Ten startups’ CEOs are the winners of venture leaders Technology 2017. They have been selected among more than 100 applications and convinced a jury comprising investors from Waypoint Capital, Rothschild Bank and Swisscom Ventures. The entrepreneurs forming the “Swiss startup Technology team” will fly to Silicon Valley for a one week roadshow in March to meet top technology investors and experts, and accelerate their expansion on the US market. They offer an amazing display of Swiss startups with global ambitions, and the potential to impact the world.
Over the past 16 years, the venture leaders program has been a cornerstone behind the success of more than 300 Swiss startups, some at a global scale such as Mindmaze, a leader in virtual reality today who raised USD 100 million in 2016. The venture leaders alumni’s list counts startups acquired by Intel, Apple or Logitech. 42 of them are listed in the TOP100 Swiss Startups ranking 2016 such as its number one startup L.E.S.S., but also Knip, Flyability or Lunaphore. Described as a “flagship program for Swiss startups”, venture leaders brings Swiss startup teams to Boston, New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong every year. It has helped hundreds of CEOs to strengthen their vision and achieve success at a global scale.
Growth takes place at the international level
“venture leaders has successfully identified and supported many of the most promising Swiss startups in their growth efforts at an international level”, explains Jordi Montserrat, Managing Director of venturelab. The selection of venture leaders Technology 2017 reflects the impressive quality of Swiss startups. The winners are companies serving global customers with Internet of Things solutions, the live development of mobile applications or by bringing solar panels to a world record of 36% efficiency. “Switzerland is a fantastic place to launch a startup, however growth takes place at the international level. Early exposure to the US market and investors is a necessity for any startup with global potential”.
Meet the venture leaders Technology at ETH Zurich on 2nd March, 2017
Discover the winning entrepreneurs forming the venture leaders Technology team 2017 at the public Startup Champions event on March 2nd, 2017, at ETH Zurich, from 6 to 8PM. The 10 winning entrepreneurs (see their short profiles on page 2 and 3) will pitch their startup, and the audience will elect a team captain. Two great keynote speakers will be present: Philippe Gaydoul, founder of the GAYDOUL GROUP and Mario Vögeli, Co-Founder of Arktis, a venture leader startup that just raised USD 10 million.
Follow the Startup Champions event and the venture leaders Technology’s trip from March 27th to April 1st 2017 on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtags #SUchamps, #vleaders, #vleadersTECH.
venture leaders: The home of the Swiss national startup teams
venture leaders offers one week roadshows in Silicon Valley (Technology), Boston (Life Science), New York (Fintech) and China (all domains). This includes presentations to local investors, partners and industry experts as well as business workshops and visits. Further to getting a unique visibility in Switzerland and abroad, as well as building a strong network, the participants are part of a team of entrepreneurs sharing the same objectives and challenges. They are unique Ambassadors of the thriving Swiss startup scene and the country’s innovation power.
Next calls for Swiss startups with global potential: Join a Swiss startup team!
- venture leaders Life Science Boston (June 11 – 17, 2017)
- venture leaders China (June 25 – July 4, 2017)
Information and application: www.venture-leaders.ch
venture leaders Technology is supported by digitalswitzerland, Rothschild Bank, Swisscom Ventures, Waypoint Capital, Canton de Vaud, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich and Gebert Rüf Stiftung. Check the 300+ venture leaders online profiles
The venture leaders Technology 2017 at a glance
CatchEye, Claudia Plüss (software, ETH Zurich)
CatchEye develops algorithms and a software to improve communication in video calls. The CatchEye software plugs into existing video call systems like Skype or Google Hangouts. It enables eye contact and removes distractions from the video feed. This enhances the video call experience and helps users to build trust and develop more personal relationships over video.
Insolight, Laurent Coulot (cleantech, EPF Lausanne)
Over the past decade, the solar panels’ market has boomed. However, conventional silicon panels still lack efficiency and the return on investment for end users is limited. Insolight developed a flat optical panel that directs sunrays on smaller and highly efficient solar cells, which are normally used in satellites. The technology can produce twice as much electricity for the same surface area than conventional panels. The yield (the quantity of electricity produced from the light energy received) of Insolight’s first prototype is of 36%, which could be considered as a world record, while solutions currently available on the market offer throughput of only around 18-20%.
LORIOT, Vit Prajzler (Internet of Things, Thalwil)
Loriot’s mission is to connect billions of things to the Internet. Today, current sensor networks are built for single purpose, lacking the Internet-like network philosophy and flexibility. Loriot’s technology enables even the smallest, simplest things to send and receive data directly from the Internet with minimal power consumption, infrastructure cost and thing-side implementation complexity. Their platform manages the infrastructure, connectivity, data and life cycle for billions of “things”.
Nomoko, Nilson Kufus (Internet of Things, Zurich)
From the entertainment to the car industry, the need for large-scale 3D environments has dramatically increased. While we are starting to understand the incredible potential of such virtual environments, no current technological solution allows for acquiring them in a fast, scalable and high quality way. Nomoko develops the solution to automatically create «Artificial Reality»: photorealistic 3D models with integrated metadata such as object recognition, materials and physics – in short, a digital copy of reality.
Olympe, Laurent Chatelanat (Internet, Mobile, EPF Lausanne)
There are hundreds of tools on the Internet to build websites or e-commerce shops in a few minutes, without any programming knowledge. However, there is nothing yet with the same ease of use to build applications or software. Olympe empowers anyone to translate ideas into software solutions, from “brain to market”, in a few clicks. Combining visual thinking and artificial intelligence, users can build their own tailor made software easily and intuitively.
PapayaPods, Alex Just (software, EHL, École Hotelière de Lausanne)
PapayaPods automates the time consuming and paper based processes of all the steps involved in rental housing such as tenant sourcing and vetting, contract signing, move-in and -out, as well as repair and maintenance requests and rent payments. It provides landlords an intuitive and easy to use cloud based software which digitalizes the entire rental housing journey, in one centralized system, either at home or on the go with the mobile application. As such, landlords save time and money and they can provide a better rental experience to their tenants.
Piavita, Dorina Thiess (medtech, Zurich)
Piavita aims to revolutionize the veterinary industry. It has developed a palm-sized vital signs measurement device that saves veterinarians time, efforts and money while enhancing the level of information to judge on the health status of the animal. First products are customized for horses, giving insights into their unaffected well-being and creating Big Data on horses’ health uncontested in its scope and detail level. The medical-grained measurements with their wireless portable device allows for monitoring, diagnosis, and improved training without having to be with or close to the animal all the time.
Picstars, Mark Sandmeier (mobile, Zurich)
Picstars turns social media photos and videos into a marketing goldmine. Picstars developed a unique technology that makes it possible for brands to be present, with their logos and advertising campaigns, on the personal social media photos and videos of their ambassadors, i.e. event visitors or employees. Thanks to Picstars, brands not only manage the content of the photos or videos, they also have an overview of every single interaction, its reach and its cost – live in real time. An ambassador can, thanks to existing data, be compensated for the achieved reach.
Pryv, Evelina Georgieva (eHealth, Internet of Things, EPF Lausanne)
The upsurge of eHealth, Medical apps and connected-remote monitoring medical devices comes with the promise to design and promote the next generation of personalized healthcare, patients’ awareness and better healthcare services. However, significant challenges remain to be solved, such as regulatory issues, data security and privacy, interoperability and integration issues. Pryv’s focus is on the design and commercialization of compliant data management software solutions. They developed and sell licenses of a trusted Swiss-made and validated eHealth Data Middleware to empower their customers (Pharma, Hospitals/ Clinics, Medtech, Digital Health, Insurances) to build compliant, innovative and scalable data-driven eHealth products with confidence, reduced time and IT expenses while respecting complex Data Privacy Regulations.
TasteHit, Alexei Kounine (software, EPF Lausanne)
In order to stay competitive, online shops need to better attract, engage and convert their visitors using data-science and automation. Giants like Amazon or Zalando have entire teams developing these technologies in-house. Unfortunately, hiring data scientists and developers to build such features involve high costs and long development times which very few shops can afford (among millions of existing online shops). TasteHit is a Software-as-a-Service user engagement platform for modernizing existing online shops. It provides online merchants with a suite of data-driven user experience tools to increase the performance of their shops. It is installed in 10 minutes by any non-technical person and increases the shop’s conversion rate by up to 20%. TasteHit’s customers include niche retailers, specialized marketplaces and famous fashion brands.
