SEIF awards startups tackling global challenges

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17.06.2022
SEIF Tech for Impact Awards winners

Three startups from Switzerland and one from the UK convinced the jury of the seif Tech for Impact Awards with their ambition and solutions to promote circularity in industries including logistics or cultivated meat or battery.

Following a 5-step selection process, the Jury of the SEIF Tech for Awards evaluated over 280 applications from 24 countries to choose the best ten finalists to pitch at the finale, held on 15 June in Zurich. Three start-ups impressed the jury and won prizes - a cash prize totalling CHF 30’000 and non-financial support from the program’s corporate partners.  

The winners are:

Ponera - SEIF Award for Responsible Innovation, supported by UBS
Around 30% of global wood consumption is used to produce industrial packaging. The standard-sized packaging models have a surprisingly short lifespan as the wooden structures are nondurable and can be used up to a limited number of times. Ponera developed a modular pallet system made from robust and biodegradable materials. The modules can be attached to create pallets of any size. They are easy to assemble and disassemble, saving companies time and work. The modular pallet system Ponera developed convinced the jury with its potential to positively impact businesses, logistics and finances as well as the environment. Today, the start-up works with six multinational companies.

Groam - SEIF Award for Future Impact Trend, supported by Julius Bär
Groam’s mission is to reduce the footprint of polymeric foam because It is made 99% out of petrochemicals, which can be harmful if not handled properly and cause pollution at their end of life. With only around 14% of foams being recycled, and a major part ending up in landfills or the ocean, these materials present a critical threat to the environment. The start-up is developing biodegradable foamed materials made from agricultural biomass waste. They offer a waste-based material formulation as granulate resin and proprietary technology to foam such materials. The start-up inspired the jury with its mission and circular approach to tackling the different mentioned challenges. Additionally, the jury was impressed by the well-thought-through solution based on solid underlying research. Overall, by clearly speaking to the needs of the industry and tackling multiple societal challenges, Groam convinced the Jury members and is thus being granted the SEIF Award for Future Impact Trend.

Roslin Technologies (Germany) - SEIF Award For Scalable Solution, Supported By SEIF
Roslin Technologies is a cutting‐edge biotech company focused on high-impact innovations in food and agriculture. Their primary focus is on animal cells: they aim to use unique cells to create and lead the market for cell lines to enable cultivated meat to reach the mass market around the world. The start-up convinced the jury with its world-class scientific capacity. As a leader in supplying animal stem cells to cultured meat producers, Roslin Technologies is currently the only supplier of perpetually self-replicating cell lines to the industry. Its potential for scaling lies in its ability to produce cells from real meat. Roslin’s cell lines have a strong potential to contribute strongly to the arrival of artificial meat on our plates.

Swistor - SEIF Audience Award
The audience chose Swistor as the most outstanding start-up. Based at the EPFL, the Start-up is developing fast-charging sustainable batteries based on carbon-based supercapacitor technology to replace today’s lithium-based batteries. As a winner in this category, the start-up will receive support from SEIF with an extensive impact assessment of their solution.

(Press release/RAN)

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