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Press Release Over 40 renowned companies and organizations are creating future solutions with local and international startups for Switzerland and beyond The application phase for startups begins today, with reach in over 60 countries Opportunities for deals have a focus on supporting corporates, public institutions, and startups Zurich, 17th April 2024 - Kickstart Innovation, one of Europe's leading open innovation platforms, launches its ninth program today. Every year, Kickstart has attracted some of the world’s best startups providing solutions to the biggest challenges for society. This is accomplished in partnership with major industry players, including AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, Sanitas, The City of Zurich, Canton de Vaud, and MSD. This year this list also includes IKEA Switzerland and Romande Energie. Kickstart has supported over 450 startups and facilitated over 310 deals (see our Collaboration map) in the form of pilots and commercial projects. Alumni come from over 80 countries, have raised more than CHF 2.5 billion in investments so far, and include Planted, KernTec, Neustark, AAAcell, and others. “Start-ups increasingly need support in order to grow successfully”, explains Katka Letzing, Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstart Innovation. “Rising interest rates, increasing regulatory requirements, and the shortage of skilled labor are challenges that need to be overcome. Partnerships and target-oriented expert opinions on strategy and further development can be helpful and create new business opportunities. We also help organizations in the public and private sectors not to work in silos and make innovation that matters.” The goal of Kickstart’s program is to facilitate deals in the form of pilots or commercial collaborations between later-stage startups and established institutions who are looking to scale their products and services, find fresh revenue streams and invest in forward-looking models and practices. The program has taken place annually since 2016, with digitalization and sustainability becoming strong drivers of innovation across industries. "Startups offer a wide spectrum of solutions for companies that are looking for new technologies and other innovative solutions for their further development. At the same time, these partnerships promote the growth of startups through access to experts and investment opportunities. This results in the integration of advanced technologies, innovation, and development of sustainability potential for all companies," explains Katka Letzing. The search for the solutions of tomorrow takes place in six verticals: Health & Wellbeing, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, New Work & Learning, Smart Cities and Intrapreneurship. Each vertical has a core focus on specific innovation trends and needs of each Kickstart partner. Next to building partnerships, Kickstart also provides access to a diversified investor network for startups and alumni raising financing rounds. Partners with corporate venture arms are actively involved, including Swisscom Ventures, AXA Strategic Venturing, and others. “We were able to connect with great startups in the past years and gain collaborations as well as investments including companies like Labster and PriceHubble. I am looking forward to more such collaborations this year” said Alexander Schlaepfer, Partner, Swisscom Ventures. Further information and a guide on how to apply can be found here. For more information, please contact: press@kickstart-innovation.com About Kickstart Kickstart is one of Europe's largest zero equity, open innovation platforms. Our mission is to build innovation ecosystems with purpose by fast-forwarding innovation. We bring together public and private organizations, startups, investors, and experts with the shared ambition to deliver next-generation products and services and have a meaningful impact at scale. Each year, Kickstart engages 100 entrepreneurs to collaborate with key players for proofs of concept, pilot and commercial projects, and other innovation partnerships. Additionally, through the intrapreneurship program, Kickstart helps established organizations promote and accelerate internal innovation. Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich and was launched in 2015 by digitalswitzerland. In 2024, Kickstart runs five verticals: New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing, and Smart Cities together with partner organizations across industries: AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, ETH Zürich, CSEM, City of Zurich, Empa NEST, Sanitas, University Hospital Zurich, Panter, SATW, Impact Hub Switzerland, Canton de Vaud, IKEA Switzerland, Romande Energie, Santenext, Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE, Swiss Healthcare Startups, Growpal, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Ringier, Google for Startups, MLL, South Pole, WECOCO, Day8, HealthTech Cluster Switzerland, DealStation, MAVA, SwissLEAP, EPFL, IMD, gfm, START Global and more. Download our Press Releases here:

“Cooperating with Sanitas was a fantastic experience. The team was helpful, easy to collaborate with and solution-oriented, with their customer’s best interest in mind. It was our first insurance collaboration and I am proud of how many men’s health we have been able to transform, together.” This is how Max Kersting, CEO & Co-Founder of Regimen at the time of the collaboration, describes the experience of running a Proof of Concept with Sanitas, one of Switzerland biggest health insurers with over 800'000 customers. A strategic approach to a delicate issue Erectile dysfunction affects 30% of men and is one of the key predictors of cardiovascular disease and mental health issues. Berlin based startup, Regimen developed a Digital Therapeutic application for improving erectile function with targeted exercise programs, nutrition change and mindfulness coaching. Regimen entered a partnership with Sanitas through the 2022 Kickstart Program. Recognizing the importance of this intimate issue and willing to test its solution with their customers, Sanitas included Regimen as a health benefit for their policyholders, as part of a limited offer. A great response and start of a long term collaboration The offer was met with overwhelmingly positive response from their customers. They could benefit anonymously from a reduction on the yearly program. This gave them access to the 15-minutes daily training program, promising a sensible improvement within 12 weeks. Over 600 Sanitas customers signed up for the paid Regimen program and thousands became non-paid members. Afterwards, Sanitas has extended the promotion through an affiliate deal, making Regimen an official partner in their healthcare offering. “Working with Regimen has been an exceptional experience for us. Their flexibility, deep understanding of our needs and unwavering support have made a significant impact on our project. Their expertise and collaborative approach enabled us to rapidly implement the service for our customers. Regimen is a trusted partner and we look forward to continuing this successful collaboration in the future.” shared Ivonne Bauer, Open Innovation Manager at Sanitas. If you are a startup active in health prevention or interested in collaboration with corporates such as Sanitas, you can learn more about our program and pre-register.

At Kickstart, we regularly explore the latest technological developments and learn how to utilize them to continuously build a better and more effective organization. Generative AI is certainly the innovation of our time, so we invited an expert in this space, @Cyrill Glockner, for a hands-on workshop focused on LLM use-case discovery. Our goal was to learn about LLMs so we could apply them in our work. Fortunately for us, Cyrill has years of experience in machine learning and was most recently working as Director Business AI at Microsoft in Seattle. So let’s ask him about us being his students. Kickstart (KS): Hi Cyrill. What did the Kickies learn today? Cyrill Glockner (CG): Together we solved many pre-selected use cases in a hands-on setting using a private ChatGPT-4 Workspace. To get started we worked on an example that almost all enterprises can benefit from. How do you summarize and understand tone and feedback from customers in large quantities of uncategorized text? We picked a local hotel, copied the most recent 100 or so reviews, and pasted them into ChatGPT’s context window. Then we asked for a summary and key recurring themes. We also explored how to retrieve specific details from the reviews e.g., “show me the original review that complained about noise”. This interaction with the reviews enables enterprises to chat with their data and generate valuable insights by asking questions using common language. KS: Seems to have gotten off to a good start. What was next? CG: Now, we looked at a use case that is using company internal data. We uploaded an Excel table that contains a list of startups that applied to the Kickstart program, which includes the Sustainable Development goals they are supporting. We asked ChatGPT for the 5 most often mentioned SDGs and their respective percentage. It took a few seconds and we retrieved the results. They were exactly what the team had calculated in the past but now delivered in no time. KS: Impressive. And what else? CG: The team was curious whether the data provided by the startups during the application process was matching what they had published on their website. So, we asked ChatGPT to browse the web and compare the given data with what they had put online. Most of it matched, with some minor differences, but we thought this was an excellent example where you can verify or update data collected some time ago with currently available online data, without a lengthy browsing session. KS: We are hearing so much about hallucination. Any concerns here? CG: For the use cases we looked at, hallucination is less of a concern because we provide validated data directly into the context window, and ChatGPT doesn't need to rely on its vast neural network to generate answers. Hallucination becomes a problem when the LLM lacks a high-probability answer and embarks on a path of creative thinking that lacks substantial basis. They are programmed to always provide an answer, but they don’t have the capability to verify the accuracy of their responses. KS: And any fun too? CG: This depends on your definition of fun, but we did have some amusing exercises. We tried to classify muffins and Chihuahua dogs, reversed words, and worked through an interesting 'theory of mind' example involving chocolate and popcorn. Thank you Cyrill to your time and looking forward to doing many more GenAI workshops together. If you want to know more, write to academy@kickstart-innovaition.com.

Welcome to the fifth of our 5-part series on why you should choose Switzerland as a business location for your scale-up. In partnership with Switzerland Global Enterprise. Have you ever wondered how you can benefit from Switzerland when looking for talent? In Switzerland, you will find a multitude of globally acclaimed universities and research institutions that consistently produce a stream of highly skilled people: Health: Switzerland, with its top-tier universities, is a hotspot for skilled PhD professionals, fostering a robust talent pool for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical sciences. The renowned apprenticeship system ensures well-prepared lab technicians for the regulated life sciences sector. Food: Swiss universities like ETH Zürich and EPFL are global leaders in food technology and biotech education, attracting both local and international talents. The thriving food-tech startup scene, addressing areas like alternative proteins and precision agriculture, makes Switzerland a magnet for entrepreneurial talent. Between 2017 and 2020, over 160 FoodTech startups emerged, and 19+ major food and nutrition corporations are Swiss-based. Digital Worlds: ETH Zurich and EPFL stand out for producing experts in deep tech fields like AI, quantum computing, and robotics. Leading multinational corporations such as IBM, ABB, Logitech, and Siemens draw and retain top talent in Switzerland. Automation: Switzerland boasts globally acclaimed universities and research institutions, consistently generating highly skilled engineers in robotics, computer vision, sensor tech, and AI. The country's educational framework encourages a multidisciplinary approach, providing companies access to diverse expertise across various fields when needed. Ready to internationalize your business? Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) is a partner of Kickstart Innovation. We help you in evaluating Switzerland for your business venture. We provide legal, tax, and administrative benchmarking data, organize site visits for your team to experience Switzerland for yourself, and facilitate contacts with industry-specific ecosystem players, and answer all your questions about Switzerland as a business location – free of charge! Contact SG-E at invest@s-ge.com. To learn more about Switzerland as a business location, visit Technology location| S-GE. Cover image by Brooke Cagle

Kickstart is not just a program, it’s a myriad of individual stories. Stories of people collaborating to innovate, people bringing their ideas to life and of partners framing work as a learning opportunity. Let’s focus briefly on our Academy where we offer a 10-week sprint to accelerate corporate teams in their efforts to build or to scale their venture. We call it the Kickstart Intrapreneurship program and let's see what three of this year's participants have to say about it. Demi van Drunen, Eurapco Embracing the Alpaca mindset became a valuable lesson — being curious, willing to take risks, and approaching challenges with a sense of adventure. Read Demi's full post on LinkedIn. Adrian Schumacher, Swisscom It was challenging to invest time and energy in the intrapreneur project besides working on my main job, and I had to exercise how to prioritize and do just the right thing at the right moment. But it was definitely worth it and I look forward to applying what I learned to my future projects. Read Adrians's full post on LinkedIn. Mira Hannegård, Länsförsäkringar We have faced challenges, had to rethink, and re-learn many times. We have all challenged ourselves immensely and have learned so much about #innovation #intrapreneurship and #teamwork. Read Mira's full post on LinkedIn.

For the second year, Kickstart partnered with Building Trust in Healthcare, an event that took part in the brand new campus of unlimitrust by SICPA in Prilly. The key takeaway was the requirement of more collaboration between stakeholders to support innovation, move forward, and increase value for patients and society at large. This is a shared goal at the core of both unlimitrust and Kickstart’s missions. Our CEO & Co-Founder Katka Letzing had the pleasure of participating in a panel around the question “How to bring the entrepreneurial spirit to the startups - coaching & mentoring?” alongside Lennig Pedron, CEO of the Trust Valley initiative, Dirk Steller, Founder / Managing Partner at Seed Space Venture Capital and Raphael Gottardo Entrepreneur and Director of the Biomedical Data Science Center at CHUV. We were happy to take the opportunity to sit down with Martin Hahn, CEO of QuantActions, a #Kickstarter23 startup from our Health and Wellbeing cohort, when he finished his pitch at the event, to shed some light on his perspective of the healthcare system and how QuantActions is paving the way towards improved cognitive performance. What was the inspiration behind QuantActions? One of QuantActions' founders, Arko Ghosh, did a PhD in neuroscience at ETH. He subsequently continued his research at University College London and at the University of Zurich, of which QuantActions is a spin-off in 2016. Arko and I are friends from before that, and he asked me to join QuantActions in 2020, to complement the team with my background in business and finance. Our goal is to make insights to the brain accessible, economical, and available in a way that is unprecedented. The brain is a kind of black box, and to understand it, you can look at behavior such as changes in speech, pupil dilation, walking, etc in order to indirectly infer information about the state of a person's brain. In our case, we use the event of touches on the screen of the smartphone, a device that is available to anyone. Our main business model is providing an SDK (Software Development Kit) that can integrate this capability into the native apps of our clients, such as health insurance or employee health solution providers. You developed a method for cognitive assessment based on the passive collection of data, how do you achieve this? One of the parameters we are working with is cognitive processing speed - how fast the brain can process information. Our solution tracks the timing patterns of smartphone touches, like how fast a person types. This is captured in millisecond resolution, which allows identifying very subtle changes in behavior over time. Typically, the taps slow down when people are tired, chronically stressed, aging, or with certain diseases. Our solution can then show trends over time, allowing the user to better understand their status and how certain lifestyle choices (like exercise, sleep, or nutrition) could have an impact. What is your USP compared to companies offering similar assessments? There are not many companies doing what we do. Our solution doesn’t require wearables which is good for scalability. Our users don't need to give daily inputs, the app runs passively in the background of the phone. Even more importantly, our app is also privacy-preserving, we only capture anonymized timing patterns (no content), and it only gets shared in aggregated form and with the consent of the user. What are the next milestones in your development? In the next 3 to 6 months, we will focus on traction and customers, our current focus is on employee health platforms or health applications to integrate our SDK into their app. In the long term, we want to support monitoring healthy populations to enable early detection of diseases such as stroke or epilepsy. Ultimately, we want to become the most scalable brain health platform in the world. Why are events such as Building Trust in Healthcare important, especially for scaleups? Events like "Building Trust in Healthcare" are crucial for scaleups because they provide a platform for establishing connections and nurturing relationships, which are key in the tightly-knit healthcare community, particularly in Switzerland. This focus on trust-building is essential in an industry where collaboration and network integration can significantly impact business growth and innovation. About QuantActions: QuantActions is a neuroscience startup that provides highly scalable brain health data, initially for employee health and in subsequently healthcare. Martin Hahn CEO of QuantActions

MEDIA RELEASE (Download here) Official announcement of partnerships between established companies and start-ups in Zurich Dominant themes: Sustainability and AI ZURICH, 28 November 2023 – Kickstart Innovation, one of the leading innovation platforms in Europe, selected 46 start-ups and intrapreneurship teams out of over 1’000 applications from 62 countries for its 8th Kickstart innovation program, a remarkable 11-week initiative in collaboration with prominent companies, organizations, cities, foundations, and universities. Last week, the new partnerships enabling the launch of innovations in Switzerland were officially announced. “We connect established players and emerging entrepreneurs. Since Kickstart’s inception in 2016, we’ve successfully initiated more than 310 innovation deals, and our alumni raised over 2.5 billion Swiss Francs of investments,” reports Katka Letzing, co-founder and CEO of Kickstart Innovation. Renowned Swiss companies and institutions such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, Sanitas, the City of Zurich, the Canton of Vaud, MSD are seeking innovative solutions through Kickstart to further advance their business models. “Start-ups encourage us to question our own approaches and to experiment with new ideas,” explains Luca Sigrist, Open Innovation Lead at PostFinance. “Of course, as a large corporation, we can search for new solutions ourselves, but it simply takes more time and ultimately costs more money.” Topics shaping the future The core idea of the Kickstart program is to harness the innovation potential of start-ups and to combine it with the professionalism and market knowledge of established companies since market conditions are often complex. This year’s solutions are diverse, spanning from digital workforce over renewable energy in underground spaces to quantum-resilient cybersecurity solutions. In total, more than 40 deals have been concluded in the areas of New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Smart Cities, Health & Wellbeing, and Intrapreneurship. Selected Synopsis of 2023 public partnerships: (details on the Kickstart website) Partnerships in the Finance & Insurance Vertical: Coop and Atlas Metrics will jointly conduct a double materiality analysis for the entire Coop Cooperative, thereby supporting Coop’s journey towards full compliance with key EU-regulation such as the CSRD. Pelt8 and la Mobilière are collaborating to make efficient & simple sustainability reporting accessible for Swiss SMEs. Cyber threats are not only digital but also real. La Mobilière and LECS by Cyber Evolution are joining forces to explore the potential of an innovative prevention service against cyber-attacks, helping to prevent data loss and business downtime for SMEs, while maintaining portfolio profitability in the face of cyber risks. Atlas Metrics, Pelt8 and Swisscom are collaborating on a whitepaper outlining an ESG data utility for Switzerland. Calvin Risk and Swisscom are exploring options to add AI Risk Management to the AI & ML offerings of Swisscom. QuSecure and Swisscom will do a PoC (Proof of Concept) to demonstrate post-quantum encrypted communications and to collaborate on quantum-resilient encryption for enterprise customers. DynamoFL and Yuh are working to bring the power of privacy-preserving Generative AI to personal finance applications. Swisscom B2B 3rd Party Services Program, in collaboration with individual B2B business units, announces partnerships with Kickstart Alumni Veezoo, Boomerang Ideas, Typewise, Fjuul Vision, and Canveo. Together with our expert consultation, we offer a range of advanced solutions tailored to the customer's needs: from Veezoo's virtual assistant technology and Boomerang Ideas' innovative market feedback tools to Typewise's AI writing solution, Fjuul Vision's engagement platform for insurers, and Canveo's efficient contract management system - all aimed at improving decision-making, efficiency, and growth for Swisscom customers. Partnerships in the Health & Wellbeing Vertical: Sanitas and QuantActions will collaborate to test how subliminal tracking of mental constitution can be used for early detection of mental diseases in an insurance setting and how Sanitas customers are willing to share their data with either party. MSD and NALU will partner up to jointly explore employee benefit offerings around women’s health. MSD and alumni Health Yourself will evaluate market applications for HPV testing from home and collaborate on defining and validating an employee benefit offering around women’s health. MSD, in collaboration with patient organizations, clinical stakeholders and alumni OneDoc, initiated a nation-wide awareness campaign for HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). As part of this campaign, OneDoc will help patients book an appointment to discover more about HPV and how they can protect themselves, including getting vaccinated. City of Zurich is discussing a POC with MiiCare for next year, to support the 65+ to live healthily and independently at home. In collaboration with startup from our selection, Deep Care, la Mobilière wants to improve the culture of health in the workplace by integrating AI-supported health coaching, with the focus on promoting ergonomics, movement and vitality in the workplace through personalized digital coaching and innovative 3D sensor technology to prevent illnesses. Partnerships in the Smart Cities Vertical: AXA and Preflet are exploring a potential Proof of Concept by offering their customers an all in one platform to monitor and change energy usage in their homes. AXA and viboo are exploring a potential Proof of Concept by offering their customers a smart thermostat solution to reduce heating costs in their homes. To prepare for a larger roll-out, Swisscom and viboo have teamed up to equip the entire site in Winterthur with viboo's self-learning predictive control algorithms and smart thermostats, reducing heat consumption while improving employee comfort. A PoC (Proof of Concept) has been agreed upon between Swisscom Broadcast and Uzufly in order to assess the 3D modeling of Swisscom Broadcast Towers using drone technology for inspection and BIM purposes. City of Zurich and Uzufly will join forces to explore the usage of digital twins in construction projects. Coop and roofSec are entering into a partnership and testing the construction and renovation of flat roofs with roofSec's predictive maintenance system. The aim is to prevent damage and save costs by extending the service life of the roofs. enerdrape and Empa NEST partner to explore research collaborations and test new product features and configurations. La Mobilière, together with German insurer Gothaer and Eurapco is aiming to run a POC with the German startup, from our final selection, Lumoview on building digitization. Partnerships in the Food & Retail Vertical: Halba and NuKoKo are teaming up to improve planetary health by exploring the development of cocoa-free chocolate products using NuKoKo's ground-breaking ingredients. Betty Bossi and NuKoKo are partnering up to unlock opportunities in product categories, where cocoa is used as an ingredient, i.e. pastries, baked goods, dairy products, etc. and understand how NuKoKo can add value to the delicious world of such products. Coop and Cognitiwe are partnering to revolutionize the retail landscape. Their collaboration begins with a Proof of Concept to bring artificial intelligence to Coop stores, with a focus on enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of fresh produce management. Get ready for smarter, more sustainable shopping experiences! Coop and Meala Foodtech will partner to develop a clean-label version of the Green Mountain vegan sausage using Meala’s protein. Meala Functional proteins serve as building blocks for better & cleaner Plant-based products, improving taste, texture & nutritional values. Coop has collaborated with alumni Tide Ocean to introduce sustainable shopping baskets made from recycled ocean-bound plastic. The proof of concept involved transforming plastic waste collected by small-scale fishermen on the coast of Southeast Asia into a high-quality raw material, highlighting the power of partnerships in driving sustainable innovation. The collaborative effort ensured the baskets meet stringent requirements for weight-bearing capacity and durability, proving that Tide Ocean's rPP is a reliable and sustainable alternative to virgin plastic. Partnerships in the New Work & Learning Vertical: Coop and Savvi will partner to upskill Coop’s store and office employees on future-critical (soft) skills with app-based, gamified learning nuggets. PostFinance and Atwork are launching a PoC in which the Atwork Suite is being tested to measure the level of self-organization at PostFinance and to receive scientific and AI-based recommendations for action. Swisscom and Ada Growth will collaborate to provide the Ada App to female Swisscom talents to gain insights into how it benefits Swisscom's talent class in anticipation of creating a positive impact across the whole organization. Swisscom and Aixa partner up to evaluate the power of the human face to make conversation AI/chatbots more accessible and empathetic to customers interested in our products and services. Swisscom and weThink will initiate a stage 1 discovery PoC in Q1/2024 which aims to provide experiential insights into the weThink Calibrate process, assess its viability within the Swisscom ecosystem, and explore potential implementation pathways within Swisscom. weThink and BrainE4 collaborate to enhance decision-making capabilities for United States Air Force leaders using swarm intelligence, a synergy set to revolutionize feedback mechanisms in high-stakes environments. weThink and MuchSkills announce a collaboration to integrate advanced AI and dynamic design to elevate team management is, and talent skills pathways to redefine team development and performance. In addition, Pelt8, in collaboration with approximately 20 organizations, including key Kickstart partners like la Mobilière, is leading the Supplier Sustainability Reporting Standard Initiative. This innovative project aims to streamline and enhance sustainability reporting for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland. While similar to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), our standard is specifically tailored to meet the simplified reporting needs of SMEs, bridging the gap between real-economy supply chains and the requirements of the financial services industry. For more information, please contact: press@kickstart-innovation.com About Kickstart Kickstart is one of Europe's largest zero equity, open innovation platforms. Our mission is to build ecosystems with purpose, by fast-forwarding innovation. We bring together public and private organizations, startups, investors and experts, with the shared ambition to deliver next-generation products and services and have a meaningful impact at scale. Each year, Kickstart engages 100 entrepreneurs to collaborate with key players for proofs of concept, pilot and commercial projects and other partnerships. Additionally, through the intrapreneurship program Kickstart helps established organizations to promote and accelerate internal innovation. Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich and was launched in 2015 by digitalswitzerland. Since 2020, Kickstart has partnered with Impact Hub Switzerland, to launch the circular economy initiative. In 2023, Kickstart runs five verticals: New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing and Smart Cities together with partner organizations across industries: AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, ETH Zürich, MSD, CSEM, City of Zurich, Empa NEST, Sanitas, University Hospital Zurich, Panter, SATW, Impact Switzerland, Canton de Vaud, Santenext, Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE, Swiss Healthcare Startups, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Ringier, Google for Startups, MLL, South Pole, WECOCO, Day8, SwissLEAP, evitive, reverse, HealthTech Cluster Switzerland, DealStation, EPFL, IMD, gfm, START Global and more. Snippet of media coverage: Deutscher Presse Index, Finanznachrichten, Handelszeitung, Horizont, Moneycab, Press24, Pressebox, Presseradar, Startupticker, Technologiebox.

Welcome to the fourth of our 5-part series on why you should choose Switzerland as a business location for your scale-up. In partnership with Switzerland Global Enterprise. Have you ever wondered how you can benefit from Switzerland as your HQ and how you can use the country as a test market? When it comes to maximizing innovativeness or making processes and structures more cost-efficient, Switzerland offers many advantages as a headquarters or location for central functions. The country is home to a very high number of international and European Headquarters of large multinational companies. Many of them operate central management and operational functions such as finance, marketing or payroll, research and development, IP management, or global supply chain management from here. Your scale-up can benefit from these structures, too. Strategic advantages and test market Thanks to its strategic location between the Asian, European, and US time zones, Switzerland’s excellent infrastructure and its solutions for managing revenues and risks have made it a leading destination for multinational companies looking to set up supply chain operations. Its central location and various trade agreements make it easy for companies to tap into the European market, which is made up of almost 500 million consumers. A business-friendly environment and competitive corporate and personal tax rates provide further advantages for HQs. Ready to internationalize your business? Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) is a partner of Kickstart Innovation. We help you in evaluating Switzerland for your business venture. We provide legal, tax, and administrative benchmarking data, organize site visits for your team to experience Switzerland for yourself, and facilitate contacts with industry-specific ecosystem players, and answer all your questions about Switzerland as a business location – free of charge! Contact SG-E at invest@s-ge.com. To learn more about Switzerland as a business location, visit Technology location| S-GE. Cover image by Brooke Cagle

Welcome to the third of our 5-part series on why you should choose Switzerland as a business location for your scale-up. In partnership with Switzerland Global Enterprise. Have you ever wondered how you can benefit from Switzerland's strong and business-friendly ecosystem to support the launch and growth of your company? Switzerland's stability, innovative environment, and robust venture capital scene make it a magnet for scale-ups; renowned research institutions and technology clusters provide access to cutting-edge opportunities. Those factors position Switzerland as an appealing destination for scale-ups. This collaborative spirit not only fosters innovation but also facilitates access to expertise and potential joint ventures, a crucial element for businesses looking to scale. Switzerland also shines as a versatile testing ground: With its small yet diverse population and multilingualism, it provides an invaluable opportunity for companies to refine their products or services before taking them worldwide. With this approach, Switzerland provides a fertile ground for innovation and growth - and your scale-up can benefit from it. The food ecosystem as an example Switzerland hosts major food and nutrition conglomerates like Nestle, Mondelez Europe, Bühler, Firmenich, and Syngenta. This concentration provides scale-ups with valuable access to decision-makers for pilot projects and potential business partnerships. Geneva serves as a hub for international organizations, facilitating collaboration and the scaling of global food solutions. This is just one example of how your scale-up can benefit from Switzerland’s Ecosystems; you can find similar structures in other ecosystems. Ready to internationalize your business? Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) is a partner of Kickstart Innovation. We help you in evaluating Switzerland for your business venture. We provide legal, tax, and administrative benchmarking data, organize site visits for your team to experience Switzerland for yourself, and facilitate contacts with industry-specific ecosystem players, and answer all your questions about Switzerland as a business location – free of charge! Contact SG-E at invest@s-ge.com. To learn more about Switzerland as a business location, visit Technology location| S-GE.

Welcome to the third of our 5-part series on why you should choose Switzerland as a business location for your scale-up. In partnership with Switzerland Global Enterprise. Have you ever wondered how you can benefit from Switzerland's strong investor base and accelerator programs to support the launch and growth of your company? Switzerland's stability, innovative environment, and robust venture capital scene make it a magnet for scale-ups seeking investors. Renowned research institutions and technology clusters provide access to cutting-edge opportunities. The flourishing venture capital landscape heightens the chance of finding interested investors, and government funding bolsters the appeal for those seeking comprehensive support. In essence, Switzerland's stable environment, combined with innovation, venture capital, and government backing, positions it as an appealing destination for scale-ups aiming to attract investor partnerships. With this approach, Switzerland provides a fertile ground for innovation and growth – and your scale-up can benefit from it. Funding: Accelerator Programs and Incubators in Switzerland Switzerland has several accelerator programs and incubators that support scientists and entrepreneurs in launching and growing exceptional companies. To ensure compatibility, we offer you our support in comparing and finding the right accelerator program for your business. We are also happy to provide you with an introduction to the Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse, which offers funding for innovation projects, networking, training, and coaching. Ready to internationalize your business? Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) is a partner of Kickstart Innovation. We help you in evaluating Switzerland for your business venture. We provide legal, tax, and administrative benchmarking data, organize site visits for your team to experience Switzerland for yourself, and facilitate contacts with industry-specific ecosystem players, and answer all your questions about Switzerland as a business location – free of charge! Contact SG-E at invest@s-ge.com. To learn more about Switzerland as a business location, visit Technology location| S-GE. Cover image by Henrique Ferreira.

Hello, Kickstart Family! It’s been an exhilarating fortnight for Kickstart! Leading the charge, our CEO & Co-Founder, Katka Letzing, took to Geneva with our 2023 scaleup Pelt8, and partners PostFinance & Impact Hub Geneva. There, she played a pivotal role in the Building Bridges initiative – a remarkable endeavor championing sustainable finance, not only in our home turf of Switzerland but also on a global scale. Now, speaking of global endeavors, our corridors buzzed with energy as we welcomed not one but two dynamic innovation delegations — from the vibrant city-state of Singapore and the esteemed Embassy of Spain in Switzerland. It's collaborations like these that truly amplify our global connection and reinforce our commitment to international ties. On another front, we made our mark at the Trust Valley Day 2023. It was a phenomenal experience aligning with some of the brightest minds in cybersecurity and digital trust within Switzerland. Additionally, we had the privilege of hosting a delegation from TotalEnergies at Kraftwerk, synchronizing with the beginning of their Learning Expedition (LEX) here in our thriving Swiss ecosystem. Finally, a nod to our Health & Wellbeing team: they recently curated an illuminating session led by Bernhard Bichsel and Annalisa Macagno, diving deep into Swiss MedTech Regulation and QMS Frameworks. If there's ever a team to demystify the complexities of MedTech, it's them! Thank you for being part of our journey. Here's to more shared milestones and stories in our next update. Your Kickstart team! Vertical News FINANCE AND INSURANCE Kickstart alumni Calvin Risk announced their collaboration with UK insurer Aviva, to explore ways to make Artificial Intelligence safe, transparent, and trustworthy. Kickstart alumni Monkee has announced two new partners - Shaping New Tomorrow and Secret Escapes offering a host of collaborations. Kickstart alumni Riskwolf was selected as one of the 10 pioneering InsurTech by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and to drive towards insurance for all in India. FOOD AND RETAIL Kern Tec, Kickstart alumni, has secured €12 million in Series A funding. The funding will be used to upscale the production and commercialization of sustainable ingredients derived from upcycled stone fruit pits. HEALTH AND WELLBEING PIPRA, aimed at preventing delirium with their AI technology, won the CSS award at the Digital Health Day. Sanitas released its 2023 Health Forecast, offering 400+ pages of invaluable content related to health and wellbeing. QuantActions was awarded a Future of Health grant of CHF10’000 to develop their app to detect subtle cognitive changes, allowing for earlier care. NEW WORK AND LEARNING On Oct. 19, Kickstart hosted a conference on the not-so-typical Future(s) of Work designed for HR professionals, leaders and entrepreneurs who are looking for practical solutions to today's workplace challenges. In a knowledge-sharing session, we had the opportunity to host a delegation from Institute for Adult Learning of Singapore to exchange the best practices for adult learning. Startups from our current batch had the opportunity to show how innovation and new technologies can support and enhance this process. SMART CITIES Our Swiss climate tech startup Viboo has secured €1.6 million in seed funding to advance its Predictive Control as a Service platform (PCaaS). The funds will be used to scale Viboo's technology, targeting light commercial buildings in urban areas. Enerdrape (from Sion) entered the Top 100 Swiss Startups ranking #83, and Urbio (from Lausanne) was listed #53 for the third consecutive year. Granular Energy has secured €7.5 million in funding led by Norrsken VC to further develop its software, helping utilities manage energy certificates and promoting cleaner energy choices. Ecosystem News Hong Kong FinTech Week For 7 years, Hong Kong FinTech Week (HKFTW) has been a pivotal industry event. This year, with 30,000 attendees, 500+ speakers, and 700+ exhibitors, it's the go-to for finance-tech insights. Theme: "FinTech Redefined", emphasizing policy, web2 to web3 transition, AI, and tech for inclusion & green finance. As an official supporter, we offer a 15% discount with code KSI-DISCOUNT. Get tickets and join us! Kraftwerk Christmas Dinner This year, our partner Kraftwerk has special Christmas celebrations for you. Enjoy a festive Apéro or 3-course Fondue Dinner in their iconic setting. For exclusive events, contact Kraftwerk's booking team. Offerings are available on select dates in November and December. Check the website for details. Book early to secure your spot for the holiday season! Upcoming Events New Roots VIP Tour - October 22 @ Oberdiessbach - Invitation only Global Tech Summit - November 14 - Register here Kickstart Executive Dinner Geneva - November 21 - Invitation only Kickstart Investor Summit - November 23 @ Kraftwerk - Invitation only Kickstart Closing Ceremony - November 23 @ Kraftwerk - Invitation only Kickstart Closing Party - November 23 @ Kraftwerk - Register here

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting a delegation from TotalEnergies on the first day of their Learning Expedition (LEX) to the Swiss startup ecosystem. Katelijne DE MOOR, R&C VP Innovation & Value Mapping at TotalEnergies welcomed the participants coming from various countries. She underlined the importance to innovate in our day and age, and with the increasing pressure of climate change to transition towards renewable energies and to turn those challenges into opportunities. Cécile CLONTS Country Director Business France Switzerland-Liechtenstein, which team supported the organization of the LEX, shared some key figures on the Swiss innovation ecosystem, as well as some business tips on how to navigate in Switzerland. Gilles BORDES Head of Economic Affairs at the Embassy of France in Switzerland shared insights on the Swiss energy supply, its roadmap to 2050, and its challenges such as the absence of agreement with the EU and delay in the development of sustainable and alternative energies such as PV, hydrogen or biomass. From our team, Jürg STUKER and Noémie DELEZE introduced the participants to Kickstart, our open innovation approach - be it in our support to later stage startups or to corporate intrapreneurship teams - and our commitment to sustainability. It was the occasion to showcase the startups from our cohort, with an emphasis on those offering solutions to utility companies Plexigrid, Granular Energy and Hypermeteo. Lastly, ETH spinoff ANYBotics’ team introduced ANYmal, an autonomous industrial, explosion-proof (!) robot able to conduct inspection activities including image, video, and sound analysis in dangerous settings such as offshore platforms. We wish the participants an inspiring journey in Switzerland! #makeithappen #sustainability #inclusion #executive #collaboration #networking #circulareconomy #openinnovation