A biotech company ranks first at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award

Organized by Venturelab, the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Ranking showcases the 100 Swiss startups with the greatest potential according to a jury of 100 investors and experts from all over Switzerland. The list and even the top 3 demonstrate the quality but also the diversity of the Swiss start-up ecosystem. The podium places in the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Ranking 2023 come from three different sectors: biotech, foodtech, and fintech.

First place: HAYA Therapeutics | Epalinges | www.hayatx.com

The biotech startup HAYA Therapeutics develops precision drugs. The lead candidate for cardiac fibrosis – a condition for which almost no effective treatment exists apart from a heart transplant - is currently in the preclinical phase. The basis for drug development is a platform that finds targets in the previously unexploited portion of the human genome and serves to develop matching drugs. HAYA has 33 employees and offices at Biopôle in Epalinge close to Lausanne and in San Diego. The company raised about USD25 million in its seed round. It was founded in 2019 by Samir Ounzain and Daniel Blessing and ranked 8th in 2022.

Second place: Planted Foods | Kemptthal (ZH) | www.eatplanted.com

Planted Foods revolutionizes the food industry by creating plant-based protein made of 100% animal-product-free ingredients. The vegan meat alternatives do not include any additives. Of the 240 employees, 60 work outside Switzerland and more than 60% of the daily production of 10 tonnes goes abroad. Planted’s distribution partners include large-scale distributors. But more and more restaurants are also cooking with Planted products – currently more than 5000 in Europe. Planted Foods was founded in 2019 by Christoph Jenny, Eric Stirnemann, Lukas Böni, and Pascal Bieri in 2022.

Third place: Yokoy Group | Zurich | www.yokoy.ai

Fintech company Yokoy Group uses artificial intelligence to automate the entire corporate spending and corporate credit card process. As easy to integrate software with interfaces to all common ERP systems, the market entry hurdles for Yokoy’s platform are comparatively low and it is currently used in 68 countries. Sales growth has been in the triple-digit percentage range for years and the number of employees has increased by 50 to 250 over the last 12 months. The Zurich-based startup was founded in 2019 by Melanie Gabriel, Devis Lussi, Thomas Inhelder, Philippe Sahli, and Lars Mangelsdorf.

Ranks 4 - 10

4 Carvolution AG | www.carvolution.com | Bern | ICT

5 ClearSpace SA | www.clearspace.today | Vaud | Cleantech

6 Bloom Biorenewables SA | www.bloombiorenewables.com | Fribourg | Cleantech

7 9T Labs AG | www.9tlabs.com | Zurich | Engineering

8 Resistell AG | www.resistell.com | Basel District | Medtech

9 Skribble AG | www.skribble.com | Zurich | ICT

10 DePoly SA  | www.depoly.co | Valais | Cleantech

The full ranking can be found in the Swiss Startup Magazine.

"The ranking reflects the strength of the Swiss startup ecosystem and showcase the diversity and strong technical background” says TOP 100 program director Stefan Steiner. “Startups remain true drivers of innovation. They contribute both directly and indirectly to our country‘s present and future prosperity, especially in this rapidly accelerating world. Cleantech, for example, has 17 representatives in the TOP 100 (including 3 in the TOP 10), confirming a positive momentum that began several years ago and is even stronger in 2023."

Investor Summit: Global investors discover Swiss “Soonicorns”

Swiss unicorns Climeworks, GetYourGuide, MindMaze, and Sophia Genetics have one thing in common: they were already represented in the seed stage in the ranking of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups. The 100-member expert jury behind the ranking recognized their potential very early on.It’s no surprise that every September, well-capitalized venture capitalists from around the world flock to Zurich to attend the TOP 100 Swiss Investor Summit. They are on the lookout for the next generation, the Swiss “Soonicorns.”

More than a hundred international super angels, venture capital investors, corporate VCs, and family office representatives from Europe, America, and Asia participate in the TOP 100 Investor Summit, which is open only to accredited investors. The event brings together handpicked TOP 100 startups in both the seed and growth stages, along with a pool of global investors, collectively bringing over 22.316 billion in investment capital to the table.