Openversum and Tether triumph at the START Summit

Serving as Europe’s premier early-stage startup conference, START Summit is at the intersection of innovation, talent, and entrepreneurship. This year’s edition witnessed a vibrant convergence of minds and ideas, bringing together over 7,000 participants including 850+ startup founders, 1000+ investors, various ecosystem players and aspiring entrepreneurs from across the globe. Throughout the summit, five stages hosted over 170 diverse speakers, each bringing unique insights from their industry. 

The hallmark of the event was the multitude of networking opportunities it provided — through its events platform, the summit facilitated 1200 meetings, enabling entrepreneurs to connect with potential investors, partners, and supporters. Additionally, 1300 match-making sessions were organized, offering startups a platform to scout for co-founders and talent, thereby strengthening their foundations for growth and success. The atmosphere was further enhanced by the presence of 200 booths representing the diversity of exhibitors. While the startups showcased their ideas and products, the booths served as hubs for knowledge exchange and partnership exploration with ecosystem players. Furthermore, the event’s digital platform facilitated 1,200 meetings, fostering connections between startups, investors, and industry experts. These interactions were instrumental in shaping the future of entrepreneurship. 

Celebrating sustainable innovations
One of the highlights of the event was the award competitions that award each winner CHF 10,000, recognizing outstanding contributions to innovation and sustainability. Openversum clinched the Swiss Sustainability Impact Award for its efforts in empowering local entrepreneurs to produce and distribute innovative drinking water filters. These remove 99.99999% of bacteria, heavy metals and pesticides in water, thus providing access to clean drinking water in Latin American, Asian and African communities without access to clean water. Meanwhile, Sweden-based company Tether took home the Start Summiteer Award, earning recognition for its prediction and optimization engine for electric vehicles. Using advanced artificial intelligence, the Tether predicts the EV charging patterns, optimizes their available power, and converts it into sources of flexibility that help reinforce the power grid and reduce the reliance on fossil fuel power.