Four new companies join the Scale Up Vaud program

Only a very small number of start-ups are going through a phase of strong growth. They then face new challenges, at an accelerated rate: internationalization, fundraising which amounts to millions, recruitment or large-scale production, mainly. To support these companies in this challenging period of their development Innovaud created the Scale Up Vaud program in 2016.

Helping scale-ups also means contributing to the good health of the regional economy. Vaud scale-ups generate a lot of jobs: in 2019 alone, 671 new jobs were created worldwide, including 300 in Switzerland.

Last year, companies with the Scale Up Vaud label raised in total 191 million Swiss francs. "This impressive amount will help maintain the strong dynamic of job creation and value within our economy," said Patrick Barbey, Director of Innovaud.

The new 2020 scale-ups

Astrocast, Edgelab, Olympe and L.E.S.S. are joining the Scale Up Vaud initiative this year. They look forward to the support and exchanges they can build around their growth. For Cédric Ullmo, CEO of Edgelab, “Sale Up Vaud is a great initiative and we are happy to participate. Joining this ecosystem will provide us with valuable opportunities and we look forward to actively contributing to it.“

Astrocast (ICT / IoT / space) partnered with the European Space Agency, Airbus and Thuraya, to develop an advanced, low-latency, low cost nanosatellite network for IoT applications.

Edgelab (ICT / fintech) provides private banks with key capabilities for their investment process - multi-asset class risk analytics, decision support simulations and automated investment recommendations.

Olympe (ICT / software) provides a platform that accelerates software development and makes the collection and processing of feedback faster and easier

L.E.S.S. (Industry / nanotechnology), or “Light Efficient Systems”, introduces the next generation of lighting systems as a new alternative to today's LEDs or discharge tubes.

To be a Vaud Scale-Up, a company has to:
• have job growth of at least 20% per year for two years in a row
• have at least 10 employees on permanent contracts (Vaud or Swiss)
• have been registered in the Vaud business register for at least three years
• operate in a high-tech or innovative field.