Swiss Startups Discover China

For Swiss startups, China, as the second largest economy in the world, is a lucrative market. Therefore, since 2014, the venture leaders program has been pursuing the goal of intensively exploiting the growing market opportunities for Swiss startups as well as increasing the visibility for their high-tech innovations. For the third time, ten innovative young companies won the business development trip to China's most important centers: In addition to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, the important economic and financial center Hong Kong is on the startups' itinerary for the first time in 2016.

"In China, there is a market for every startup".

The products and services of this year's finalists represent an enormous range of Swiss innovations: Nanotechnologies and Big Data are represented as well as applications for sustainable agriculture as well as cleantech and smart home innovations. "The aim of the venture leaders program is to showcase the diversity and quality of Swiss high-tech innovations on an international level. The program also shows the enormous interest of these startups for globally emerging markets like China," explains Jordi Montserrat, Managing Director of venturelab in French-speaking Switzerland. And swissnex China CEO, Pascal Marmier, adds: "China has a fast-growing and innovation-oriented economy. However, the market is highly competitive and the rules of the game are often vastly different from what people are used to in their home markets. For this reason, Swiss startups need to be on the ground to get to know the Chinese business culture better and to be able to build sustainable relationships with local experts, companies and investors. Theoretically, there is a market in China for every startup, you just have to know how to conquer it." The successes of alumni of the venture leaders program, such as the team of ETH spin-off greenTEG, which last year won four Chinese distribution partners for its revolutionary energy solutions, show that the trip to China is worthwhile.

The venture leaders China 2016

• Luc Gervais, 1Drop Diagnostics - Medtech (www.1dropdx.com), Neuchâtel (EPFL-IMT). The Neuchâtel-based young entrepreneurs of 1Drop Diagnostics want to increase access to optimal healthcare and offer easy-to-use laboratory-quality medical diagnostics. Initial clinical applications may cover cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and iron stores assessment.
• Serguei Okhonin, ActLight SA - Cleantech, Energy (www.act-light.com), Lausanne (EPFL). For the next generation of mobile devices to be ready for the Internet of Things, they must enable features such as increased data transfer rates while consuming less energy. To meet these challenges, ActLight is developing a revolutionary technology platform.
• Pascal Koenig, Ava AG - Medtech (www.avawomen.com), Zurich. For about a third of couples, the wish for a child does not come true simply because the timing is not right. Ava helps them. A bracelet measures all the parameters at night that predict ovulation with certainty, making family planning easier. Compared to other methods, Ava's solution is more precise and much easier to use.
• Marc Gitzinger, BioVersys AG - Biotech (www.bioversys.com), Basel (ETH). BioVersys researches and develops chemical molecules that reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The Swiss biopharma company's work addresses the high medical need for new drugs that can fight life-threatening bacterial infections despite the emergence of resistance, such as tuberculosis and hospital infections.
• Olga Peters, QualySense AG - Electronics, Robotics (www.qualysense.com), Glattbrugg. The EMPA spin-off QualySense develops and markets innovative sorting devices for quality control in the food industry. The unique and patented devices control and sort grains and beans according to biochemical and visual quality characteristics at breathtaking speed.
• Veronica Savu, Morphotonix Sàrl - Micro-nano (www.morphotonix.com), Lausanne (EPFL). EPFL spin-off Morphotonix protects brands against counterfeiting by directly integrating security elements into plastic molds that are free of additives.
• Sandra Neumann, Peripal AG - Medtech (www.peripal.com), Zurich. In home dialysis, the most difficult operation is connecting the dialysis machine to the bloodstream due to the risk of infection. Zurich-based startup Peripal solves this problem with a device that provides access to the blood vessels mechanically and in a sterile environment. This simplifies therapy enormously, significantly reducing training time for patients and caregivers.
• Felix Adamczyk, Smart Home Technology GmbH - Hardware, Software (www.smart-home-technology.ch), Zurich (ETH). The ETH spin-off Smart Home Technology develops innovative and energy-efficient applications in the private and industrial sectors. These include extremely energy-saving and secure communication solutions as well as the business solution Smart@Home® for sensor-based data acquisition in real time.
• Duncan Sutherland, TwentyGreen AG - Biotech (www.twentygreen.com), Lucerne (EPFL). Today's livestock practices are unsustainable and the growing global demand for protein poses an enormous challenge to our society. For sustainable animal husbandry, TwentyGreen produces a new probiotic feed supplement that has several positive effects.
• Staffan Ahlgren, Tyre Recycling Solutions SA (TRS) - Cleantech (www.trs-ch.com), Gland (EPFL). Every year, half a million car tires are disposed of worldwide and only half of them are recycled. EPFL spin-off Tyre Recycling Solutions, aims to revolutionize tire recycling with an innovative process: On the one hand, their technology can recover the metal present in old tires and, on the other, produce a high-quality powder from the tires that can be used cost-effectively for a wide range of production processes.

Partner of the venture leaders China program

The trip, including a business development program worth 10,000 Swiss francs each, was made possible by long-term partners EPFL Innovation Park, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Gebert Rüf Foundation, Canton de Vaud, Standortförderung - Amt für Wirtschaft und Arbeit Kanton Zürich, Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst&Young and swissnex China.

www.venturelab.ch