/2019. Four of these cooperation projects come from Salzburg, one of them is the “SWAIG – heated fascia roll” project.

Images: © Puls 4/Gerry Frank