Eight semi-finalists selected for Prix Strategis

70 start-ups applied for the Prix Strategis organised by HEC Espace Enterprise. This week the jury selected eight semi-finalists. These start-ups, from all over Switzerland, were chosen after a selection based on criteria of innovation, achievement and expansion.

The selected companies are:

The online farm shop Farmy.ch connects regional producers and consumers and, thanks to sophisticated logistics, is able to deliver orders directly to the customer’s home.

Established in 2016 as a spinoff of the EPFL, Ligentec (Light generating technologies) is developing a silicon nitride platform targeted at photonic applications using integrated photonic chips. Silicon nitride PICs offer the advantage to integrate and miniaturize bulk optics as well as fiber optics components onto a planar chip of the size of a fingertip. 

Loanboox is a debt platform for public sector and large corporations, institutional investors and banks. The platform gives registered borrowers direct access to all designated lenders on the platform, allowing them to compare and apply for loans from the most suitable loan provider. 

Nomoko is a Zurich-based startup founded in 2015. Thanks to its 3D software and Nomoko camera, which has a resolution of 1,500 megapixel, Nomoko can create photorealistic 3D models that are indistinguishable from reality with the naked eye.

Parquery – The ETH Zurich Spinoff developed an in-house computer vision and deep learning algorithms which analyse any image from any already-installed camera, in order to provide real-time results to customers. The startup’s technology is being applied in their smart parking solution.

Peripal’s product addresses a key step in home dialysis: the manual connection of dialysis tubings to patients’ catheters. This handling by patients/relatives requires dexterity and carries the risk of infection. Each day, more than 1 million such connections are performed worldwide.

An EPFL startup initiated in 2014 and incorporated in January 2016, ROVENSO  makes agile sensing robots for challenging and harsh environments. Based in Switzerland, it also has workshops and offices in Shenzhen (China) in partnership with HAX Accelerator. It has pilot projects with paying customers in China and Switzerland in the fields of firefighting and security surveillance. 

T3 Pharmaceuticals’ engineered bacteria stimulate the immune system by delivering selected human proteins directly into cells of the tumor microenvironment. Preclinical studies in a number of tumor models demonstrated a substantial impact on tumor progression as well as a durable immune-mediated memory to fight recurring tumors.

This year, the competition is enriched by the diversity of its candidates in different fields such as Medtech, Fintech, Hightech, Biotech, Foodtech and digital. In addition to the diversity, this year for the first time, 75% of the semi-finalists are coming from the Swiss-german part: An exceptional rate that shows the expansion of the Prix Strategis over the years.