Kickstart- Driving Business Activity in Switzerland

Since it was founded five years ago, Kickstart has become one of the largest European innovation platforms and has initiated over 120 pilots and commercial projects between startups, established organizations, and companies from various sectors.

“Despite COVID-19, Kickstart has received high-quality applications from over 55 countries and overall there has been a significant increase of deep tech ventures with the appetite to scale in Switzerland,” explains Katka Letzing, Co-Lead of Kickstart.

“From September to November, the startups will have the opportunity to co-create in the form of Proofs-of-Concept, pilots and commercial projects with Kickstart partners, leading organizations and companies such as AXA, Coop, Migros, Swisscom, Mobiliar, ETH Zürich, City of Zurich, PostFinance, Credit Suisse and others”.

Kickstarts latest developments

This year Kickstart is excited to bring on new partners, including Mövenpick, New Work SE, Energie 360°, Roche, Holcim Switzerland, Nespresso, Canton de Vaud and more. Startups will also have the opportunity to engage newly in the Romandy region next to the Greater Zurich Area.

Startups participating in the 2020 program combine a high level of technological innovation with solutions that are intended to foster sustainable development.

HealthTech startup Kaia Health, for example, offers digital therapeutics that create accessible, evidence-based treatments for a range of disorders. Food and Retail Tech startup, Vital Vio designs, engineers and manufactures antibacterial LED technology for a growing range of commercial and residential applications.

FinTech startup Keyless develops solutions for biometric, simultaneously secure authentication. Insurtech startup MotionsCloud ensures the processing of insurance claims in real-time.

Smart City startup Neustark is working on the reduction of cement by turning CO2 into carbonated elements in the building industry, and EdTech and New Work startup, Coorpacademy, provides personalized digital learning content for professional upskilling.

“Every year, Kickstart attracts startups that are leaders in their field. The program has given us the opportunity to work quickly and effectively with these emerging companies, to accelerate our own business ideas, to learn what this means for Migros and what benefits can be created for our consumers,“ says Eliana Zamprogna, CTO of Migros Industry.

“The commitment of our organization has increased significantly over the years. Our employees have the opportunity to think about business, innovation and technology in different ways and at different speeds than they do in their day-to-day work. This has strengthened the leadership and collaborative skills of our organization.”

Intrapreneurship Drives Established Companies to Generate New Business Growth and Creates Sustainable Cultural Change

In addition to partnerships between startups and established organizations, Kickstart supports the advancement of innovation in companies themselves. Nine intrapreneurship teams, independent within the companies, will also be part of the 2020 cohort.

Alongside Swisscom, Mobiliar, Migros, this year, new partners have been engaged with their internal teams, including PostFinance, Holcim Switzerland and Energie360°. “Without innovation there cannot be sustainable growth,” explains Alice Dal Fuoco, Innovation Manager at PostFinance. “To support the growth of our innovation activities we are delighted to collaborate with external innovation leaders such as Kickstart.”

Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich, a globally connected community of entrepreneurs, techies, and creatives.

The ecosystem innovation platform runs programs for startups, intrapreneurs, CEOs and established organizations, including a kickoff week in September and a six-week collaboration Sprint from September 30th to November 8th, during which the international teams will engage in Switzerland.

Kickstart’s locations this year are the innovation space Kraftwerk in Zurich and Impact Hub Lausanne.
For more information, check up Kickstart’s website:
www.kickstart-innovation.com

About Kickstart

Kickstart is one of Europe’s largest zero equity, multi-corporate ecosystem innovation platforms that runs a scale-up program for high-growth startups with the goal to accelerate deep tech innovation in Switzerland.

Science and engineering-driven technologies have the potential to solve humanity’s biggest
challenges.

They require unprecedented collaboration between established organizations and the most audacious entrepreneurs out there.

Kickstart is committed to build bridges and bring various organizations such as startups, corporates, cities, foundations, and universities together.

Each year, Kickstart brings up to 100 entrepreneurs to Switzerland to collaborate with key players for proofs of concept, pilot projects, and other innovation partnerships.

Additionally, through the intrapreneurship program Kickstart helps established organisations accelerate internal innovation.

Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich and was launched in 2015 by digitalswitzerland.

In 2020, Kickstart runs five verticals:

EdTech & New Work, FinTech & InsurTech, Food & Retail Tech, HealthTech, Smart City & Technology; an Intrapreneurship program and the Circular Economy Initiative together with partner organizations across industries: AXA, Coop, Migros, Swisscom, Mobiliar, ETH Zürich, City of Zurich, Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Holcim Switzerland, MAVA Foundation, Mercator Foundation Switzerland, PostFinance, Mövenpick, New Work SE, Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE, Credit Suisse, CSEM, Energie 360°, Empa NEST, University Hospital Zurich, Panter, SATW, Swiss Healthcare Startups, Roche, Growpal, Ringier, Wenger & Vieli AG, Google for Startups, Nespresso, Canton de Vaud, WECOCO and more.

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