Kickstart Accelerator has chosen 30 technology startups and 5 intrapreneurship teams for its 2018 program.
The startups will come to Zurich for seven weeks this autumn, where they will meet with Swiss corporations, cities, universities and foundations aiming at initiating successful innovation partnerships and joint pilot projects.
Virtual learning labs, blockchain-based contracts and text-to-speech for hearing impaired people
The selected startups work on innovative solutions addressing a variety of challenges: The companies in the EdTech & Learning Vertical have developed virtual learning labs (Labster) and learning solutions for the smartphone (Gnowbe) inter alia, while the Food & Retail Tech startups focus on algae based vegan proteins (Alver Golden Chlorella) and fast testing for harmful bacteria in food (Yarok Microbio).
In the FinTech & Crypto Vertical, it is about analysing the financial industry using Artificial Intelligence (YUKKA Lab AG) and blockchain-based smart contracts (Reportix and Trakti) next to others. Meanwhile, the Smart Cities & Infrastructure startups work on AI-based software to manage energy consumption (The Energy Audit), on speech-to-text/ text-to-speech technology for hearing impaired people (Pedius) and many more. The following startups participate in Kickstart Accelerator 2018:
| EdTech & Learning | FinTech & Crypto | Food & Retail Tech | Smart Cities & Infrastructure |
|---|---|---|---|
| CodeAll (Poland) | Altoo (Switzerland) | Alver Golden Chlorella (Switzerland) | AVUXI (UK) |
| Differ (Norway) | Asteria (Sweden) | Besso (Germany) | Block Dox (UK) |
| Gnowbe (Singapore) | Fintechdb (Germany) | Mondays (Switzerland) | Fleco Power AG (Switzerland) |
| Labster (Denmark) | Gauss Algorithmic (Czech Republic) | LuckaBox (Switzerland) | Hivemind (Switzerland) |
| Potential.ly (UK) | Reportix (Germany) | microPow (Switzerland) | Kido Dynamics (Switzerland) |
| Sharing Academy (Spain) | ResonanceX Ltd. (UK) | Yarok Microbio (Israel) | Pedius (Italy) |
| TEACHY (Switzerland) | Trakti (UK) | The Energy Audit (Italy) |
|
| WriteReader (Denmark) | vlot (Switzerland) | ||
| YUKKA Lab AG (Germany) |
Fintech/Crypto Vertical Startups
Altoo (Switzerland)
empowers wealthy individuals and their families to consolidate and interact with their total wealth in a simple and intuitive way, including crypto.
Asteria (Sweden)
automates cash flow forecasting and give feedback to understand clients’ business cash flow and help make more data driven business decisions.
Fintechdb (Germany)
is a service that helps FinTech buyers to understand the FinTech market, so that they can make the right choices when it comes to finding partners, analyzing competition and trends, or just getting a broad overview.
Gauss Algorithmic (Czech Republic)
combines internal and external data to understand the motivation behind users purchasing financial products like loans and using advanced analytics methods like machine learning to find new “similar” customer.
Reportix (Germany)
helps businesses to bring real contracts into Blockchain technology – legally sound, for humans, machine processable.
ResonanceX Ltd. (UK)
is a digital platform enabling the end-to-end automation of the price discovery, issuance and administration of Structured Products.
Trakti (UK)
is the first contract negotiation and management platform enabling the possibility to run deals/contracts negotiations using different protocols and interaction models on a self service base and automate the obligation management of the contract via smart contract and blockchain.
vlot (Switzerland)
is a B2B2C platform opening up an agile and integrated world of risk analysis, coverage and life planning.
YUKKA Lab AG (Germany)
is a technology leader in the field of Augmented Language Intelligence and context-based text analysis for the financial industry.
More information about the selected startups can be found here. In autumn, the selected startups will come to the innovative premises of Kraftwerk located in the centre of Zurich, where they will work on accelerating their projects.
Growing interest in intrapreneur teams
Next to the 30 startups, also 5 intrapreneur teams will participate in the program – more than ever before. Intrapreneurs are “entrepreneurs within a company”; although being integrated in a corporation, they act as autonomous teams on innovative projects – very similar to a startup. Credit Suisse, Migros and Swisscom are bringing intrapreneur teams into the program:
| Intrapreneur Team | Product |
|---|---|
| Credit Suisse | Open banking project to enable efficient and secure payment processing for eand m-commerce. |
| Menu Casa (Migros) | Home delivery service of healthy, varied and delicious food for people in the prime of life who are not able or willing to cook for themselves. |
| Migros Klubschule | Online coaching platform for personal and professional development with more than 7’000 teachers and experts of Migros Klubschule |
| OLIQ (Migros) | Innovative food supplement in spray form based on natural plant extracts, vitamins and minerals, e.g. for strengthening the immune system or boosting the energy level |
| Robo VC (Swisscom) | Software as a Service based on Artificial Intelligence to support investors in the venture capital industry in planning and making their investments |
Kickstart Accelerator is operated by Impact Hub Zurich, which is the largest local community within the global Impact Hub network worldwide. The program takes place from July to October, including a one-week Planning Sprint in September and a six-weeks Collaboration Sprint from October 1st to November 9th, during which the international teams will be on site in Zurich.
