San Francisco: two opportunities for Swiss start-ups

Last week Pier 17 was opened in San Francisco. The former warehouse in the central port area accommodates the major Swiss hub on the West Coast with Switzerland’s Consulate General represented at this location, and also swissnex San Francisco (for science and technology-related exchanges), Switzerland Tourism and Swiss Business Hub USA, which promotes exports and investment on behalf of Switzerland Global Enterprise. In addition, Nestlé’s Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost (picture above) is also housed here.

We visited Pier 17 as part of our Silicon Valley trip with the winners of the Swisscom Startup Challenge and spoke to representatives of several organisations, including Stephanie Nägeli, Digital Innovation Manager at Nestlé. We discovered two interesting new programmes.

DART 17 supports art projects with business potential
An art project with business potential might sound like a contradiction in terms, but the immersive flight simulator Birdly is a good example of a project that started as a work of art and which has evolved into a promising start-up.

DART 17 supports projects such as these: the new programme launched last week is an ideas testing lab for creatives to experiment and scale. It is housed in swissnex at Pier 17 on the spectacular San Francisco waterfront – where more than 70 co-workers from universities, companies and governments, and artists, designers and start-ups all share the same space – and it provides artists with rapid prototype feedback and direct market access. With the highest density of tech companies and venture capital investment in the world, San Francisco is an ideal testing ground for the quickly expanding creative economy.

Swissnex San Francisco, Swisscom, Pro Helvetia and Engagement Migros are now accepting applications for interdisciplinary projects from art and design, technology and research. DART 17 participants should be ready to create new creative content for interactive experiences using tools such as AR, VR, 3D, data, robotics, sensors, gaming, and/or smart objects. Project leaders and teams worldwide with a market-ready prototype can apply for a one to-three month testing period at the testing lab in San Francisco. More information at www.dart17.com.

Nestlé’s new open innovation platform is looking for start-ups
Nestlé’s new platform Henri@Nestlé expands Nestlé’s ongoing work with start-ups and builds on the company’s Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost, launched in 2013. It aims to increase the quality and speed of innovative solutions that respond to social and business challenges, and is open to start-ups worldwide.

Henri@Nestlé enables entrepreneurs to work as collaborative partners alongside dedicated Nestlé teams, and to tackle projects that matter to Nestlé and the millions of people who buy the company’s products.

The Henri@Nestlé team has posted four projects on the platform for start-ups to review and offer solutions. Each project is open for 45 days, with 10 days left for the first projects. After the closing date, the team will review the submissions within 30 days and shortlist up to five start-ups to pitch presentations.