Plasma against SARS-COV-2

We talked to Enrique Medina Peinado of CEDRION about cooling devices for on-board electronics based on the Corona Effect and here is what he said about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Enrique Medina Peinado: Thanks for your question. We have been very careful, and by now, we have been lucky, for no close member has been infected.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded CEDRION.

Enrique Medina Peinado: I am an engineer and have been working as a business consultant for more than 15 years. A few years ago, I studied for an MBA, and part of the program was to go to Silicon Valley to get to know the startup world. I fell in love with it, and back in Spain, I have participated as Mentor in many programs. Four years ago, one of my mentees presented an awesome idea, and we decided to launch it as CEDRION.

How does CEDRION innovate? 

Enrique Medina Peinado: We have been developing our own technology, have a patent granted, and writing down two more.

We are a group of 9 engineers, some of them are Ph.D. holders, and we work closely with several R&D institutions in Spain. This way, we can innovate on each of the parts of our systems and integrate them rapidly.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Enrique Medina Peinado: We focused on using our tech to create ionic wind to refrigerate on-board electronics in drones, airplanes, and cars.

We also invested 15% of our resources in some developments to inactivate bacteria and biofilms, with the aim to have a system to sterilize cutting tools in the agro-tech world.

With the pandemic, we decided to pivot, and the whole company has moved to use the ions to inactivate the Coronavirus. We have developed some new parts of the system, defined and validated the new applications, and reached the Market with the technology.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Enrique Medina Peinado: With the first lockout due to the virus, the general recommendation was to stop, do a Record of Temporary Employment Regulation, and freeze the company for a few months, which is how long it was expected to last. We decided not to wait and pivot, we spent a few months a little bad, but we have managed in record time to have anti-Covid systems for air and surface disinfection.

What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?

Enrique Medina Peinado: We have used lean startup as the methodology for doing and prototyping to be able to shorten the development. We have also used simulation programs.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Enrique Medina Peinado: Our competitors, we have the traditional technologies, like peroxides, bleach dilutions, that need to manage consumables and produce wastes. Others are UV-C light, but it is quite expensive to use because people cannot manage it. We really think that our technology is much better than the currents in the Market.

To stay in the game, we only see innovation. Improving the technology and the service to our clients is the only way to survive.

Your final thoughts?

Enrique Medina Peinado: Times have been hard. Let’s learn from them and value what we had.

Your website?

http://www.cedrion.com