Eight semi-finalists of the Prix Strategis selected

Awarded every year for more than 20 years by the association HEC Espace Entreprise, Prix Strategis is steadily expanding and willing to assert itself as the Swiss entrepreneurship Prize. Prix Strategis was intended to springboard young enterprises’ growth that have a big potential. It was designed to promote promising start-ups at a key moment of their existence in a financial, mediatic and strategic point of view. Since the 20th edition of the Prize the award is open to all start-ups throughout Switzerland.

The semi-finalists of the 21^st edition are:

DomoSafety has developed a revolutionary healthcare system that assures the safety of the elderly at home. This solution analyses behavior patterns to detect irregularities and alert caregivers or emergency personnel in case of danger. With DomoSafety, the elderly can substantially postpone their entrance in retirement homes.

GreenTEG develops, manufactures and markets Heat Flux Sensors (gSKIN) and Thermoelectric Generators (gTEG). gSKINs measure thermal flows (conductive, radiative, convective) fast and with high precision. The gSKIN Radiation Sensor is especially suited for measuring laser power and solar radiation. Other applications include thermal measurements in buildings and calorimetry. gTEGs harvest emission-free electricity from temperature differences for autonomous power supply.

L.E.S.S. is an emerging company that develops edgelighting devices that enable the design of thinner, low-power consumption displays dedicated to the future tablets and ultrabooks. At a system level, the technology of the start-up enables the manufacturers to provide tablets and notebooks with increased autonomy or faster processors with the same battery budget.

Limmex has been developing, producing and marketing personal safety solutions since 2011. With the Limmex emergency call watch, the company has brought a global innovation onto the market. In 2013 the company has won the red dot design award, the Swiss Excellence Product Award, the M2M Challenge and the Swisscom Business Award.

Newscron is an App that aggregates news from newspapers based on user’s preferences, in a way to give the readers complete, structured and updated information from different sources. Thanks to the underlying powerful semantic algorithm, developed at ETH in Zurich by Elia Palme, CEO, the app is able to filter and organize the news by grouping articles related to the same topic in ‘’stories’’, which allows user to follow the evolution of a story in the timeline and keeps you from reading the same article twice.

Swissto12: Terahertz (THz), the frequencies between electronics and optics, was until recently the last underemployed part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Harnessing THz-based technologies has the potential of globally impacting a vast number of industries, like both electronics in the 70’s and optics in the 80’s. SWISSto12 SA is the first company that provides efficient THz signal transmission components over the full THz frequency range.

The Tooxme app displays in real time the closest options available for catching a lift. Anyone who signs up and offers space in their car as a Tooxme driver receives compensation, even if no passenger joins them. Drivers and passengers of each car share the petrol costs. The app provides information on the driver as well as reviews from previous passengers.

TransCure Biosciences (TCB) provides access to humanized immune system (HIS) and HIV mouse models for studying infectious and non-infectious diseases of the human immune system. TCB also aims at developing a radical, definitive clinical cure against HIV/AIDS.

Out of the eight companies three finalists will be chosen. During the award ceremony of the Prix Strategis, which will take place the 15th of April 2014, the three finalists will present their start-up and their products. At the end of the ceremony the winner of the 21st edition will be revealed.