Tuesday was the big day for the 15 startups in the running to become >>venture>>'s 2022 Grand Prize winner and for the five teams vying or the Audience Award.
At 18:30, ETH's Auditorium Maximum was buzzing with excitement, as everyone settled down for the award ceremony, brilliantly hosted by SRF's Wasiliki Goutziomitros and RTS' Olivier Dominik.
The highlight of the show was certainly the announcement of the Grand Prize winner: out of the five teams to be ranked first in their industry vertical, Enerdrape was considered the most innovative early-stage Swiss startup of 2022, and awarded the coveted CHF 150,000 in non-dilutive funds and McKinsey & Company business consulting package.
The evening also marked the 25th anniversary of >>venture>>. Our gracious host, Prof. Dr. Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, paid tribute to the competition's founder, Dr. Thomas Knecht, who received an emotional standing ovation from the audience. Ueli Looser, who made his inaugural speech as the new chairman of the >>venture>> foundation, was proud to announce yet another record-breaking year, with 358 participants.
The event included a congratulatory video message from special guest, Swiss Federal Councilor, Guy Parmelin, who warmly applauded the boldness of the entrepreneurs and the efforts of the >>venture>> competition.
In his closing speech, Dr. Thomas Knecht reflected back on the great success enjoyed by many of the competition's alumni, but also announced a new development in the >>venture>> competition: starting from next year's edition, we will open our doors to not-for-profit startups that aim for societal and environmental benefit, and base themselves on a financially sustainable business model.
The rankings of the 15 winners are listed below:
Finance & Insurance: 1st Place: Veritic (ZG): VERITIC develops user-friendly, multi-chain NFT platforms in collaboration with leading institutions, and is based on highly secure minting and custody infrastructure. 2nd Place: Correntics (ZH): Correntics makes supply chains future proof. The software helps to reduce financial risks from climate extremes and emerging risks in global value chains. 3rd Place: Kaspar& (SG): Kaspar& offers an all-in-one app including a Swiss bank account, and an automatic transaction-based round-up mechanism that invests the resulting micro-payments in professionally managed investment strategies. Health & Nutrition: 1st Place: Bionter (BS): Bionter revolutionizes analytical testing in the biotech sector by innovating and tailoring technology to the true needs of the pharmaceutical industry. 2nd Place: DeepPsy (BS): DeepPsy improves psychiatric treatment by enabling treatment personalization based on the individual biological profile of patients in the EEG and ECG.
3rd Place: Amporin Phamaceuticals (ZH): Amporin Pharmaceuticals is an emerging Swiss biotech company that is pioneering the development of a new class of pore-targeting therapies for the treatment of protein misfolding diseases, including ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease.
ICT: 1st Place: ReFfit (GE): RefFIT delivers disruptive software for the material industry to efficiently analyze spectroscopy data.
2nd Place: DeepJudge (ZH): Founded by four ETH Machine Learning PhDs, DeepJudge sets new standards in context-based understanding and processing of legal documents. 3rd Place: Versics (ZH): Versics is an ETH spin-off offering optoelectronic devices that exchange data globally. The mission of Versics is to enable the data of tomorrow, today. Industrials & Engineering: 1st Place: Enerdrape (VD): Enerdrape turns underground infrastructures into renewable heat sources for the heating and cooling needs of buildings. 2nd Place: Composite Recycling (VD): Composite Recycling developed an innovative technology to close the loop on glass fibre reinforced plastics, common in boats, planes, trains, and wind turbines. 3rd Place: Groam (ZH): Groam is a provider of biodegradable foamed biomaterials for fast disposables such as protective packaging or plant substrates. Retail & Consumer Services: 1st Place: Bravo (ZH): bravo is a simple app, allowing restaurants to order from all their suppliers from one place. 2nd Place: Samplab (LU): Samplab provides an AI tool for easy and creative music production. 3rd Place: Alter Ego (ZH): Alter Ego reduces the rate of online-purchased returned apparel by allowing shoppers to digitally try on their clothes with a 3D avatar created from 1 photo. In addition to the vertical winners, >>venture>> also partnered with RTS to allow the Swiss public to vote for their favorite startups and help them win CHF 10,000. Big Wave VR Game received the most votes, becoming the 2022 Audience Award winner. Big Wave VR Game is a startup driven by science to improve people’s lives through daily mind and body VR training using the skills learned in big ocean surfing.
Congratulations to all the finalists and winners of the 2022 edition!
If you'd like to venture forward with us, we'll be opening our 2023 cohort on November 1, 2022.
We leave you with a slideshow of a few highlights of the evening below.
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