Cutiss leads the ranking of the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award

Within a decade, the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award has become a benchmark in Switzerland’s startup ecosystem. This year, a selected audience of 100 startups, 100 investors, and key partners of the TOP 100 were present at the award ceremony, and for the first time, the show was live-streamed. The Top 3 start-ups are: 

First place: Cutiss. The life-sciences startup is able to bioengineer large quantities of individually customized human skin grafts: denovoSkin is a safe, effective, and accessible therapy for children and adults who suffer large-scale burns or scalds. Cutiss’s human skin grafts are expected to result in a minimally scarring outcome after transplantation. The Zurich-based startup was founded in 2016 by Daniela Marino (CEO) and Fabienne Hartmann-Fritsch (CCO) and ranked 6th in 2019.

The win of this leading Swiss Startup award is reflecting the significant progress CUTISS achieved in the last twelve months: Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the Company continued its activities, onboarded additional study centers and closed an oversubscribed Series B financing round, raising funds of more than CHF 20 Million. In addition, in August CUTISS received a positive opinion from the Paediatric Committee of the European Medicines Agency on the Company’s proposed Paediatric Investigation Plan for denovoSkin and significantly advanced its automation program. Most recently, staff members moved into a new office at the Biotechnopark in Schlieren, next to the Company’s production and R&D facilities. CUTISS currently employs 28 employees, of which eight joined the Company since September 2019.

Second place: Wingtra. The Zurich-based startup develops vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) mapping drones for surveying applications. Wingtra’s drones are used in over 70 countries on all continents, and industries such as mining, construction, research, agriculture, urban and spatial planning benefit from the powerful surveying robots. Wingtra was founded in 2016 by Maximilian Boosfeld (CEO), Basil Weibel (CTO), and Elias Kleinmann (CFO). The startup ranked 4th in 2019.

Third place: Piavita. Founded by Dorina Thiess and Sascha Bührle in 2016, the medtech startup aims to develop digital solutions that transform veterinary care. Piavita combines sensors, big data, and AI to form a platform for the remote monitoring of sick and convalescent horses with a hardware-enabled software solution for a completely non-invasive approach to vital-sign monitoring. The Zurich-based startup ranked 8th in 2019.

The Top Ten are completed by:

4 - Exeon Analytics, cyber security

5- Versantis, biotech

6 - 9T Labs, 3D-printing

7 - Gamaya, agritech

8 - Resistell, biotech

9 - CREAL, mixed reality hardware

10 - Insolight, photovoltaic modules

Authena wins public vote 

Winner of the TOP 100 Public Vote The TOP 100 Public Voting, which runs parallel to the expert ranking, was the public’s chance to highlight an excellent Swiss startup. The winner of this year’s public vote is Zug-based Authena (formerly Acatena), whose patented product tracing technology enables products to be tracked from the production site to the consumer, helping to prevent counterfeiting and fraud. 

The evening’s keynote illustrated the potential of the TOP 100 nominees with the founders of Climeworks (ranked 11th in the first TOP 100 edition 10 years ago), which just completed a CHF 100 million investment round to accelerate the fight against climate change, and with AMAL Therapeutics, which was the largest European biotech startup exit in 2019. “Such role models illustrate that we are well prepared and can look ahead with anticipation to see how the TOP 100 startups will shape the next decade,” said Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab and TOP 100 director. “The fact that funding continues to flow at a pace similar to that of 2019, which was a record year, speaks for the quality of the Swiss startups.” 

In the morning before the award ceremony the Top 100 Swiss Investors Summit took place. Fifteen of the best Swiss startups—both early-stage and growth-stage and covering a range of industries, including medtech, biotech, ICT, and engineering—pitched in front of investors from 15 countries and showed off the breadth of Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem.  

Venturelab has been organizing the annual TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award since 2011. What started with a first publication of the ranking has turned into a comprehensive collection of events and activities, including an invitation-only Award Night, the Investor Summit that allows handpicked TOP 100 startups to pitch to selected Swiss and international investors, regional pitch events organized together with presenting partner Credit Suisse, and the scale-up ranking. The TOP 100 Swiss startups magazine covers all these events and news with editorial content in German, French, English, and Chinese.

“It is a very special context to celebrate the 10th anniversary of TOP 100, with COVID-19 taking the spotlight,” said Jordi Montserrat, managing partner at Venturelab. “On one hand, it impacts the celebration and the way we live; yet, on the other hand, when looking at tonight’s line-up of startups, they truly embody the resilience and potential of Swiss entrepreneurs. I am even more convinced that they are ready to turn the challenges of the 21st century into opportunities and transform the future.”