Startups can apply for the International Kickstart Innovation Program 2025 until 26 May

• Strong interest in AI and technological solutions

• AXA, Coop, Swisscom, la Mobilière, MSD, PostFinance, VNTR, Romande Energie, Sanitas, the City of Zurich, CSEM are partner companies from all our verticals

Zurich, 16 May 2025 – Startups from around the world have the opportunity to accelerate their growth by participating in the 9-week Kickstart Innovation Program, which will take place in Switzerland starting in September 2025.

The Kickstart Innovation Program focuses on five areas: health & well-being, finance & insurance & cyber security, food & retail, new work & learning, and smart cities. The program's partner companies include leading companies such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, la Mobilière, MSD, PostFinance / VNTR, Romande Energie, Sanitas, the City of Zurich, CSEM and others.

“In today’s fast-paced world, established companies must rapidly evolve and integrate AI and other emerging technologies into their products and processes,” says Katka Letzing, CEO and Co-Founder of Kickstart. “Over the past ten years, we’ve seen how startups, with their tech expertise and agility, can play a key support role in driving this transformation. At the same time, collaborating with established companies helps startups refine and scale their business use cases.”

Kickstart has been recognised by CB Insights as one of the 25 most successful open innovation platforms for startups and scaleups worldwide. It offers startups from over 80 countries not only access to a unique network of leading companies, organisations and institutions, but also the opportunity to test and develop their ideas in real market environments.

Here, founders come into direct contact with decision-makers to drive partnerships and concrete business deals. In return, companies benefit from new ideas and technologies as well as creative business approaches that strengthen their innovative power and open up new growth opportunities.

Since 2015, Kickstart has supported more than 490 startups and intrapreneurship teams and facilitated over 340 deals and proof of concepts. Former participants have turned their ideas into successful companies that now occupy leading positions in their markets.

To mention some: Unique, Billogram, Decentriq, Floolight and Hypt for the Finance and Insurance vertical; Kern Tec, Planted, Meala, and AI Palette for the Food and Retail Vertical; Thryve, Spixii and Health Yourself for the Health and Wellbeing Vertical; Labsters, MuchSkills, and Virtuosis for the New Work and Learning Vertical; irmos technologies, neustark, enerdrape, Viboo, over easy solar and Vianova for the Smart Cities Vertical

In total, Kickstart alumni have raised over CHF 2.8 billion in capital and successfully scaled their products.

The application phase ends on 26 May 2025.

Application link and overview of the benefits for scaleups  

For media inquiries and further information:  press@kickstart-innovation.com

About Kickstart Innovation

Kickstart is one of Europe’s largest zero-equity open innovation platforms, dedicated to building purposeful innovation ecosystems. Our mission is to fast-forward innovation by fostering meaningful collaborations between startups and established organizations. Each year, we run an Open Innovation Program that brings together around 100 high-potential startups and scale-ups. These scale-ups, so far from over 80 countries, work alongside industry leaders such as AXA, Coop, la Mobilière, PostFinance, Swisscom and more, to co-create game-changing solutions in deep tech and sustainability, tackling pressing innovation challenges. 

In addition, Kickstart works on longer term sustainability, technological advancements on an ongoing basis through Mission 2050 and its initiatives. Kickstart facilitates proofs of concept, pilot and commercial projects, as well as investments across six key verticals: New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing, Smart Cities, and Intrapreneurship. Since 2015, Kickstart united public and private organizations, entrepreneurs, investors, and experts to develop over 340 commercial partnerships and supported 490+ startups in scaling. By 2024, Kickstart international alumni startups raised over CHF 2.8B.

Our partners organizations include: AXA, City of Zurich, Coop, la Mobilière, MSD, PostFinance, VNTR, Romande Energie, Sanitas, Swisscom, ETH Zürich, CSEM, University Hospital Zurich, Panter, SATW, Impact Hub Switzerland, Swiss Healthcare Startups, Clara, Switzerland Global Enterprise, MLL, HealthTech Cluster Switzerland, EPFL, IMD, gfm, SICTIC, Innovaud, Greater Zurich Area, Visible Solutions and more.

Photo credit Ralph Hutter su Unsplash