The cohort represents nine countries, with Swiss startups making up over a third, reflecting a strong focus on fostering partnerships, deep tech, and sustainable innovation.

Kickstart has consistently attracted top-tier startups from around the globe, tackling some of society’s most pressing challenges. The programme collaborates with major industry players such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, Sanitas, the City of Zurich, the Canton of Vaud, and MSD. This year, IKEA Switzerland and Romande Energie have joined the corporate partners for the first time.

Since its inception, Kickstart has supported more than 450 startups and facilitated over 310 business deals, including pilot and commercial projects. Participants have hailed from over 80 countries and have collectively raised more than CHF2.5billion in investment, with notable alumni including Planted, KernTec, Neustark, and AAAcell.

“One trend that is clearly emerging is the increasing number of startups that are looking for sustainable solutions in their business ideas,” explains Katka Letzing, CEO and Co-Founder of Kickstart, one of the largest open innovation platforms in Europe. “The sustainability areas of industry, innovation and infrastructure as well as health and well-being (SDG9 and SDG3) have seen particular growth next to the increase of solutions connected to AI enhancing new business models.”

“We are very happy to partner with such a professional platform to enter in innovation partnerships and commercial deals bringing a view to the future,” explains Paloma Bosco, Head of New Business & Innovation at Swisscom - partner in the Kickstart Innovation program for the 9th time.

Solutions for the future

The startups showcased their innovative business models and future-focused ideas across five key sectors: New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing, and Smart Cities. A significant emphasis was placed on addressing climate change and advancing sustainable solutions.

One standout, Nature Coatings, has developed BioBlack TX pigments, which are 100% bio-based and offer an 85% reduction in carbon footprint compared to traditional pigments. If these BioBlack pigments were adopted across industries to replace carbon black in plastics, inks, paints, and coatings, it could potentially cut CO2 emissions by 4.62 million tons annually – an impact comparable to driving around the Earth’s circumference over 100,000 times.

Zurich-based Soft Robotics introduced Solskin, an intelligent, climate-adaptive building envelope designed to reduce air-conditioning energy consumption by around 80% while enhancing thermal comfort for occupants.

Lausanne’s B'ZEOS has also made notable strides, completing several successful proof-of-concept projects. The company specialises in transforming seaweed-based pellets and resins into packaging materials. Their plug-and-play solution utilises existing conversion technologies to produce a final product that is both 100% bio-based and fully biodegradable.

Kickstart Academy: Innovation within the public and private organisations

Next to supporting scaleups, Kickstart also supports established organisations in boosting and accelerating internal innovation by supporting teams working on specific topics to test. That enables employees to work on innovation of validation of their ideas as well as scaling within their corporate or public institutions including: Swisscom, IWB, and CSEM. “Intrapreneurship is an important piece of innovation within our organisation, supporting talent as well as new ideas that can validate and scale.” Bahaa Roustom, Vice-President, Business Development, CSEM.