MassChallenge Switzerland Latest News

Record Number of Applications

1235 startups applied to our early-stage program this year

The pool of applicants remains diverse, with a majority of European and Swiss startups 31% and 13%, the second continent being Africa with 22%, then Americas 18%, Asia 15%, and 8 startups from Oceania.?

End of March, all startups will be notified about their results, the possibility to review the judges' comments, and information about the second round.?

Round 1 Judgings is nearly over

500+ Judges have engaged this year in the reviewing process

We thank all Judges this year for their commitment to reviewing all applications and their professionalism. This first round is crucial for startups to get proper feedback from experts in their sectors and adapt their pitch deck based on the comments they received.

Sustainable Food Solutions Challenge

What's up?

So far we have run 13 DemoDays which has resulted in 105 introductions to our partners. Detailed evaluations and follow-ups are ongoing right now. In addition, we ran a second round of evaluations with our Partners to make sure we are not missing out any potential matches. The outcome of who goes to the finals will be on April 25th.?

We'll soon invite you to join the Pitching Day on May 26! Stay tuned on our social channels and in our next newsletter.

Announcement

An initial partner set of Bosch , 西门子 , Whitworth Bros Ltd , Bühler Group , University of East London , and Royal Docks, supported by the MassChallenge Switzerland partner group, including 奇华顿 , 帝斯曼公司 , Louis Dreyfus Company , Omya , and 雀巢 are delighted to announce the launch of a pilot accelerator program for AI-focused startups?in the Royal Docks, London,?from July to October 2023.?

The?Program connects high-potential startups to experts, corporations & communities to help the startups grow their businesses and deliver impact. Startups in the UK program will have the opportunity to compete for the no strings attached, non-dilutive prize money from MassChallenge Switzerland, and a special ￡10,000 prize to the best UK startup in the program.

Startups will benefit from MassChallenge Switzerland’s program and connection events to partners and expert mentors in London. Acceleration will take place with Boot-camps in Switzerland, events in London, and online.

More info here. Closing date for applications is April 26.

Community Milestones ????

• NoPalm Ingredients , has been nominated best Food & Agri Startup 2023 in Netherlands. More here in Dutch.
• Nth Wonder , has started its first reforestation program. 280 Kenari trees were planted in February to help restore the rainforest and protect biodiversity, on the Island of Alor, Indonesia. Discover here.
• Sleepiz AG was part of the Swiss National Startup Team for Venture Leaders Mobile 2023. They were part of the 2023 MWC Barcelona, the largest mobile event worldwide. Read more here.
• Authena , was also part of the MWC Barcelona and is the first-ever Swiss company to win a Global Mobile Award. Read more here.
• SALUBATA , raised a $120k pre-seed round and is now part of the Spring Class 2023 from TechStars Los Angeles Accelerator.?
• Terapet SA , a privately held Swiss Medtech company developing next generation imaging technology, and based in Geneva, is pleased to announce the new investment of CHF 2,3 million as the first closing of the Pre-Series A investment round. This funding supports the commercialization of Terapet’s first product, Qualγscan and the development of new nuclear imaging products. Read more here.
• UNISERS , Switzerland-based microchip toolmaker Unisers said on Thursday it had raised $14 million in a funding round led by Intel Capital to build new-technology demonstrator machines for trials by major chip-fabrication customers. Read more here.
• Immunyx Pharma has been selected to join Blue Knight, a collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and the?Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS). Read more here.
• Parithera receives the Biop?le's Start-up Fund. The initiative, which includes up to CHF 90,000 of support per year for up to three consecutive years, aims to stimulate innovative and promising projects in the life sciences. The fund is designed to help cover the costs of leasing, R&D and key services. In 2022, CHF 460,000 was awarded to startups. Read more here.
• Aspivix , innovator and developer of medical technologies to advance gynecological care, today announced that Carevix?, its novel Cervical Stabilizer, has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Read more here.
• HEALTHY-LONGER GmbH Longer has been selected to take part in the 2023 Tech4Eva cohort. Learn more here.
• PoLoPo announces a $1.75M pre-seed fundraising from HackCapital,?FoodLabs,?CPT Capital,?Siddhi Capital,?Plug and Play Tech Center,?and?Milk & Honey Ventures. Read more here. And Learn more about them here.
• Nectariss , was awarded with the Field Catalyst Grant by The Good Food Institute.The project will run over the next 2 years. They plan to explore new frontiers in precision fermentation with filamentous fungi and algae to mimic specific seafood flavors.
• 31 startups from MC were selected within the Forward Fooding TOP500!
• The Future Food-Tech Summit in San Francisco invited many MC Alumni to exhibit and showcase, like michroma , Biolumen Inc. , NoPalm Ingredients , Cultivated Biosciences , Cultimate , Fotortec , and CLEANCROP UK LIMITED .
• ?? ANINA Culinary Art was a finalist for the Innovation Challenge and Green Spot Technologies became the grand Winner.

“The conference was extremely helpful for our start-up to get exposure to the top corporates and investors looking for the latest innovation in the food space. We also had the opportunity to connect with industry experts that provided us great insights. If you are a food-tech start-up, Future Food-Tech is the event you need to attend.”?CEO,?Michroma.

Highlight on Women & Entrepreneurship

Gender Gap Inhibits Startups and Hampers Investors

MassChallenge Switzerland acts to reduce biases and narrow the gap from 2023 Read our whole article here.

Our accelerator has set several targets to support better women entrepreneurs and encourage female founders to apply to our programs. Starting from 2023 we are trying to:

• establish 100% parity in judging panels;
• recruit more women in STEM as judges;
• reinforce the gender-safe space with experienced female founders offering feedback;
• build focused content in our curriculum aimed to boost trust and self-confidence.

?? Our friend Khadija Abass from the PalestinianTAP accelerator, has just come up with an interesting article about gender balance in Middle East. Read more here.

Become a MassChallenge Expert

You're a Woman expert in STEM and would love to support female founders?

Join our Experts Community by?registering here (select MassChallenge Switzerland as your Home Community).

Meet 300+ Top Women in Food and Climate

FoodHack presents 30 women and provides a 300+ list of female influencers in food tech and climate tech. Discover here.

I Am a Founder Series

In a new joint series of articles, with Moneys Magazine, we give voice to women entrepreneurs and try to understand their strengths, the biases they face, and how we could all support them better and behave differently.

Discover the last one here.

Resources and Events

A specific Spring Events newsletter will come shortly. In the meantime, we want to highlight a last time, one important call for startups:

TECH FOR IMPACT

March 31 - LAST CHANCE TO APPLY!

The call for applications for the SEIF Tech for Impact Awards is still open today! It targets impact-driven entrepreneurs applying innovative tech solutions to tackle current social and/or environmental challenges.

The benefits:

• You get visibility and exposure to a European-wide network of experts, corporates, and investors;
• As a finalist, you get the "quality" stamp of the Tech for Impact Awards reputation;
• You get more attraction from investors and key partners, as the Award finalists 2019-2021 have so far raised more than 120 million Swiss francs;
• You can win prize money of a total of 30'000.- and non-financial support from our corporate partners.

Are you up for the challenge? Apply here.

This year, SEIF is introducing a new award category: the SEIF Women in Tech for Impact Award, which will be presented alongside the?UBS Award for Responsible Innovation?and the?Julius B?r Award for Future Impact Trend. Learn more here.