Six winners of the i4Challenge 2021 selected

The industrial transformation is a steady process that evolves around one core question: How can we improve our value chain, services, and products for the client with the means of new technologies, teams and business models? The answers to that question, however, are surprising in their variety. The i4Challenge has the goal to highlight the best solutions, products and services created in Switzerland and in the three-country region of the upper Rhine.

The winners of the 2021 edition include:

CM Profiling, Muri (BE), founded 2017: Its software Cryfe brings machine learning to the recruitment process. The software analyzes the signals emitted by an interlocutor on video, puts them in relation and notifies the HR responsible in case there are issues that should be revisited.

Synple Chem, Kemptthal (ZH) 2016: The ETH spin-off produces laboratory devices that help discovery chemists with fully automated, capsule-based synthesis. Customers in pharma, agrochem and in CROs appreciate the opportunity to cut costs for the key component of discovery research while enhancing productivity and accelerating scientific discoveries.

PMP Personalized Medical Products, Courroux (JU) 2020: The experienced founders aim to develop a pharmaceutical manufacturing technology, which is able to deliver small batches suitable for the personalized need of the patient. The first prototype is in the design phase. Potential customers are Swiss hospitals and pharmacies.

Fastree3D, Ecublens (VD) 2013: The company has developed a camera module that enables safer driving: The single-chip flash laser imaging provides a fast and affordable 3D sensing to complement cameras and radars in detecting pedestrians and cyclists and avoid collisions. The key application for the technology is the automotive city-range safety.

Mechmine, Azmoos (SG) 2012: Mechmine’s technology is aimed at predictive maintenance, avoiding repair costs and increasing productivity. The team members are experts in data-mining, algorithm design and data transfer of any type of sensor data. Mechmine will soon finish their development of a small wireless sensor.

BeAwear, Kreuzlingen (TG) 2021: The start-up wants to transform the online shopping experience: instead of buying a standard fit, customers can adapt their clothes according to their body. In phase 1, BeAwear empowers a first- and secondhand marketplace of API-connected shops, but also items of unwanted clothing can enjoy a second life. In 2021, different fashion software tech packages will be released in the area of B2B e-commerce. In October, the first software solution will be ready for market release.

Industrial transformation is the key issue of the present and the future for the production industry: Connected machines, products, services, companies and people are at the core of the Industry 4.0. Switzerland ranks 6th in the Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2020 by the Institute for Management Development (IMD), and excels with its talent and the knowledge. However, there are opportunities to be gained. Basel Area Business & Innovation launched the i4Challenge in 2018 to put industrial transformation on the roadmap of the many industry companies in Switzerland and especially in the three-country region around Basel. Cyrille Monnin, jury member and CEO Productec SA, says: “Every day and every night, people work in digitalization. This does not only happen in the Silicon Valley, it also happens here.”

More information on the winners and the competition can be found on the Website of Basel Area Business & Innovation.

(Press release / SK)
Picture: Synple Chem team