Flyability crowned at the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award

The Top 100 award night showed again the strength of the Swiss start-ups and the start-up ecosystem. Before announcing the winners Stefan Steiner and Jordi Montserrat from Venturelab showed the impressive achievements of all Top 100 startups. To date, the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award has recognized a total of 397 startups. They represent for example more than 8,700 active jobs.

Winner Flyability (4th last year) is a prime example of Swiss tech’s global appeal: With more than 350 customers across global markets, the EPFL-spinoff is the market leader for hazardous site inspections in the nuclear, energy, chemical and mining industries. The founders have raised more than CHF 15 million, as they seek to make Flyability the industry-standard inspection tool. Adrien Briod, co-founder and CTO, emphasized the importance the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award played in establishing Flyability’s credentials. “Our position in the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award in the last years helped us build credibility with prospective investors and customers.”

Runner-up Lunaphore (3rd last year) launched its first automated tissue diagnostic machine this year, targeting the industry’s key opinion leaders. Collaborations with multi-billion-dollar global corporation PerkinsElmer and biomedical research firm Vitro, underline the potential of this startup’s high-speed tissue-staining technology to revolutionize lab diagnostics and enable more personalized medicine.

Third-placed Ava Women (1st last year) enjoyed an impressive year of growth, as the fertility-tracking startup saw revenue exceed CHF 10 million, new offices in Hong Kong, and plans to expand into China. Leadership at the fertility data-tracker will pass to co-founder Lea von Bidder in January, as the startup’s attention focuses on greater measurement of women's health.

The Top 10 were completed by Wingtra (drones), Bestmile (software to manage any autonomous and human-driven fleet), Cutiss (bio-engineering of human skin), Gamaya (decision support and automation solutions for precision agriculture), Piavita (sensor-based assistant for equine veterinarians), Advanon (online platform helping SME to understand and meet their financing needs) and 9T Labs (3D carbon fiber printing). 

A jury of 100 leading investors and experts rank the country's most-impactful startups. The TOP 100 Public Voting, which runs parallel to the expert ranking, was the public's chance to highlight an excellent Swiss startup. The winner of this year’s public vote is GuestReady, based in the Appenzell town of Trogen (pop. 1,742), which offers management services to Airbnb hosts in 14 cities around the world.

More information about the winners, a new scale-up ranking and interviews and additional article can be found in the Top 100 magazine which can be downloaded on the Top 100 website.

(SK)
Picture: Venturelab