Dwelling to nice cheese, breathtaking surroundings and footballing politics (FIFA HQ overlooks Lake Zurich), Switzerland’s largest metropolis can also be a monetary juggernaut. The central sq. of Paradeplatz is its beating coronary heart, the place the Swiss banking system pumps enterprise capital funding right into a thriving tech ecosystem; round CHF 72 million (greater than $1 billion) was poured into Zurich startups alone in 2023.
Fintech is a pure main participant, but when the banking business is the ecosystem’s engine, innovation is its gasoline. Lots of the metropolis’s most fun startups started life as scholar initiatives at its world-leading universities, which offer a gentle move of nice thinkers.
“Zurich is a city of ideas, people, and capital,” says Frank Floessel, head of entrepreneurship at ETH Zurich, a public analysis college targeted on science, know-how, and engineering that “spins out” a median of 25 startups yearly. “We have plenty of talent and know-how. We rank among Europe’s smartest and most innovative cities. And we have the necessary funding to transform groundbreaking ideas into market-ready solutions.”
Nanoflex Robotics
Whereas distant surgical procedure isn’t but frequent, scalpel-wielding robots can typically be discovered performing keyhole surgical procedure. Nanoflex Robotics is aiming to remodel emergency therapies akin to a thrombectomy, the removing of a blood clot. It’s the process used for ischemic strokes, a worldwide main reason for incapacity. “Today, the only option is to transfer the patient to a hospital capable of performing a thrombectomy—but every second the brain lacks oxygenated blood, brain cells die,” says Nanoflex founder Matt Curran. Within the US, practically a 3rd of the inhabitants lives greater than an hour away from a thrombectomy succesful middle. Alongside founders Christophe Chautems and Bradley Nelson, Curran has created a compact robotic platform that features a magnetic area generator on wheels. Positioned subsequent to a affected person’s head in a cath lab, a neurosurgeon (typically working miles away) can subtly change the path of the magnetic area to bend the tip of the catheter extra simply, journey by way of affected vessels, and restore blood move to the mind. In 2023, Nanoflex labored with Mayo Clinic Arizona on its proof-of-concept—the medical middle’s chair of neurosurgery managed its robotic in Zurich from Phoenix in a non-clinical setting. In March 2024, Nanoflex’s first robotics system was put in on the Jacobs Institute, a medical system innovation middle in Buffalo, New York. It raised a complete of $19.8 million (£14.4 million)—together with a $12 million (£9 million) Collection A spherical in February 2023. nanoflexrobotics.com
BTRY
The usual lithium-ion battery accommodates liquid electrolytes which work properly at steady room temperature however much less so within the freezing chilly or at excessive warmth. Working at Swiss analysis institute Empa, Moritz Futscher and Abdessalem Aribia found that stacking a number of thin-film cells on prime of one another not solely supplies one-minute charging instances and better power capability—it additionally creates a battery that may face up to excessive circumstances. Launching BTRY in 2023 alongside Yaroslav Romanyuk, Futscher and Aribia are actually specializing in IoT purposes in environments akin to chilly medical transport and steam crops. The trio are additionally seeking to the skies: Some aerospace purposes require batteries to operate throughout a 200 diploma Celsius temperature vary. “Compared to current batteries, ours reduces the need for heating elements and safety measures,” says Futscher. Having raised CHF 1.8 million ($2.1 million) in pre-seed funding, BTRY is starting its first pilot manufacturing checks. btry.ch
Yokoy
Annoyed with the tedium of company expense administration, 5 accountants—Philippe Sahli, Thomas Inhelder, Lars Mangelsdorf, Devis Lussi, and Melanie Gabriel—based Yokoy in 2019 (initially beneath the identify Expense Robotic). The fintech leverages AI to simplify invoicing, automating the reimbursement course of by immediately matching card funds with bills. “We felt the pain of manual work,” says Sahli. “Nobody trains as an accountant to spend hours matching receipts to company card transactions.” Twenty million expense reviews and invoices later, Yokoy’s 700 international shoppers embody Breitling, Austria Airways, and On Operating—the Swiss sportswear model has slashed its prices by virtually 79 % since automating its spend administration course of, says Sahli. In 2023, Yokoy raised $80 million (£60.9 million) in Collection B funding, led by Sequoia Capital. yokoy.io
BreezeLabs
BreezeLabs founders Patrick Helfenstein and Matthias Heuberger say that as much as 90 % of runners within the US—estimated to be about 50 million—use a wearable system to trace their efficiency. But coronary heart charge is often the one measurement that these units monitor. BreezeLabs has developed an app that displays runners’ respiration patterns as a substitute. It does this by way of a headphones’ built-in microphone, whereas delivering deeper cardiovascular insights. BreezeLabs’ good filtering dampens site visitors noise, with audio information fed to a educated machine studying mannequin that estimates a runner’s breaths per second. Since launching in February 2023, it’s collected information from greater than 100 check runners (“one of the world’s biggest datasets entirely consisting of breathing samples,” says Helfenstein). BreezeLabs has secured CHF 500,000 ($584,000) in funding from the College of Basel. breezelabs.ai
Univerbal
When coder Philipp Hadjimina was priced out of one-to-one Greek language classes (“incredibly expensive in Switzerland,” he says), he constructed his personal chatbot. Quazel launched on Hacker Information in September 2022—and 50,000 customers tried it inside two days. Renamed Univerbal in January 2024, it had greater than 250,000 downloads. Customers can discuss to an AI “tutor” in 22 languages by way of onscreen chat prompts, creating naturalistic, unscripted conversations primarily based on giant language fashions from Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Open Supply. “It’s always surprised me that most who want to learn a language do so via vocab games and memorizing grammar rules, but completely neglect speaking,” says Hadjimina. Based alongside Samuel Bissegger and David Niederberger, Univerbal has raised $2 million (£1.5 million) in seed funding. univerbal.app
Oxyle
“Clean water, down to the last drop” is the mission assertion of Fajer Mushtaq and Silvan Staufert, the founders of Oxyle. Launched in 2020, the ETH Zurich spin-off takes goal at per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): artificial chemical substances lengthy utilized in on a regular basis items for his or her water, grease, and oil-resistant properties—and poisonous to people. “We’re driven by a shared vision to address water contamination and ‘forever chemicals,’” says Mushtaq, whose inspiration stems from encountering water shortage throughout her upbringing in India. Frequent amongst nonstick cookware and water-repellent materials, PFAS publicity has been linked to cancers and immune system suppression. They’re additionally misplaced into wastewater and discharged into streams—ending up in consuming water. However Oxyle’s modular reactors—utilized at water remedy crops and reaching as much as 100 cubic meters in measurement—break down 99 % of PFAS into innocent mineral parts, reducing ranges under regulatory limits. Machine studying then adapts remedy to real-time PFAS fluctuations. Since elevating CHF 12 million ($14 million) in pre-seed funding, Oxyle has partnered with main water know-how corporations in Europe (together with Belgium’s Waterleau) to commercialize its answer. Its future goal helps to wash US waters. oxyle.com
DeepJudge
A trio of Google researchers are the minds behind DeepJudge: an AI-powered seek for authorized groups that scans a whole lot of thousands and thousands of paperwork, releasing time spent looking for paperwork collected throughout emails, memos and contracts. “We’re connecting users to the entirety of their collective knowledge,” says Paulina Grnarova, who launched the startup in 2021 alongside Yannic Kilcher and Kevin Roth. Retrieval augmented era (RAG) know-how—and DeepJudge’s proprietary giant language mannequin—surfaces essentially the most related, up-to-date info through abstract. As soon as deployed, practically 80 % of customers inside a company recurrently interact with DeepJudge—saving numerous hours trawling inboxes. In June 2024, it raised $10.7 million (£8.1 million) in an oversubscribed seed funding spherical led by New York personal fairness agency Coatue. Purchasers utilizing the AI-powered search instrument embody Swiss regulation companies Lenz & Staehelin and Homburger. deepjudge.ai
Decentriq
Knowledge clean-rooms supply impartial, safe environments for organizations to share insights on markets and prospects with out sharing first-party information—any private info is restricted, encrypted, and anonymized. A provider of that is Decentriq. Its platform has been utilized by Publicis Groupe, Switzerland’s Federal Division of Protection and the Swiss Nationwide Financial institution. “We wanted to create a neutral space—a ‘Switzerland of data’,” explains Decentriq founder Maximilian Groth, who launched the startup alongside Stefan Deml in 2019. The pair have raised greater than $21 million (£15.9 million), together with a $15 million (£11.4 million) Collection A spherical led by Eclipse Ventures, and a CHF 2.2 million ($2.5 million) grant from the Swiss authorities. decentriq.com
Riskwolf
Launched in 2020 by Thomas Krapf and René Papesch, Riskwolf’s platform leverages AI and real-time information to create so-called parametric insurance coverage options. Because of this payouts are primarily based on the likelihood of a loss-causing occasion (a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, for instance), fairly than precise losses. A key use case is altering climate patterns, says Krampf: Kashmir apple farmers now have parametric climate protection that pays out in days fairly than months. “Traditional underwriting can have missing or outdated data histories,” says Krapf. “Conversely, we have much more affordable data and processing power thanks to the growth of cloud technology and satellite sources.” Having raised a mixed CHF 3 million ($3.5 million) by way of an Innosuisse grant and fairness funding, Riskwolf now works with insurers throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The corporate has additionally set its sights on IoT, financial information, credit score threat and value indices to discover future parametric merchandise. riskwolf.com
LatticeFlow
Starting life as an ETH Zurich analysis undertaking, Petar Tsankov, Pavol Bielik, Martin Vechev, and Andreas Krause launched LatticeFlow in 2020. Its platform routinely stress-tests AI fashions, analyzing how predictions are made, and discovering patterns that result in systematic errors: suppose blindspots and hallucinations. “Traditionally, this process is addressed in an ad-hoc, manual, and reactive manner,” says Tsankov. “We proactively uncover these, effectively enriching the data.” Purchasers embody manufacturing companies and protection organizations, notably the US Military. The corporate has raised complete funding of $14.8 million (£11.2 million), together with a $12 million (£9.1 million) Collection A spherical led by Atlantic Bridge and OpenOcean. latticeflow.ai
This text first appeared within the November/December 2024 version of WIRED UK.
