The three start-ups who took home the Swiss Economic Award

Over the past one and a half days, 1300 visitors from business and politics gathered at the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken.  In addition to networking, the focus was on presentations and discussions by politicians, managers and experts. Highlights included appearances by the President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset, the President of the Swiss National Bank Thomas Jordan, UBS Group CEO Sergio Ermotti and Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion and Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation.

Start-ups were represented in large numbers, not least due to the SEF.Founder Conference taking place at the same time. On the networking evening, startups and participants from established companies had a lively exchange. Nine startups were on the main stage: the finalists of the Swiss Economic Award. The event culminated with the awarding of the winners of the three categories.

Winner Deeptech/Life Sciences: Daphne Technology

Daphne Technology is a Swiss climate deep-tech company focused on solving the greenhouse gas (GHG) challenge in tough-to-decarbonise industries. The company, founded in 2017 and based in Lausanne, develops technologies and scales innovative products to measure and reduce GHG emissions from industrial sources.

Solutions include PureMetrics - helping corporates accurately measure GHG and toxic emissions, SlipPure - reducing methane (CH4) emissions from post-combustion industrial sources and SulPure - circular economy approach to removing sulphur oxides (SOx) emissions from burning fuels with high sulphur content.

The start-up is well received by established companies and attracted investors such as Shell Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Trafigura, AET, Swisscom and JP Morgan.

Winner Industry / Production: Boostbar

Boostbar, a vending management and technology company, offers all-in-one vending systems combining connected hardware with in-house software and expertly curated F&B options. Their fully modular solutions allow clients to either benefit from Boostbar’s curated and low-waste F&B assortment — or fill the smart fridges themselves to create a sustainable 24/7 in-house offering.

A total of 200 customers in Switzerland such rely on the Zurich-based startup. Internationally Boostbar’s solutions are use for 1000 point of sales.

Boostbar has reached  CHF 6.5 million in annual recurring revenue and has grown to 50 employees.

Winner Services: neho

Through the neho platform, houses and flats can be sold at a fixed price. Currently, the price is 12,000 Swiss francs, of which 3,000 are due when the mandate is issued and 9,000 when the property is sold. One reason why neho can be cheaper than its competitors is the use of technology. Other brokers use external CRM solutions, but neho has developed its own IT platform as a central tool to which external solutions can be connected. The high level of digitalisation not only ensures efficiency, but also got the proptech startup through the Corona crisis well.

The offer is very well received by customers. The startup has been awarded 4800 mandates since its founding in 2017. The company grew to over 100 employees and has 22 regional offices.

(Stefan Kyora)