MassChallenge: 7 winners and a new food accelerator program

Seven companies out of the 75 startups accelerated this summer at MassChallenge Switzerland have been selected by the judges to receive the non-equity cash prizes of CHF 400,000 in total at the award ceremony yesterday in Basel, Switzerland. Based at UniverCité in Renens, these startups have been judged on their capacity for high-impact and high potential, as well as their progression through the four-month program. This year’s cash prizes are split into two “Diamond” prizes, with a value of CHF 100,000 each, and five “Gold” prizes with a value of CHF 40,000 each. The winners include:

CHF 100,000 Winners (“Diamond”)

Moka Studio is a Swiss animation studio founded in 2009 by Benoît Le Callennec and Nicolas Elsig. In 5 years, the company participated to more than 50 projects for renowned companies (Ciba, Rolex, Bobst, Novartis, Saatchi & Saatchi…) and created 3D content that has been broadcasted on main national television channels. In 2014, the team decided to use the experience and in-house tools to create a new 3D character animation software in which artists could animate with the stroke of a pen. The new software called “Mosketch Light” was launched in Early Access this year. The 3D animation software boosts the artist’s performance by at least 300%.

TasteHit, based in Paris, was founded in 2014 by two engineers from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The company uses data science to make online shop smarter with real-time marketing and personalized product recommendations.

CHF 40,000 Winners (“Gold”)

ChemAlive (Switzerland), serves an online computational chemistry platform that delivers highly accurate analytics for all of chemistry through its managed cloud computing, its in-house automation algorithms and its large-scale database. 

HaYa Therapeutics (Switzerland), is dedicated to treating heart failure through the discovery and development of innovative first-in-class RNA-based therapeutics.

Lymphatica (Switzerland), develops an implantable system for the treatment of chronic lymphedema, a common side effect of cancer therapies.

Infrastructure Systems Managers / Dechets à l’Or (Guinea) innovates existing waste collection and processing systems in growing cities of West Africa. 

Membrasenz (Switzerland), designs novel membranes used in the production of hydrogen.

The seven winners of the 2017 edition, along with the remaining top 12 finalists, receive in-kind support that lets them stay and work free-of-charge at UniverCité in Renens until the next MassChallenge Switzerland edition. This will begin in June 2018 with another 70 finalists. “Thanks to a rigorous selection, we are sure to select a qualitative and varied cohort of startups, from all industries, both Swiss and international,” explains Thierry Duvanel, Managing Director of MassChallenge Switzerland.

New international Food Accelerator
At the same event, MassChallenge announced its partnership in the EIT Food Accelerator Network, a multi-location accelerator program delivered across Europe to support high impact food-space start-ups and maximise their success. Driven by a consortium of EIT Food partners, representing academic and Industry expertise in the world of food, with funding awarded by EIT, and with the experience of MassChallenge in helping high-impact start-ups succeed, the EIT Food Accelerator Network aims to make Europe the go-to innovation hub for the world’s most promising food space start-ups. Applications for the organization’s first acceleration cycle will open in January 2018, with accelerator programs running in Haifa (Israel), Lausanne (Switzerland), London (UK) and Munich (Germany).

BASF SE new partner of MassChallenge
“The entrepreneurial quality of the retained projects adds credibility to our programme and is a source of motivation for the seven founding partners who have two goals: gain first access to breakthrough technologies that are shaping the world of tomorrow, and to ensure early identification of companies that may have a similar interest in their activities,” adds Benoît Dubuis, President of Fondation Inartis, founding and operating partner of MassChallenge Switzerland. The range of partners is expanding in 2018, with chemical industry giant BASF SE joining the accelerator to complement the industrial partners.

As part of its commitment to entrepreneurship and collaborative innovation, Bühler is a founding partner of the start-up accelerator MassChallenge Switzerland. Stefan Scheiber, Bühler CEO, said at the award ceremony: “With our involvement in MassChallenge, we bring entrepreneurial flair and innovation power to our organization. Especially digitalization offers a huge potential to improve performance, quality and efficiency of our solutions. Last but not least, it is a valuable contribution to the strengthening of Switzerland's position as a centre of vision and action through young entrepreneurs”. Ian Roberts, Bühler CTO, added “Innovation is at the core of Bühler’s business. As part of our innovation strategy, we support and foster open and collaborative innovation and invest up to 5% of our turnover into research, development and programs such as MassChallenge. In our fast driven and complex world, innovation demands collaboration – with customers, the science community and start-ups. The collaboration and support of MassChallenge partners like Bühler, Nestlé, Givaudan, GEA, Barry Callebaut, Inartis and the Swiss Economic Forum helps us develop talent, create jobs and commercialize new technologies within the industry”.