MassChallenge Switzerland Awards CHF 400’000 in Equity-Free Cash Prizes to the Top 12 2022 Startups

Oct 28, Lausanne, Switzerland?– MassChallenge Switzerland, part of MassChallenge’s global network for innovators and zero-equity startup accelerators,?awarded CHF 400,000 last evening in equity-free cash prizes?to the 2022 top 12 startups from its early-stage program and in-kind prizes to 12 runner-up Swiss startups. Since 2016 MassChallenge Switzerland has supported?610 startups that have raised CHF 985M of funding?and created 29,000+ direct & indirect jobs.?

Held on October 27, 2022, at Beaulieu SA in Lausanne, the MassChallenge Switzerland Awards Ceremony brought together more than 400 viewers from around the globe. In addition to the CHF 400,000 provided by MassChallenge Switzerland, some of its partners also awarded in-kind prizes worth more than CHF 100,000 to startups from the cohort: Reuteler & Cie will provide 12 hours of IP services to SensArs Neuroprosthetics, Rheiazymes, Kly,?Beyond Scroll ,?Arcadia , and?HEALTHY-LONGER ; Kellerhals Carrard will provide 12 hours of legal services to?Cultivated Biosciences ,?Gaia Technologies ,?Composite Recycling , InnoSpina,?Chiral , and Voltiris; Additionally,?MassChallenge Switzerland and?One Young World ?awarded CHF 10’000 to?Cultivated Biosciences ?to allow them to participate in the One Young World 2023 Summit.

The Accelerator also celebrated the community of experts who helped the 106 startups launch, grow, and scale their businesses during the four months of the acceleration program; 508 independent judges and 315 mentors were involved this year. Mentors?Mariam Megally ,?Emmi Kavander , and?Daniel Brandenburger ?were crowned as the 2022 top mentors based on their involvement in the program, the number of startups mentored, and the success of their mentees.

“Our experts and corporate partners make MassChallenge Switzerland possible and I’d like to thank them for generously giving time and expertise to help our startups move their projects forward.?This help is reflected in the results and 2022 was a record for us – 58% of startups exceeded/hit their ingoing accelerator objective; and startups scored us with their highest ever satisfaction score.?I’d also like to call out the support we gained across the ecosystem to enable our entrepreneurs to be “climate responsible”. We hope this becomes the new normal for accelerators, so that startups are strategically positioned to reduce emissions and benefit society as they scale,”?said?Matt Lashmar, Managing Director of MassChallenge Switzerland.

As announced in 2021, all of 2022’s?106 startups accelerated were “climate responsible”?and have an added value for society. In 2022 we changed our admissions criteria, hired new expert employees, improved our curriculum, ran specific impact and climate-focused events, and collaborated with many partners to support this change. So far,?startups we have supported have offset or sequestered emissions by 8,300,000 tons of CO2 eq. This is the first time we’ve recorded this data, and together with the improved program, is a small step towards our objective of finding?25 Startups who can each offset or sequester 30m tons of CO2 eq over 10 years.??

"In 2022, MassChallenge Switzerland intensified focus on climate responsible startups and societal impact. In 7 years, we have played a key role in developing 610 startups as well as tracking financial and job creation KPIs; we are now tracking impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. I would like to congratulate all the startups, thank our fantastic team and say a very big thank you to our partners, who have funded this and should be immensely proud of their contribution," said?Ian Roberts, CTO of Bühler and President of MassChallenge Switzerland.

Discover more here with the results of all 12 winners!!