News & Media

From digital personalized learning and gamified digital therapeutics to authentication enabled by facial recognition as well as reduction of cement usage through CO2 capturing as a Circular Economy solution, Antimicrobial LED light technology and real time reporting in FinTech and Insurtech, Kickstart is engaging on different levels to drive innovation activities in Switzerland. Over 50 high growth startups from 11 countries are participating this year.

Anne Nijs, Rare Conditions Transformation Leader at Roche, talks about her motivation to bring the best minds together to transform the future of healthcare by relentlessly focusing on patient outcomes.

By guest author Ingeborg Gasser-Kriss, advisor at KICKSTART, owner and founder of Agent21. I have often argued over the last few years that there is no better time than now for breakthrough innovation in FoodTech and AgriTech, due to the crisis of our food system, and the urgency attached to improving the negative impact of our diet on human and planetary health.

By guest blogger Nico Bacharidis. Before founding www.growpal.ch, Nico has worked for Pfizer for over 13 years in various local, regional and global positions. He is an angel investor and board member of several start-ups. Nico is currently working with Roche and KICKSTART on a global project to find startups and partners that can help patients with SMA, Huntington’s disease and Neuromyelitis Optica.

In 2020 KICKSTART is stepping into its fifth year, when bringing a new batch of entrepreneurs to Switzerland and fostering ecosystem innovation.

In its fifth year, Kickstart’s initiative for later-stage tech startups takes a fresh look at the Circular Economy and expands into the Romandy.

In this article, Dr. Angela Beckenbauer and Dr. Matthias Filser from the ZHAW School of Management and Law, together with Kathrin Hoesli, Head of Exploration at Swisscom, introduce some essentials of ecosystem innovation: trust, goal alignment (or at least goal transparency) and success measures.

What is ecosystem innovation? And what’s the difference between “open innovation” and “ecosystem innovation”? In this interview, Prof. Oliver Gassmann from University of St. Gallen, answers questions by Christoph Birkholz, Co-Founder Impact Hub Zurich and Kickstart Co-Lead, in order to illustrate the concept of ecosystem innovation, that lies at the heart of Kickstart.

To survive in the digital, fast-changing and often disruptive environment, companies need to acquire new skills and new working practices. They need to innovate constantly, and it is vital that they understand the new driving parameters of innovation and how to achieve them effectively. CEOs will play a leading role in this process: they have to define their company’s strategic positioning, and it is up to them to own the innovation process and to decide what cooperation and partnerships to forge.

Global markets and technological developments lead to the loss of monopolies and fiercer competition; radically new products, services and business models threaten the established ones – clearly, these are tough times for many organizations, not only in Switzerland. However, tough times also come with new opportunities. Organizations have begun to realize that to keep up with these developments and to strengthen the Swiss marketplace, they need to work together.

In our complex, hyper-connected, technology-driven world, we need to work together across industries and sectors like never before. Ecosystem Innovation describes the process of new solutions and technologies emerging from collaboration and partnerships within a system of many organizations and individuals.

In a world where more and more businesses are committing to building a more sustainable future, the next crucial step is going from talk to action. That’s why Kickstart has entered into a collaboration with South Pole, a leading provider of global sustainability financing solutions and services, aiming to make our events climate neutral.

40 innovations in FinTech, EdTech, HealthTech, Food & Retail Tech, Smart City and Cybersecurity are gaining strong momentum from cooperation with leading corporations and organizations.

Every year, Kickstart works together with a wide network of top-class advisors and experts, who support our startups and scale-ups with their broad specialist knowledge in deep tech, innovation and entrepreneurship. One of them is Oliver Durrer, Managing Director of our program partner SwissLEAP, who supports both the Intrapreneurship and the EdTech & Learning Vertical. In this interview, he shares how Lean Startup methods can be used to enhance both customer-centric learning as well as organizational learning.

In summer 2018, the Danish startup WriteReader joined Kickstart as one of the selected EdTech companies. WriteReader’s learning solution supports children in reading and writing by making kids authors of their own digital books. One year later, WriteReader has established three successful partnerships in Switzerland with the education ministry, a premier football club, and a software education company. Here is Babar Baig, CEO and Co-Founder of WriteReader, sharing his Kickstart story:

Only a few years ago, there wasn’t much of a FoodTech and AgriTech ecosystem to be found in Switzerland. This is changing now – and at an impressive pace, as this article by Ingeborg Gasser-Kriss and Christina Senn-Jakobsen shows.

Much of the essential data for a functioning digital society is controlled by a handful of global corporations. The majority of hardware and software for vital and critical systems are also produced by a few international companies. All these dependencies entail certain risks. The question therefore arises for Switzerland: How can the country increase its digital independence – its cyber sovereignty?

It’s for the fourth time that promising startups from Switzerland and all over the world have settled at the innovation space Kraftwerk this autumn. And it’s for the fourth time, that Switzerland’s leading ICT company Swisscom is part of this initiative. As one of the founding partners of Kickstart, Swisscom has been supporting the program since the very beginning. Time to take a closer look at this collaboration.

The Kickstart 2019 participants are selected! 48 tech startups, as well as 9 intrapreneurship teams, will join us at Kraftwerk in Zurich in order to scale their business and to drive deep tech innovation.

AXA and Veezoo, who have met during the first iteration of Kickstart in 2016, have further extended their successful partnership. Veezoo provides a sales intelligence solution that makes the distribution of one of the biggest Swiss insurers more effective and efficient. Now, AXA rolls out Veezoo’s Augmented Advisory to their non-life tied agents in more than 250 agencies in Switzerland.

AXA and Veezoo, who have met during the first iteration of Kickstart in 2016, have further extended their successful partnership. Veezoo provides a sales intelligence solution that makes the distribution of one of the biggest Swiss insurers more effective and efficient. Now, AXA rolls out Veezoo’s Augmented Advisory to their non-life tied agents in more than 250 agencies in Switzerland.

Patient monitoring through artificial intelligence, 3D-printed medical products, and wearables to track health and lifestyle – it’s these kinds of innovations we aim to support in Kickstart’s newly established HealthTech Vertical. But why scale up your HealthTech startup in Switzerland? HealthTech Vertical Lead Josephine Ritzel has the answers.

Today, Swiss cities rank very high when quality of living, personal security and attractiveness for doing business are considered as factors. These achievements are mainly based on investments and innovations made in the past. Kickstart’s Smart City Vertical Lead Ray Neubauer says that in an international environment with ever increasing pace in technology turn-over rates and development, Switzerland has to ensure that the country is not losing ground compared to international competitors.

Education technology startups compete for engineering knowledge, capital, and institutional partners in the high-margin, commercial technology markets. To compete in the global race for resources and attention, EdTech startups face decisions regarding where it is best to develop their companies and which regions could help them make their products profitable. Kickstart’s EdTech & Learning Vertical Lead Tim Lehmann showcases 6 ways of how EdTech startups can fine-tune their innovations in Switzerland.

The Swiss innovation acceleration program is looking for promising growth ventures in EdTech, FinTech, FoodTech, Smart Cities, HealthTech and Cybersecurity – and is founding its own company.

In Switzerland, more than 2 million tons of food end up in the garbage bin rather than on the plate every year; 300 kilograms per capita. KITRO, a Swiss-based startup that participated in Kickstart 2017, has developed a technology to change this – and has successfully tested it with one of Switzerland’s leading retailers. Here is their collaboration story:

Three Kickstart participants; three scenarios. Altoo, YUKKA Lab and AAAccell have two things in common: all three were selected to participate in the Kickstart Accelerator program, which connects its participants with leading organizations and all three have embarked on collaborative projects.

In addition to bringing together startups with corporations, cities, foundations, and universities, Kickstart is weaving a network of connections to investors. A highlight of this year’s investor activities was the Kickstart Investor Summit that took place on Nov 8 at Kraftwerk.

35+ collaborations resulted from Kickstart 2018, 10 of which in the EdTech & Learning Vertical, that took place for the first time in Zurich. 7 of the PoCs in this new vertical were launched together with Kickstart’s University Partners ETH Zürich, University of Zurich and ZHAW. Time to ask them some questions.

We’re delighted to announce the collaborations between the #kickstarters18 startups and established organizations. More than 35 PoCs and partnership projects have resulted from the program.

Next to the 30 finalist startups, also five intrapreneurship teams participated in the 2018 Kickstart program – more than ever before. We notice a growing interest in the topic of intrapreneurship. Here is what it’s all about.

Next to the 30 finalist startups, also five intrapreneurship teams participated in the 2018 Kickstart program – more than ever before. We notice a growing interest in the topic of intrapreneurship. Here is what it’s all about.

Die ETH Zürich eröffnet ein weltweit einzigartiges Robotik-Labor, in dem getestet wird, wie Architekturprojekte in Zukunft ressourceneffizient, emissionsarm und verdichtet umgesetzt werden können.

“This year’s Sibos is Fintech’s coming of age, evidenced by youngest Fintech companies ever seen at a Sibos, and the huge interest and time freely given by all experts and executives during our Office Hours 2016. The feedback from both the startups and the experts has been outstanding.” – Eric van der Kleij, Special Advisor, Kickstart Accelerator

About the most innovative country and it’s journey to become an excellent place to start a venture today.

Robots are building our cars, artificial intelligence is answering our questions (we call her “Siri” or “Cortana” or “Alexa”) and thanks to 3D printing and rapid manufacturing, individualized and tailor-made products are now part of our everyday lives. Many areas have already been revolutionized (or disrupted) thanks to the use of Smart & Connected Machines (SCM). Yet, there are still lots of possibilities for improvement, as we have learned during our evaluation phase of nearly 100 startups applying for the first batch of the Smart & Connected Machines vertical of Kickstart Accelerator.

When people think of Switzerland, they tend to think of banks, watches, and chocolate. But many groundbreaking inventions and startups were created here too.

As the World Economic Forum 2016 concludes, what are the big take-aways? And what might be one of the most promising answers to the question of its Global Agenda: “The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond?”

What do AirBnb, Dropbox, Reddit, Heroku, and Stripe all have in common? They all started at the world’s best startup accelerator, Y Combinator. Founded by Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston, Y Combinator’s portfolio of companies now exceeds $30 billion. Due to its all-star roster of companies and amazing network of mentors and investors, thousands of entrepreneurs apply every year one of the approximately 60 spots in the program.

We are thrilled to announce applications are now open for Kickstart Accelerator! Kickstart is a fast-track gateway by DigitalZurich2025 for entrepreneurs from around the world to access the Swiss business ecosystem, which has been rated by the World Economic Forum as No 1 for innovation in the 2015/2016 Global Competitiveness Report.