Five Swiss startups win at the Swisscom StartUp Challenge 2022
With its tenth StartUp Challenge, Swisscom was looking for young companies that contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases with their solutions and services. The winners were Almer Technologies AG, ECCO2 Solutions AG, mobileup, SmartHelio Sarl and Swiss Vault AG from the Basel, Bern and French-speaking regions.
The Swisscom StartUp Challenge 2022 was all about Climate protection and sustainability. More than 200 startups from 30 countries applied for the tenth implementation of the funding program. In the first round, a jury of experts selected ten finalists by the beginning of August 2022. What they have in common is that all of their innovations contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases. The spectrum of solutions is broad, ranging from IoT applications and hydrogen fuel cell technology to platforms for the circular economy.
Convincing business models honored
On September 2, 2022, the ten-member jury with representatives from Fastweb, ETH, South Pole and Swisscom selected the five winners. To score in the final, however, the startups not only had to present smart, sustainable solutions and a convincing business model, but also demonstrate team spirit and determination. The jury was particularly enthusiastic about Almer Technologies AG, ECCO2 Solutions AG, mobileup, SmartHelio Sarl and Swiss Vault AG.
The five winners secured participation in a week-long exploration program with sustainability and ICT experts from Swisscom and access to the Swisscom ecosystem. In addition to workshops, coaching, a network of climate protection and energy efficiency entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, the winners also have the chance to partner with Swisscom. Because Swisscom wants to save one million tons of CO2 per year by 2025 Swisscom wants to save one million tons of CO2 per year by 2025, in addition to its climate-neutral target, by offering private and business customers innovative ICT solutions that enable them to massively reduce their carbon footprint.
Failure and success are close together
In the ten years that the Swisscom Startup Challenge has been in existence, around 2,000 startups have applied for the competition and 45 have completed the support program. Nearly 100 young entrepreneurs traveled to the Swisscom Outpost in Palo Alto and pitched their business cases to major venture capitalists and Internet giants. Among them were startups such as Ava (2015), Creal (2019), Ecorobotix (2017), Geosatis (2014), Gmelius (2019) and Nanolive (2016). Swisscom Ventures, a division of Swisscom, also invested in all of them. Six of the winning startups have since sold their companies: For example, regtech startup Qumram (2016) to Dynatrade or intelligent image recognition Fashwell (2016) to Apple. Some of the Swisscom Startup Challenge alumni are now ranked among the top 100 young companies in Switzerland. 4 of the 45 have unfortunately already had to abandon their entrepreneurial journey. "Compared to the statistics in the US, the failure rate in the Swisscom Startup Challenge Hall of Fame is much smaller," explains Beat Schillig from Venturelab. "So either the selection was very good or we in Switzerland take fewer risks than startups in Silicon Valley and still have a lot of untapped innovation potential. Because those who dare more can also win more!"
Short portraits of the winners of the Swisscom StartUp Challenge 2022
Almer Technologies AG
Almer Technologies focuses on providing high-tech augmented reality glasses with Swiss-made hardware/software for businesses and offers its service all over the world. Their service offers multiple solutions to problems: Eliminating the travel time an expert must spend to a foreign office, no transportation costs, and reducing the company's carbon footprint.
ECCO2 Solutions AG
ECCO2 reduces building heating energy consumption by an average of 15 percent with a data-driven IoT/AI solution and compiles ESG-relevant building data. Property owners are challenged by high energy consumption. Energy costs, regulatory obligations and social pressures are a real nuisance. Energy efficiency impacts market value for tenants and investors. The ECCO2 solution is fast, affordable, can be deployed anywhere and is subsidized by the Swiss government.
mobileup
mobileup is a platform for buying and selling used smartphones and tablets. All devices are sold with a 12-month warranty and a 30-day return policy. The price and the product range are the most important criteria for customers. Therefore, mobileup has set up APIs for the largest European providers. An algorithm identifies the devices with the best price-performance ratio and thus helps match supply with demand.
SmartHelio Sarl
SmartHelio is the fastest growing cleantech data intelligence company in the world, according to the company. The company's solution, founded by Bcorp and Y Combinator, is used by leading solar developers in Europe, Asia and the U.S. to make solar installations profitable and sustainable. After investing $15 million in research and development, SmartHelio has developed software that predicts PV system faults in real time. This can prevent downtime and increase revenue by up to 10 percent.
Swiss Vault AG
Swiss Vault is a data innovation company that helps the world manage its data efficiently and in an environmentally responsible way. Swiss Vault provides companies with technologies that combine hardware and software solutions for better, economical, resilient and environmentally sustainable data management.
