Six start-ups and a question

Dear reader

Two cleantech companies came out on top at awards this week. The Oxyle team won the >> venture >> Grand Prize, worth a total of CHF 150,000. The ETH Zurich spin-off is developing a new type of wastewater treatment that completely eliminates the most persistent and toxic micropollutant in water. Membrasenz won the Lausanne region’s Prix PERL and thus prize money of CHF 50,000. The start-up’s membranes make hydrogen production more environmentally friendly and cheaper.

The second industry to stand out this week was medtech. Pregnolia secured CHF 4 million in a Series A financing round; Artidis reported good results from a clinical study to detect breast cancer using its nanomedical device; and Rea won the Audience Award at >> venture >>. Appropriately, we also introduced Caressoma in our start-up pitch: the company is developing an ultrasound scanner initially to help athletes improve their training and prevent injuries and premature wear and tear.

Do you notice anything about these start-ups mentioned above? All six have one thing in common, namely a woman at the top. There is still a lot of catching up to do when it comes to female-led start-ups – the proportion of female CEOs is between 5% and 10% – but this does not mean that there are none and that they are not successful.

In addition, our articles this week included an interview with Caroline Widmer about the incubator she heads at HES-SO Geneva, and a report about what’s new in the Tech4Trust accelerator programme, the first offer from the new Trust Valley initiatives headed by programme manager Lennig Pedron.

There was also good news about Switzerland’s innovative strength overall. According to the latest European Innovation Scoreboard, Switzerland is again the most innovative country on the continent.

Start-ups naturally contribute to this and 100 are selected for the Top 100 Swiss Startup Awards, with also an audience award. According to Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab, interest has increased significantly again compared with the previous year. Voting for your favourite start-up is open until 12 July. The winners will be presented on 9 September at the Top 100 Awards Night.

The deadline for various start-up awards is approaching – our Award Directory gives an overview. I would also like to point out that you can apply for Venture Kick’s programme at any time.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch