The three top Swiss startups
The seventh edition of the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Awards took place on September 6, 2017 with over 700 guests at the old NZZ printing plant in Schlieren. The broad spectrum of innovative high-tech startups attracted countless investors from abroad and even from China to this exclusive event.
Every year since 2011 startup.ch organizes the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award. The 100 most innovative and promising Swiss startups are selected by 100 leading startup experts. Each expert submits his personal ranking list with his top 10 startups. The companies must be younger than five years and have high potential for commercial success. The first place gets 10 points, for the second place 9 points and rank 10 gets 1 point. The TOP 100 Swiss Startups re-present the ranking of startups with the total number of points achieved.
Top startups from the world's most innovative country
According to the Global Innovation Index 2017, Switzerland remains the most innovative country in the world - for the seventh time in a row. The selected TOP 100 Swiss startups should be proof enough of this. 36 new entrants made it into this year's ranking, representing the dynamism of the Swiss startup ecosystem. Looking back, the 100 experts prove to have a good nose when it comes to choosing the winners.
The top three startups are...
Ava, L.E.S.S. and Flyability: the TOP 3 startups of 2017 represent the broad range and high quality of Swiss innovation with global potential: still ranked 94th in 2015, Zurich-based startup Ava can now celebrate first place with its clinically tested wearable device that measures a woman's fertile days within the menstrual cycle. The startup is already on the U.S. market and has received funding of 12 million Swiss francs. Now it is preparing for the Series B round to fund its global expansion. Second place goes to L.E.S.S., which is competing with conventional LEDs with its next generation of low-power light sources thinner than a human hair. With a currently confidential partner, they are planning a world premiere in the auto industry (to be announced at Messe Frankfurt) and are expanding their startup to 30 employees. Third place goes to Flyability, which is making the first collision-tolerant drones called Elios for previously unreachable places. The Lausanne-based startup was already in the TOP 100 in 2014 and reached a turnover of CHF 6 million last year. The goal for 2017 is to triple that amount and hire 60 employees.
The startup and innovation scene is finally becoming more female
This year, TOP 100 Magazine wants to recognize women with startup ambitions. It features female entrepreneurs and executives, as well as women in the ecosystem, who support startups in their funding, with board participation and professional expertise.
