Search for publications, programs, event, people and much more...
    Did you mean: Suggestion link
    Popular searches

      WINNERS 2019/2020

      IMD is announcing the winners of the 22nd annual IMD Startup Competition, 42 Swiss ventures that will collaborate with IMD in one form or another. 

      Fifteen of the companies will work with the fulltime MBA class starting already in late-January.  An additional 21 will work with the three cohorts of the EMBA class, accompanying them to Silicon Valley.  And, new to this year’s edition, another 6 will collaborate with the custom IMD Emerging Leaders program: Driving Functional Expertise: a nine-month journey educating the future leaders of Evonik.

      This year was easily the most competitive we’ve had, with 140 very solid candidates, almost all of which would have been very viable collaborators for our participants.  Even after all our years of choosing and nurturing early-stage ventures in Switzerland, we were very pleasantly surprised to see so many strong companies this year, most with a credible claim to future success.  The diversity of the candidates was also a very positive point: we had 17% coming from medtech, another 11% from pharma/biotech, 17% were software companies, 21% some form of tech/hardware, 10% in services, 9% in fintech and 8% in social/sustainability.    

      And the winners are….. 

      The 15 Swiss ventures that our MBAs will have the privilege of working with in 2020 are:

      Advanced Pumping Technology - Advanced Pumping Technologies manufactures and markets pumps designed and built with a disruptive technology which can be used for all pumping applications worldwide and whose objective is to bring pumping technology into the 21st century.

      Babylon Sciences - Babylon Sciences enhances people’s lives with CBD by focusing on research, innovative product development and brands people can trust.

      Batmaid - Batmaid.com is the #1 vertical marketplace for home cleaning in Switzerland.

      Changeway - Changeway® - Improve faster. Learn faster. Grow faster.

      CUTS - CUTS is an innovation from the Kudelski Group allowing attendees of a concert to share on social networks exclusive high quality videos in real time.

      FLOWBONE - Fighting bone fragility with a new generation of injectable biomaterial.

      Flybotix - Professional inspection drones that operate inside industrial assets, saving cost thanks to double flight time vs competition.

      Foodetective - Foodetective optimizes restaurants’ management and online visibility by centralizing all actions into one single tool.

      KiWi - KiWi is the app micro-businesses use to accept card payments, get access to financing and diversify their sales.

      Nagi Bioscience - Nagi Bioscience develops highly innovative laboratory equipment for pharmaceutical and chemical R&D, allowing automated safety/efficacy testing of substances (e.g. drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, etc.) using microscopic worms (C. elegans).

      Pexapark - At Pexapark, we enable better renewable energy sales with a suite of software tools and industry leading advisory staff.

      Ponera Group - Ponera is aiming to revolutionize the goods’ shipping industry with an innovative modular pallet system which intensifies logistic efficiency and minimizes the carbon footprint.

      ratioX - ratioX offers a revolutionary automatic transmission for eBikes that is also durable and lightweight.

      SwiSOX - With the vast number SDG-focused social enterprises seeking significant volumes of funding, coupled with a rapidly growing impact investment market, therein lies the value proposition of Swiss Social Stock Exchange (SwiSOX): a one-stop shop for all matters impact.

      TestingTime - www.testingtime.com is the world’s first automated test user recruiting service for user research, with a pool of 400,000 test users, the service is heavily used by over 1000 customers like Swisscom, Zalando, UBS, etc. for user research and user testing studies.

      And now, working with IMD’s Executive MBA classes in 2020, accompanying them to Silicon Valley in September and November, and watching as the students pitch them to Silicon Valley VCs will be:

      Cellestia Biotech - Cellestia’s patented drug, CB-103 along with its companion diagnostic, is a small molecule with an innovative mode of action targeting NOTCH-driven cancers, and providing hope for patients with no other treatment options.

      Comphya SA - Comphya is developing the first implantable device to restore natural penile erection by neuromodulation.

      Dufour Aerospace - Dufour Aerospace is developing the new generation of electric vertical take off and landing aircraft that combine the ability of helicopters with the efficiency of airplanes. 

      EraCal Therapeutics - The Swiss biotech startup EraCal Therapeutics Ltd. develops a novel anti-obesity drug Era-107 with superior efficacy and safety compared to the standard of care (lorcaserin).

      iGroove - iGroove offers services based on artificial intelligence for financing and marketing music.

      INERGIO - Our goal is to develop, manufacture and market miniaturized fuel cell systems that operate using readily-available and easily-accessible liquid fuels.

      Logic Flow - Logic Flow helps companies to migrate their legacy code within a fraction of the time and costs by using a unique AI technology – it is the first “Google Translate for code” and it enables companies to stay digital, agile and competitive.

      Loop Medical - Loop is proud to have been selected as a partner in IMD's EMBA program, we are thrilled to start working with bright minds to support our vision of making blood diagnosis painless and accessible to all.

      MapTiler - MapTiler: Street and satellite maps of the entire world for companies who care about the privacy of end-users and need to customize, integrate or redistribute maps with their products.

      Menhir Photonics - Menhir Photonics is a Swiss laser manufacturer, offering laser based ultra-precise clocks for applications in aerospace, telecom and electronics sectors.

      MicroR Systems - Making next-generation lasers with ultra-pure colors for precision measurement is MicroR’s passion.

      Miraex - Miraex, a leader in Optical sensors and Quantum optics, is delighted to start working with IMD and its eMBA students who will bring their strategic expertise to help the company reach the next development level.

      MyoSwiss AG - MyoSwiss AG is a medtech company developing technological solutions that help people with mobility impairments realize their potential.

      Nomoko - Nomoko is building the data infrastructure for the 4th Industrial Revolution: the Mirror World platform, including the gateway to add more spatial data, and the tools to use all of this data to build Mirror World applications - from Autonomous Vehicle simulations, Smart City use cases, to outdoor Augmented Reality Applications.

      PXL Vision - PXL Vision provides a technology platform for fully automated, secure identity verification and the creation & management of trustable digital identities.

      Securaxis - Swiss start up developing safety & security solutions combining AI (deep learning) and acoustic detection to turn noise into information.

      Senopi - Senopi is developing prescription VR digital therapeutics for seniors with dementia and frailty.

      Spectroplast - With the introduction of Silicone Additive Manufacturing, Spectroplast AG enables for the first time the direct fabrication of personalised life-enhancing and life-saving silicone products with a positive impact on society. 

      swistor - swistor develops the next generation of energy storage device for a clean, sustainable future. Our Lithium and Cobalt free solution enables charging our devices ultra fast, extends the lifetime 30 times and is environmentally friendly and safe.

      Synthara - Adaptive AI chips for the edge.

      VIE - VIE combines physical strength and conditioning training with online social gaming to provide their users with the most interactive and engaging fitness experience, at a time and place that suits them.

      Finally, the 6 ventures collaborating with Evonik's custom program are:

      Advancience AG - Game-based psychometrics for medical applications and drug development/pharmaceutical R&D.

      Aero41 SA -  High precision crop protection UAV adapted to complex and steep parcels and integrating AI to drastically improve quality of deposit. Target on organic farming.

      AKPOLIS - Blockchain/IoT/AI based solution that collect performance data of processes and good throughout the supply chain until the final customer, reduce the costs, maximize the proximity to the customers and create value across business functions.

      Blent - Blent is a digital smart assistant designed to help Hospitality executives and managers analyze and run their operations more effectively.

      Exeon Analytics - Exeon Analytics detects hidden cyber threats in IT log data using award-winning machine learning and big data analytics.

      Roll2Go AG - Roll is an integrated data analytics platform for the integration, analysis, and visualization of shared micro-mobility data. 

      Information can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-we-pick-winners-jim-pulcrano/?published=t