In 2021, the Swiss fintech industry continued to mature with established players growing in size, attracting large rounds of funding, and expanding overseas.

The momentum in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space pursued, building on the surge in crypto trading, and the entry into force of the landmark distributed ledger technology (DLT) act.

Insurtech and green fintech were two other segments that picked up considerable steam, reflective of global trends.

The year also saw a number of new startups being founded, tackling varied segments ranging from payments and digital assets, to green fintech and wealth management.

For this list, we’ve selected five new fintech startups which we believe are worth watching closely this year. These companies were all founded in 2021 but have already gained notable traction and attracted investors’ interest.

Emilian

Emilian is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) insurtech that offers a comprehensive white label solution to digitize insurance distribution. Emilian’s plug-and-play web widgets convert static websites and social media pages into full-fledged digital insurance agencies within minutes, providing insurance product providers and brokers with a low-cost, no-code solution to digital insurance.

Launched in February 2021, the startup has already achieved significant success, onboarding customers in Switzerland and Colombia. In November 2021, it closed a six-digit figure financing round which it said it will use to strengthen its team and accelerate the onboarding of customers in both Europe and Latin America.

Ecoo

Ecoo provides a blockchain-based app that allows organizations to launch their own conditional payment system and currency in just 48 hours.

Cities, municipalities, SMEs and tourist regions can use the Ecoo app, which is based on the Tezos blockchain, to engage with their local communities, design state-of-the art loyalty programs or organize events. Use cases include improving branding and work motivation by gifting employees vouchers for food and health which they can redeem at selected partner shops, engaging with residents and community members in a more playful way, or boosting loyalty by fostering healthier lifestyles with rewards.

Ecoo secured more than CHF 1 million in a Series A funding round in October 2021.

Pelt8

Pelt8 is a green fintech startup specializing in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) data. The company provides a cloud-based solution that enables organizations to aggregate their sustainability data, enrich it with suppliers’ information, and share it in various formats with any stakeholder. It also offers tools to create reports based on international standards, European regulations, or tailored to clients’ needs.

Pelt8 was one of the 15 tech startups that took part in the 2021 fall edition of the Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV, a program that seeks to facilitate partnership interactions between Mastercard partner banks and innovative startups from around the Nordics and Baltics.

Mympact

Mympact is an upcoming digital banking platform that thrives to help customers live a more sustainable life. The green fintech startup uses open banking to help people track their CO2-footprint across accounts, motivating them to reduce their environmental impact with tips, challenges and more.

Mympact was one of the 14 early-stage startups to be selected to take part in F10’s inaugural Climate Fintech track last year, after which it received a CHF 150,000 investment from the incubator. The startup was also one of the finalists of the 2021 Global Fintech Hackcelerator as part of the annual Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF).

StokenX

StokenX partners with regulated financial institutions to power the liquidity of security tokens. Its StokenX technology offering, an open-source platform agnostic to banking systems, blockchains or custody providers, provides regulated financial institutions with the opportunity to offer their clients a compliant security token trading platform.

StokenX was founded as a spin-off of Alpine Tech, a pioneer in crypto mining and trusted specialist for computing power delivery, optimization and monetization. Like Mympact, StokenX was part of F10’s inaugural Climate Fintech track which was kickstarted in June 2021.