Kickstart: 41 international start-ups compete for a deal

These 41 start-ups 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 nine different countries, with Swiss start-ups strongly represented (more than a third) to promote partnerships, deep tech and sustainable innovation.

Each year, Kickstart has succeeded in attracting some of the world's best start-ups to develop solutions to society's biggest challenges. This is done in collaboration with major industry players such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, Die Mobiliar, 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 start-ups and facilitated over 310 deals in the form of pilots and commercial projects (overview of collaboration map). 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 start-ups 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 experienced particular growth, alongside the increase in AI solutions to promote new business models."

"We are delighted to enter into innovation partnerships and forward-looking business relationships via such a professional platform," explains Paloma Bosco, Head of New Business & Innovation at Swisscom. This is the 9th time the company has been a partner of the Kickstart innovation program.

Solutions for the future

The start-ups 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 topic among the ideas.

With BioBlack TX, for example, Nature Coatings offers pigments that are 100 % bio-based and have 85 % lower CO₂-footprint compared to conventional applications. If BioBlack pigments were used across all industries instead of carbon black in plastics, printing inks, paints and coatings, around 4.62 million tons of CO₂ could be saved. This would correspond to circumnavigating the earth 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 energy for air conditioning and at the same time improve thermal comfort for residents.

B'ZEOS, based in Lausanne, has already successfully completed several proof-of-concept projects. The company specializes in the conversion of algae-based pellets and resins into packaging material. This unique plug-and-play solution uses existing conversion technologies to create an end product that is 100 % bio-based and biodegradable.

Kickstart Academy: Innovation in public and private organizations

In addition to supporting scale-ups, Kickstart also helps established organizations to foster and accelerate internal innovation by supporting teams of employees to work on and test specific topics. This enables employees of the partner organizations in the so-called intrapreneurship teams to work on the innovations, validation of their ideas and scaling within their company or public institution. This year, intrapreneurship teams from Swisscom, iwb and CSEM, among others, will take part in the Kickstart Academy. "Intrapreneurship is an important part of innovation in our organization, supporting both talent and new ideas that can be validated and scaled," said Bahaa Roustom, Vice President, Business Development from CSEM.

The new deals and partnerships will be announced on November 28, 2024 at the official closing event at the Kraftwerk in Zurich.

This year's start-ups and intrapreneurship teams: 41

Source: www.kickstart-innovation.com