Ten promising Swiss start-ups

Diabetes is increasingly becoming a national disease: about 8% of the world’s population is already affected by type 2 diabetes and the trend is growing. Glycemicon is tackling this problem by developing a medical food that helps the body remain metabolically healthy with insulin-sensitive fat tissue and effective nutrient storage, resulting in normal blood glucose levels. Glycemicon is not only addressing a huge market but has also the opportunity to develop a product faster and cheaper than pharma companies, as regulatory hurdles are lower than for traditional pharma products. Medical foods are subject to prescription and intended specifically for the dietary management of a disease under a doctor’s supervision.

Of the other presenting companies at Swiss Venture Day, more experienced teams were the most remarkable. Creoptix is a good example: one managing partner, Kaspar Cottier, is a specialist in microtechnology, the other, Matyas Vegh, was CEO at a biotech company and managing partner at an investment advisory firm with a focus on healthcare. Creoptix is developing biosensor devices that can, for example, improve the success rate in drug discovery.

Mike Schwede is another very experienced founder and presented his newest venture Cooala. Schwede has been in the internet and marketing fields for more than 15 years. He co-founded orange8 in 1998 and worked at Goldbach Interactive for four years.

The third group of companies have attracted attention due to their quick pace, and most of them are close to significant growth. Two IT start-ups, Fontself and stagend.com, have both been able to attract many new users over the last few weeks in spite of their small marketing budgets. Another example is medtech company Aïmago: the EPFL-spin-off has developed a solution for the easy and early identification of poorly perfused tissue that has an increased risk of necrosis or delayed healing. The system has documented clinical benefits, and Aïmago has achieved the two milestones necessary for entering the US market: a FDA clearance for its device and a US patent. 

Startupticker.ch published a list with short descriptions of all 10 companies before the event, and investors and business angels interested in such companies should consult CTI Invest’s website on a regular basis. Several events are planned for the near future: In July, the first Investor Forum St. Gallen will be take place, organised jointly by Startfeld and CTI Invest. The 42^nd Swiss Venture Day in Zurich will be held on 11 September, Swiss Venture Day in Lausanne on 12 September and even a Venture Day in Berlin (5 September).