The 100 best startups 2021: 3 promising award winners

For the eleventh time, the Award Show brought together the most promising Swiss startup CEOs with Swiss and international investors, executives and journalists on September 8, 2021. What started with the first publication of the ranking in 2011 has evolved into a comprehensive selection of events and activities, including an Award Night, to which invited guests are admitted, the Investor Summit, where hand-picked TOP 100 startups present to selected Swiss and international investors, regional pitch events organized together with presenting partner Credit Suisse, and the Scale-up ranking. The TOP 100 Swiss Startups magazine reports on all these events and news with editorial content in German, French, English, Chinese and - for the first time in 2021 - in Japanese.

Overall, the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award is a success story: To date, a total of 470 startups have received awards. Swiss startups have raised 7.3 billion Swiss francs and created 11577 jobs. 59 exits and 5 IPOs have been recorded so far. And last but not least: The 100 Best Startups 2021 records 63 women in leadership positions and 19 co-founders.

Not an easy year for Swiss startups

The pandemic also had an impact on the startup scene. "Last year was not easy, but the Swiss startup ecosystem has shown that it is resilient and thrives under pressure. Celebrating the TOP 100 means celebrating all entrepreneurs in these turbulent times," says Jordi Montserrat, Managing Partner at Venturelab. "We begin the second decade of TOP 100 Swiss Startups not only with a new location, but also with a wide range of innovations that will positively impact our lives and strengthen Switzerland's position as a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The two keynote speakers of the evening illustrated the strength of the Swiss startup ecosystem and showed the potential of the TOP 100 startups: Ulf Grawunder is founder and CEO of Basel-based NBE Therapeutics, a startup acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim in December 2020 for EUR 1.18 billion. Fabien Jordan is co-founder and CEO of Astrocast, a Lausanne-based company that went public in August. "NBE Therapeutics and Astrocast have recently made headlines - during a pandemic that has been challenging for many - and we are delighted that they are sharing their experiences with TOP 100 entrepreneurs, investors and partners," said Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab and TOP 100 director.

The 100 Best Startups 2021: Planted Foods, CUTISS and 9T Labs are the winners of the evening

Three startups from the foodtech, biotech and engineering sectors lead the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Ranking 2021. Planted Foods, CUTISS and 9T Labs show the diversity and potential of Swiss startups: they are on average three years old, have together created over 140 new jobs and raised CHF 80 million in investments.

• First rank: Planted Foods (www.eatplanted.com): Turning plants into meat. The Zurich-based startup is revolutionizing the food industry by making plant-based protein from 100% animal product-free ingredients. Planted Foods' vegan meat alternatives contain no additives, chemicals, GMOs, antibiotics or hormones. Planted Foods was founded in 2019 by Christoph Jenny, Eric Stirnemann, Lukas Böni and Pascal Bieri. The startup ranked 37th in 2020.
• Second place: CUTISS (www.cutiss.swiss): CUTISS is a biotech startup capable of producing large quantities of customized human skin grafts. The product, denovoSkin™, is a safe, effective and accessible therapy for children and adults who have suffered large-scale burns or scalds. CUTISS' human skin grafts are expected to result in minimal scarring after transplantation. The Zurich-based startup was founded in 2016 by Dr. Daniela Marino (CEO) and Dr. Fabienne Hartmann-Fritsch (CCO) and won first place in 2020.
• Third place: 9T Labs (www.9tlabs.com): A new way to manufacture carbon composites. Zurich-based 9T Labs offers a manufacturing solution that makes high-performance parts easily accessible. The startup's all-in-one hardware, software and materials solution offers customers a cost-effective and easy way to design and mass-produce ultralight parts for sectors such as the medical, aerospace and automotive markets. The engineering startup was founded in 2018 by Martin Eichenhofer, Chester Houwink and Giovanni Cavolina and placed sixth in 2020.

The complete list of the 100 Best Startups 2021 and the 10 winners of the TOP 100 Public Voting can be found here. here.

Targeting the growth of Swiss scale-ups

In 2019 and 2020, just over CHF 2 billion was invested annually in Swiss startups for the first time. Despite the coronavirus crisis, Swiss startups have already raised this amount by July 2021 and are heading for an impressive record. Significantly more than half of this investment volume is attributable to alumni of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups - including wefox's USD 650 million fundraising round or SOPHiA GENETICS' IPO on Nasdaq. To lay a solid foundation for future fundraising success stories, the TOP 100 Investor Summit, invited selected startups that are looking for capital. The startups had the opportunity to network with hand-picked Swiss and international Super Angels, venture capitalists, corporate investors and family office representatives from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Switzerland and to present their innovations.