Having led software development teams in Silicon Valley for several years, most recently as Head of Product Design at Siri.com (acquired by Apple), Mads Rydahl returned to his hometown of Aarhus, Denmark in 2010. There, he met Thomas Laursen who was involved in a biomimetic startup to commercialize a revolutionary spray technology inspired by the defense system of the bombardier beetle.

Determined to make it easier for researchers and innovators to find analogous concepts and novel ideas from different industries and fields, they teamed up to form UNSILO. The company has received funding under the Danish Innovation Act in 2012, from Scale Capital in 2013 and most recently from Infosys in 2016.