From Switzerland: B’ZEOS, Enterprise Bot, irmos technologies, Moodtalk, Neur.on, PlaynVoice, ProSeed, Solskin, Upgrain, Wyrd.io, hypt, Enerjoy, AI Buddy, Opineo, Fetal Monitoring, Visenco, Protonica, Watchibia
One of two business ideas involves sustainable solutions
Future topics in the program: AI in healthcare, seaweed as food packaging, waste stream upcycling, alternative protein (fungi fermentation), medical data management, waste biomass processing, synthetic data, data storage
41 startups selected from applications from over 48 countries for the 9th Kickstart Innovation program 2024
Zurich, 3 September 2024 – Over six weeks, more than 170 experts selected 41 international startups for the 11-week Kickstart Innovation program in Switzerland with well-known companies, organizations, cities, foundations and universities. These 41 startups now have the opportunity to gain access to decision-makers and stakeholders, test and scale their business models and close promising deals. The finalists come from 9 different countries, with a strong representation of Swiss startups (over a third), to promote partnerships, deep tech and sustainable innovation.
Each year, Kickstart has been able to attract some of the world’s best startups that are developing solutions to society’s biggest challenges. This is done in collaboration with key industry players such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, Sanitas, the City of Zurich, the Canton of Vaud and MSD. This year, IKEA Switzerland and Romande Energie are also participating on the corporate side for the first time.
Kickstart has already supported more than 450 startups and facilitated over 310 business deals (see Collaboration Map) in the form of pilot and commercial projects. Participants to date come from over 80 countries and have mobilized more than CHF 2.5 billion in investment, including Planted, KernTec, Neustark, AAAcell and others.
“One trend that is clearly emerging is the increasing number of startups that are looking for sustainable solutions in their business ideas,” explains Katka Letzing, CEO and co-founder of Kickstart, one of the largest open innovation platforms in Europe. “The sustainability areas of industry, innovation and infrastructure as well as health and well-being (SDG9 and SDG3) have seen particular growth next to the increase of solutions connected to AI enhancing new business models.”
“We are very happy to partner with such a professional platform to enter in innovation partnerships and commercial deals bringing a view to the future,” explains Paloma Bosco, Head of New Business & Innovation at Swisscom - partner in the Kickstart Innovation program for the 9th time.
Solutions for the future
The startups presented their business models and ideas for the future in five areas (New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing and Smart Cities). Climate change and sustainable solutions are an important theme among these ideas.
Nature Coatings, for example, provides BioBlack TX pigments that are 100% bio-based, which are offering an 85% lower carbon footprint compared to conventional options. In fact, if BioBlack pigments were used across industries replacing all carbon black in plastics, inks, paints, and coatings, it could mitigate approximately 4.62 million tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to driving around the Earth’s circumference more than 100,000 times.
With its product Solskin, the Zurich-based company Soft Robotics has developed an intelligent, climate-adapted building envelope. Solskin can save around 80% of air-conditioning energy while improving thermal comfort for occupants.
B'ZEOS, based in Lausanne, has already successfully completed several proof-of-concept projects. The company specializes in the conversion of seaweed-based pellets/resins into packaging materials. This unique plug-and-play solution uses existing conversion technologies to generate a final product that is 100% bio-based and biodegradable.
Kickstart Academy: Innovation within the public and private organizations
Next to supporting scaleups, Kickstart also supports established organizations in boosting and accelerating internal innovation by supporting teams working on specific topics to test. That enables employees to work on innovation of validation of their ideas as well as scaling within their corporate or public institutions including: Swisscom, IWB, and CSEM. “Intrapreneurship is an important piece of innovation within our organization, supporting talent as well as new ideas that can validate and scale.” Bahaa Roustom, Vice-President, Business Development, CSEM.
The new deals and partnerships will be announced at a closing ceremony on 28 November at the Kraftwerk in Zurich.
For more information, please contact: press@kickstart-innovation.com
About Kickstart
Kickstart is one of Europe’s largest zero equity, open innovation platforms. Our mission is to build innovation ecosystems with purpose, by fast-forwarding innovation. We bring together public and private organizations, startups, investors and experts, with the shared ambition to deliver next-generation products and services and have a meaningful impact at scale. Each year, Kickstart engages 100 entrepreneurs to collaborate with key players for proofs of concept, pilot and commercial projects and other innovation partnerships. Additionally, through the intrapreneurship program Kickstart helps established organizations to promote and accelerate internal innovation.
Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich and was launched in 2015 by digitalswitzerland. In 2024, Kickstart runs five verticals: New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing and Smart Cities, together with partner organizations across industries: AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, ETH Zurich, City of Zurich, CSEM, Sanitas, University Hospital Zurich, Panter, IKEA Switzerland, SATW, Impact Hub Switzerland, Canton de Vaud, Romande Energie, Swiss Healthcare Startups, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Ringier, MLL, WECOCO, Day8, HealthTech Cluster Switzerland, SwissLEAP, EPFL, IMD, gfm and over 200 partners globally. Climate Positive Mission; Circular Economy Initiative is supporting startups in all verticals as well as has a special focus on specific climate challenges.
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