Cleantech startups ready for sustainable growth

Startups undergo a rigorous evaluation process that assesses a company’s innovation capabilities, financial readiness to receive external funding if needed, and management structure after completing the Innosuisse Core Coaching. In the second half of 2023 four startups dedicated to developing solutions to foster a sustainable future received the Innosuisse Certificate, acknowledging their readiness for growth.

Bloom Biorenewables uses its aldehyde-assisted fractionation (AAF) technology to transform plant waste into added-value chemical products. The technology enables integral valorisation of plants by efficient separation and upgrading of abundant biomass components such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The resulting lignin can be applied in cosmetics and home care products, cellulose in bioplastics and functional textiles, and the biopolymer can be used as a food additive and in Nutraceuticals. Founded in 2019 as a spin-off from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the startup has won multiple awards and partnership deals to advance its development. With Yokogawa, the startup reached a proof-of-concept milestone in the production of a new generation of cellulose materials. Last Autumn, it has also inked a long-term partnership with dsm Firmenich, signing a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to accelerate the commercialisation of three key molecules from Bloom’s product portfolio and with SOPREMA France to revolutionise sustainable insulation panels.

Vivent harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to decode plant biosignals captured by electrophysiology sensors (biosensors). Plants are continually sensing and responding to environmental changes. One mechanism for transmitting this information is through small electrical signals that result from the movement of ions. With its approach, the BCorp-certified company has built the world’s largest library of plant electrophysiology recordings and continues to add new crops and crop stressors, allowing for the early detection of a wide range of threats such as soil-borne pests, fungal infections, or nutrient deficiencies in real-time before visual symptoms. Further, the solution aims to help farmers, breeders, and crop protection producers, as well as plant scientists and agronomists, to minimise water, fertiliser, energy and pesticide usage. Multiple European organisations have used the solution in field trials on various high-value crops, including potatoes, peppers, vines, and strawberries.

Plastogaz’s proprietary catalytic hydrocracking technology solution is unique in that it is more efficient, and less energy intensive than some other current forms of advanced recycling. Advanced recycling requires highly controlled steps before plastic waste is converted to high-quality hydrocarbons, sufficient to recreate virgin-like plastics, and this technology promises to further simplify the process from waste to circular feedstock and then circular polymers. Plastogaz SA was founded in May 2020 as an EPFL spin-off company and received a strategic investment by Dow Inc. in March 2022. Currently, the company operates from its HQ in St-Sulpice (Vaud) where the lab is equipped to evaluate various feedstocks and validate our process.

Similar to Google Maps, Urbio’s tool centralizes and visualizes all energy data useful for diagnosing and analyzing municipalities. Access to data is thus facilitated, offering transparency and simplified analysis, by means of colored maps produced by the minute. The solution enables utilities to digitize their workflows and accelerate the transition to clean energy, real estate companies to digitize their portfolio and identify their decarbonization strategy and consultants to execute their mandates faster and in more depth. Urbio, founded in 2020 as EPFL-spin-off, has around twenty active customers in Switzerland, based on a recurring annual license model. These are mainly energy companies such as OIKEN, Romande Energie and Groupe-E, and engineering consultancies such as BG, Planair and Intep. And the Valais startup is also growing in Europe with its first commercial customers in Germany and Belgium since 2023.

(RAN / SK)