Kickstart 2023: 310 deals for Switzerland

"We bring established players together with up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Since Kickstart was founded in 2016, we have successfully initiated more than 310 innovation deals. Our alumni have generated over CHF 2.5 billion in investments," reports Katka Letzing, co-founder and CEO of Kickstart Innovation. Renowned Swiss companies and institutions such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, Mobiliar, PostFinance, Sanitas, the City of Zurich, the Canton of Vaud and MSD are looking for innovative solutions to further develop their business models with the help of Kickstart. "Startups encourage us to question our own approaches and experiment with new ideas," explains Luca Sigrist, Open Innovation Lead at PostFinance. "Of course, as a large company, we can also look for new solutions ourselves, but that simply takes more time and ultimately costs more money."

Shaping the future

The core idea of the Kickstart program is to harness the innovative potential of startups and combine it with the professionalism and market knowledge of established companies, as market conditions are often complex. This year's solutions are diverse and range from the digital workforce to renewable energy in underground spaces and quantum-resistant cybersecurity solutions. In total, more than 40 business deals were concluded in the areas of New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Smart Cities, Health & Wellbeing and Intrapreneurship.

Partnerships in the area of Finance & Insurance:

• Coop and Atlas Metrics will jointly carry out a double materiality analysis for the entire Coop cooperative and thus support Coop in its efforts to fully comply with important EU directives such as the CSRD.
• Pelt8 and Mobiliar are working together to provide Swiss SMEs with efficient and simple sustainability reporting.
• Cyber threats are digital - and real. Mobiliar and LECS by Cyber Evolution are jointly exploring the potential of an innovative cyber-attack prevention service to prevent data loss and operational downtime for SMEs and maintain portfolio resilience to cyber risks.
• Atlas Metrics, Pelt8 and Swisscom are working together on a white paper outlining an ESG data utility for Switzerland.
• Calvin Risk and Swisscom are exploring options to add AI risk management to Swisscom's AI and ML offering.
• QuSecure and Swisscom will demonstrate encrypted post-quantum communication as part of a PoC (proof of concept) and work together on quantum-resistant encryption for corporate customers.
• DynamoFL and Yuh are working on the development of privacy-friendly generative AI for personal finance applications.
• Swisscom Business Customers enters into partnerships with Kickstart Alumni Veezoo, Boomerang Ideas, Typewise, Fjuul Vision and Canveo. With these partnerships, Swisscom Business Customers is expanding its range of innovative services to offer advanced solutions tailored to customer needs: whether virtual assistant technology from Veezoo, innovative market feedback tool from Boomerang Ideas, AI writing solution from Typewise, engagement platform for insurers from Fjuul Vision or efficient contract management system from Canveo - all solutions aim to simplify decision-making, increase efficiency and growth for Swisscom customers.

Partnerships in the area of Health & Wellbeing:

• Sanitas and QuantActions will jointly test how subconscious mental health tracking can be used for the early detection of mental illness in the insurance sector and to what extent Sanitas customers are willing to share their data with both parties.
• MSD and NALU partner to explore employee benefit offerings around women's health.
• MSD and Health Yourself will evaluate different applications for HPV testing from home and jointly define and validate a women's health offer for employees.
• MSD has partnered with patient organizations, clinical stakeholders and OneDoc to launch a nationwide HPV (human papillomavirus) awareness campaign. As part of this campaign, OneDoc will help patients schedule appointments to learn more about HPV and how to protect themselves, including vaccination.
• The City of Zurich is in talks with MiiCare regarding a PoC for next year to help over-65s live healthily and independently at home.
• In collaboration with Deep Care, Mobiliar aims to improve the health culture in the workplace by integrating AI-supported health coaching, with a focus on promoting ergonomics, movement and vitality in the workplace through personalized digital coaching and innovative 3D sensor technology to prevent illness.

Partnerships in the field of smart cities:

• AXA and Preflet are testing a potential proof of concept by offering their customers an all-in-one platform for monitoring and changing energy consumption in their homes.
• AXA and viboo are exploring a potential proof of concept by offering their customers a smart thermostat that enables cost-efficient heating in their homes.
• In preparation for a major expansion, Swisscom and viboo have jointly equipped the entire Winterthur site with viboo's self-learning, predictive control algorithms and intelligent thermostats to reduce heat consumption and improve employee comfort.
• Swisscom Broadcast and Uzufly have signed a PoC (Proof of Concept) to test the 3D modeling of Swisscom Broadcast Towers using drone technology for inspection and BIM purposes.
• The City of Zurich and Uzufly will jointly investigate the use of "digital twins" in construction projects.
• Coop and roofSec are entering into a partnership to test the construction and renovation of flat roofs with roofSec's predictive maintenance system. The aim is to prevent damage and save costs by extending the service life of the roofs.
• enerdrape and Empa NEST join forces to explore research collaborations and test new product features and configurations.
• Together with the German insurer Gothaer and Eurapco, Mobiliar is planning a PoC with the German start-up Lumoview on the topic of building digitization.

Partnerships in the area of Food & Retail:

• Halba and NuKoKo want to make a joint contribution to sustainability. To this end, they are researching the development of cocoa-free chocolate products using NuKoKo's pioneering ingredients.
• Betty Bossi and NuKoKo are working together in the baking category to see what added value NuKoKo can bring to the world of cakes, brownies and other delicacies.
• Coop and Cognitiwe are entering into a partnership to revolutionize the world of retail. The collaboration begins with a proof of concept to bring artificial intelligence to Coop stores. The focus is on improving the efficiency and sustainability of fresh produce logistics. Look forward to smarter and more sustainable shopping experiences!
• Coop and Meala Foodtech are partnering to develop a clean label version of The Green Mountain's vegan sausage based on Meala's proprietary proteins. Meala functional proteins serve as building blocks for better and cleaner plant-based products that are superior in terms of taste, texture and nutritional value.
• In collaboration with Tide Ocean, Coop is launching sustainable shopping baskets made from recycled ocean plastic. The high-quality raw material is obtained from plastic waste collected by small-scale fishermen on the coasts of Southeast Asia. This shows once again how such partnerships can become drivers of sustainable innovation. The baskets meet stringent requirements for resilience and durability, making Tide Ocean's recycled polypropylene a reliable and sustainable alternative to virgin plastic.

Partnerships in the area of New Work & Learning:

• Coop and Savvi are entering into a partnership to train employees in Coop stores and the back office in future-relevant (soft) skills with the help of app-based, playful learning content.
• PostFinance and atwork are launching a PoC in which the atwork suite will be tested to measure the degree of self-organization at PostFinance and to obtain science- and AI-based recommendations for action.
• As part of the collaboration between Swisscom and Ada Growth, the Ada App will be made available to female Swisscom talent to gain insights into the benefits for them and have a positive impact on the entire company.
• Swisscom and Aixa are evaluating the power of the human face for customers interested in Swisscom products and services to make conversational AI/chatbots more accessible and empathetic.
• Swisscom and weThink will conduct a PoC (Proof of Concept) in Q1 2024 with the aim of gaining insights into the weThink calibration process, assessing its benefits for Swisscom and exploring possible ways of implementation.
• weThink and BrainE4 are partnering to improve the decision-making capabilities of United States Air Force leaders with swarm intelligence - a synergy that aims to revolutionize feedback mechanisms in high-risk environments.
• weThink and MuchSkills plan to use AI and generative design to improve team management and develop talent pathways with the aim of redefining team development and performance.

In addition, Pelt8 is leading the Supplier Sustainability Reporting Standard Initiative in collaboration with around 20 organizations, including key Kickstart partners such as Mobiliar. This innovative project aims to simplify and optimize sustainability reporting for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland. While our standard is similar to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), it is specifically tailored to the simplified reporting requirements of SMEs and bridges the gap between the supply chains of the real economy and the requirements of the financial services industry.

Source: www.kickstart-innovation.com