Kickstart Innovation

🧠 We are joining Switzerland’s largest AI Ecosystem Event – the AI X Summit 2024! 2,000 innovators, researchers, industry leaders, and investors will gather at StageOne in Zürich, October 3-4, for two days of cutting-edge discussions on the future of AI. ⏳ There is still time to apply! We are happy to offer a discount for the XXX Network. Use the code COMMUNITY20 to receive 20% off your ticket here 👉 www.plusx.ai Katka Letzing ETH AI Center University of Zurich ZHAW School of Engineering #AI #Innovation #PlusXSummit #AIWeek #AIXSummit

🚀 We are proud to see that many of our alumni have secured a spot at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Awards ! 🏆 #Top100SSU 🌟 This year’s Top 100 is packed with deep-tech startups, underscoring Switzerland’s leadership in cutting-edge innovation. 👏👏 Huge kudos to our alumni who made the list: Planted, Enerdrape, neustark, Moodtalk, irmos technologies AG, Unique, Calvin Risk, viboo, Urbio. Your remarkable achievements continue to inspire us, and you’re paving the way for a brighter future in the Swiss startup ecosystem! A special shout-out to the founders driving this success: Pascal Bieri, Christoph Jenny, Margaux Peltier, Valentin Gutknecht, Loris Niederberger, Panagiotis Martakis, Manuel Grenacher, Julian Riebartsch, Anastasia Movcharenko, Felix Bünning, Karl Njálsson, Nicolas Sommer. Together with your teams, you are shaping the future of innovation. Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of growth and innovation—this is just the beginning! 🎉 Venturelab Tiziano Luccarelli Suzanne van der Maarel Anikó Ivanics Andrea Bianchi Katka Letzing Impact Hub Zürich Innovaud Elisabetta Maria Chiarantoni Ray Neubauer, CPA, CGMA #food #smartcities #newwork #finance #insurance #venturecapital #startups #switzerland #awards #deeptech #innovation #makeithappen See the ranking here 👉 https://lnkd.in/erA4rFsR Photo credit: https://lnkd.in/dY7ejaQ

👉 Are you a start-up, spin-off, or early-stage company with ties to the Zurich area, universities, or research institutions? Our partner Büro Züri Innovationspark by Zürcher Kantonalbank is offering an exciting opportunity. 🖥️ It offers 16 flexible workstations for up to 6 start-ups, spin-offs and young companies who can use the space free of charge and work at Europe’s prior pioneering hub for civil aviation- now a place for research, development and innovation. Also Start-ups will benefit from the heigh media presence generated by STARTUP CAMPUS Switzerland and Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich. 🤖 Teams in the early phases of their activity, particularly those focused on fields like #robotics, #mobility, #aerospace, #manufacturing, #technology and more, can apply here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dYE2_4jW #innovation #coworking #startupcampus #innovationpark #entrepreneurship

This week in Copenhagen at Nordic Fintech Week 2024! Great connecting with so many innovative startups and organizations from Switzerland and beyond along with PostFinance Mastercard Visa BEC Financial Technologies FinScan Mambu Danske Bank Enfuce Citi and more. Katka Letzing #NordicFintechWeek #Switzerland #Fintech #insurtech #AI #health #makeithappen #KickstartInnovation

Last Thursday Kickstart hosted the exclusive Executive Dinner 2024 at Kraftwerk Zürich on Day 4 of #Kickstarters24. ✨ This annual event connects the CEOs & executives of Switzerland's leading institutions such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom Ventures, die Mobiliar, IKEA, PostFinance, Romande Energie, Sanitas Krankenversicherung, Stadt Zürich, MSD Switzerland and more, with the c-level executives of our local and global scaleups and intrapreneurship teams, this year including 41 scaleups representing 9 countries. 🚀 Special thanks to Anna Schindler, Director of Urban Development at Stadt Zürich, Christoph Birkholz, President of the Board at Kickstart Innovation, Anna Rosenkranz, Co-Founder and CEO at Health Yourself, Ankur Patel, Founder and CEO at Multimodal, Veroniek Vermeulen (Silatha), Founder and CEO at Silatha, Malte Buschbeck, Chief of Staff at Thermosphr for joining us on stage throughout the delicious 3-course vegan meal to share their innovation insights & company journeys and Kickstart experiences. 🚀 Notably, our dinner showcased ingredients from our Food & Retail alumni: Planted, and Kern Tec. 🌱 #makeithappen #executive #networking #event #sustainability #openinnovation #Kickstarters24 Katka Letzing, Andreea Prange, Adrian Werren, Christina Ulardic, Christoph Birkholz, Jürg Stuker, Ron Schneider, Reto Conrad Dimitri Gitas, Georgios Kontoleon.

🎉 The 2024 Kickstart Opening Ceremony & Party was a night to remember! 🎉 Yesterday, Kraftwerk Zürich buzzed with energy as over 200 attendees – including our partners, investors, advisors and media – came together to set the tone for this year's 11-week program. From 41 riveting pitches by our scaleups & intrapreneurship teams to insightful fireside chats and alumni success stories, the evening was a testament to innovation and collaboration. A massive shoutout to our speakers: Katka Letzing, Lorena Perrin Kreis, David Weber, Paloma Bosco, Laurent Botaya, Ray Neubauer, CPA, CGMA, Luca Sigrist, Lilian Buss, Adrian Giger, Andreas Schönenberger, Monika Wülser, Bahaa R. Jürg Stuker for their inspiring words, and to Sara Fedele for moderating the night. Our heartfelt gratitude to our invaluable partners, including AXA, Coop, Swisscom, die Mobiliar, IKEA, PostFinance, Romande Energie, Sanitas Krankenversicherung, Stadt Zürich, MSD, MLL Legal, Switzerland Global Enterprise, CSEM and over 200 partners globally, who are championing innovation with us this year. And last but not least, thanks to our amazing team for #makingithappen Katka Letzing Andrea Bianchi Anikó Ivanics Blanka Skacelova Claire-Marine Pandraud Elisabetta Maria Chiarantoni Franziska Legoupil (geb. Böhm) Katerina Klezlova Jurg Stüker Fritz Seidel Markus Geissler Oender Boyman Ray Neubauer, CPA, CGMA Oana Ria Sara Fedele Suzanne van der Maarel Tiziano Luccarelli Here's to pushing boundaries and making waves in 2025! 🚀 Let's #makeithappen, #Kickstarters24! Next up tomorrow: Our Executive Dinner in Zürich! 🥂 Thanks to Evi Fragolia and Jürg Stucker for the photos! 🔖 #NewWork #Learning #Finance #Insurance #Food #Retail #Health #Wellbeing #SmartCities #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #SDGs #technology

🚀 Exciting times ahead, as we kick off the inaugural week of the 2024 Kickstart Program! Thrilled to welcome over 41 dynamic scaleups & intrapreneurship teams from across the globe, all geared up to immerse in insightful meetings with industry partners, seasoned advisors, domain experts, and like-minded peers. 🫱🏼🫲🏽 This week is packed with opportunities to connect with our esteemed Community during a series of events all taking place at our headquarters at Kraftwerk in Zurich! This morning Sirpa Tsimal from Switzerland Global Enterprise kicked off the day with Katka Letzing providing insights into market entry to Switzerland, and invaluable guidance for international scaleups seeking to establish a presence here. 🇨🇭📍 Next up tonight: Our Opening Ceremony in Zürich! 🥂More to come tomorrow! #MakeItHappen #Innovation #OpeningWeek #CollaborateToInnovate #Partnership #MarketEntry #Switzerland #Kickstarters2024 Tiziano Luccarelli Anikó Ivanics Suzanne van der Maarel Andrea Bianchi Sara Fedele Elisabetta Maria Chiarantoni Blanka Skacelova Jürg Stuker Claire-Marine Pandraud Ray Neubauer, CPA, CGMA Oender Boyman Katerina Klezlova Franziska Legoupil (geb. Böhm)

📣 ANNOUNCEMENT ALERT: WELCOME #Kickstarters24! 📣 🎉 Meet Kickstart Innovation’s 2024 Cohort! We are thrilled to welcome 41 scaleups from 9 countries to Switzerland in September with over 200 partners. #KeyHighlights: Focus on Sustainability: Nearly half of the startups are working on sustainable solutions. 🌱 Future Topics: AI in healthcare, seaweed as food packaging, waste stream upcycling, alternative protein, fungi fermentation, medical data management, waste biomass processing, synthetic data, data storage and more. 🌐 Global Attractiveness: Proposals from over 48 countries for the 9th Kickstart Innovation program 2024 Powerful Partnerships: Collaborations with industry leaders! 🏢🤝 And the scaleups are…. 📈Finance & Insurance: Multimodal, Keyless, NEUR.ON, hypt, Plumery, Billogram, Wequity, Enterprise Bot , YData 🛒Food & Retail: ProSeed.co, Nosh.bio, upgrain, B'ZEOS 🍎Health & Wellbeing: AllyWell, Spixii, teale, @Thryve, PlaynVoice, Lifen 📚New Work & Learning: HAPSTER, wyrd, Silatha, Interloom, Moodtalk 🏗️Smart Cities: Solskin by Zurich Soft Robotics, Zephr.xyz, Over Easy Solar, irmos technologies AG, Shayp, Thermosphr ♻️Climate Positive Mission - Circular Economy Initiative: Nature Coatings, Made of Air, BIOHM, Lixea 🤝Intrapreneurship Enerjoy, AI Buddy, Opineo, VidaSense, Visenco, Protonica, Watchibia ♻️#CircularEconomy and sustainability were at the forefront of the decision-making process - with 50% of the final companies engaged in them, compared to 45% in 2023. Next to that the top trends in technologies were #AI & #Cybersecurity. A big thank you to the 170 judges, experts and partners who were involved in the final selection for this year’s program and over 100 additional partners globally who are championing innovation with us this year 👏🏼👏🏼 💡Kickstart continues to drive forward-thinking solutions, connecting startups with partners to foster internal and external innovation. The program has already facilitated over 310 business deals, supporting startups to secure more than CHF 2.5 billion in investments. 🚀 🎉Congratulations to all and looking forward to #makeithappen this year! 🚀 Read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/dtSiJkuP #Kickstarters24 #Finance #Insurance #Cybersecurity #NewWork #Learning #SmartCities #Technology #Health #Food #Retail #Wellbeing #laterstage #startups #innovation #scaleups #growth #deeptech #sustainability #circulareconomy #SDGs

💡 $10 trillion projected spend on healthcare by 2025 – a staggering figure, highlighting the urgent need for transformation. Imagine the impact if we could: 🤒 Prevent illnesses before they occur 💻 Leverage digital diagnostic tools for early detection ♻ Innovate with sustainable materials to cut down single-use plastic waste 🏥 Strengthen our health systems for better care But don’t worry – at Kickstart, we’re tackling these challenges head-on. This year alone… 🌍 76 deal proposals from 20 countries worldwide, with over 100 million CHF raised 🇨🇭 Countries represented: France, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, Netherlands 👩💼 46% of selected ventures are led by women founders or C-level executives 💰 49% of the selected startups already have paying customers Curious about the groundbreaking medical innovators we’ve selected? Stay tuned – all will be revealed on September 3rd! 🚀 More info at 👉 https://lnkd.in/eENyZBsZ #KickstartInnovation #HealthandWellbeing #StartupSelection #Innovation die Mobiliar, Stadt Zürich, AXA, Swisscom, Sanitas Krankenversicherung, MSD Claire-Marine Pandraud, Katerina Klezlova, Katka Letzing Andrea Bianchi Elisabetta Maria Chiarantoni Anikó Ivanics Tiziano Luccarelli Sara Fedele Jürg Stuker Suzanne van der Maarel Fritz Seidel Ray Neubauer, CPA, CGMA

📅 Join us for an evening of networking at the MLLStart! Barbecue-Party on August 29, 2024, at 6:00 pm in Zurich’s Kreis 5! The event offers a perfect occasion to connect with other entrepreneurs in the startup community and to learn more about the legal services and the support our partner MLL Legal provides to startups. Register 👉 https://lnkd.in/dGBXrTwp Karin Oberlin | Kilian Schärli | Mark Montanari | Mattias Johnson | Ülkü Cibik | Louisa Galbraith | Gabriel Meier | Karim Steiner