IMD to kick-off the 21st startup competition with 27 companies

This year, the IMD Startup Competition celebrated the 20th anniversary to acknowledge its achievements, particularly, the support offered to more than 400 startups, and the remarkable accomplishments of its alumni. For instance, while AC Immune went public, other startups were acquired by large companies; Dacuda by Magic Leap, Doodle by Tamedia, Endosense by St.Jude, FaceShift by Apple, GlycArt by Roche, picoDrill by Asahi Glass, HPL by Dow, Kooaba by Qualcomm and Lemoptix by Intel. Success has also prevailed in many other companies like BestMile, MindMaze ($100M investment), Flyability, Sonect, NexThink ($85M investment) the list is endless.

Moving into the 21st edition, the IMD program seeks to build on its past success by continuing to support startups on their journey to allow them to reach greater heights. For the new edition, the jury selected 27 winners from which 15 startups will collaborate with IMD’s MBAs and 12 with the Executive MBA class in 2019. The EMBA class will accompany the startups in the cohort to Silicon Valley in September where the students will pitch the startups to Silicon Valley VCs.

The startups working with the MBA class are:

AgroSustain – develops and brings to market novel, efficient, plant-inspired solutions against molds, aiming to reduce alimentary waste and to promote healthy food

ASPIVIX – developed a gentler, vacuum suction-based device that offers safe cervical engagement as opposed to existing traumatic cervical forceps.

Baabuk – creates the authentic wool footwear for responsible people.

Bloom – developed a new approach for the production of biorenewable products as a sustainable alternative to fossil-based/chemical industries.

dimpora – provides the next generation functional membranes which combines high performance with sustainability to deliver the highest functionality for outdoor adventures.

FreeSuns (3Suns Sarl) – designs, manufactures and installs affordable and beautiful integrated residential solar roof tiles.

Little Green House – An innovative, fast-growing group of multilingual childcare centers, partnering with modern families and family-friendly companies and providing the best starting conditions for tomorrow's citizen.

MOBBOT – offers unique 3D concrete printing technology for the construction sector, cutting installation costs of custom-made products by a factor of 4.

MoComics – operates the platform «Waoow Comics» providing a digital-first comics marketplace.

MyPark – designed an app to enables users to locate, prebook and park their car close to their destination in an easy and efficient manner.

Privately – provides technology for the online safety and wellbeing of children through in apps, in games and in devices.

SmarterChains –  Industry 4.0 Expertise Automation and Augmentation Software.

Swiss Motion Technologies – is changing the face of the orthopedic world from mass production to mass customization, through its novel additive manufacturing solutions of silicone.

TRACELABEL – is a blockchain-based software platform designed to build a community of engaged consumers in the best interests of independent winemakers.

xFarm – is a Cloud and IoT platform which takes farms into the digital age, by simplifying data collection and management, thus reducing paperwork, improving efficiency and sustainability and allowing the traceability of agricultural products.

Startups working with the Executive MBA include:

Annaida Technologies – makes magnetic resonance possible at the embryo scale.

Aurora's Grid – aims to make battery storage profitable.

Chip-ing – disrupts the world of golf by digitalizing the golf ball and making it the smartest IoT sporting instrument.

Dronistics – develops safe foldable drones and software for person-to-person, last-centimeter aerial delivery.

element36 – created a bridge between Blockchain and the banking world, enabling Smart Contracts to be used by non-technical people with real money.

Enterprise Bot – is a rapidly growing AI startup providing leading financial institutions and insurances with white-labeled cognitive solutions tailored to their specific needs.

Futurae Technologies – provides a strong two-factor authentication (2FA) suite that offers a high level of security to businesses and individuals to protect their accounts and sensitive user data.

Largo (Sofy.tv) – is developing new models for the movie industry with Sofy.tv and its cutting-edge technologies enabling data-driven moviemaking.

Qnami – uses cutting-edge quantum technologies (and synthetic diamonds) to improve imaging techniques.

Swiss Vault –helps organizations save all their data forever by building long lasting, energy and space efficient data storage systems.

Tinamu Labs –uses drones to replace heavy camera equipment – such as camera cranes - to cut down production costs and to create completely new visual content.

Vima – a spinoff of the Idiap, provides solutions based on advanced Artificial Intelligence, that understand human behavior in different contexts, resulting in better processes and interaction with customers.

(RAN)