Startups in Switzerland To Look Out For

The Ava bracelet allows women to track their ovulation cycle, or just learn more about their bodies. Worn while sleeping, the bracelet tracks nine physiological parameters and detects when the fertility cycle opens and closes. A smartphone app syncs with the bracelet and shows the wearer’s pulse rate, breathing rate, levels of stress and more. Ava was launched in the US in 2016 and hit European markets in early January.

ComfyLight is a self-learning light bulb that offers comfort and home security rolled into one. Its integrated motion sensor turns lights on when you enter a room and off when you leave. When you are out, the light simulates your normal pattern of movement around the house to make it look like someone is in. A smartphone notification informs you immediately if this doesn’t deter intruders and there is a break in.

Born from a desire to protect civil liberties online, ProtonMail provides open-sourced encrypted email for the security conscious. All its mail servers are in Switzerland and are protected by the country’s strict privacy laws. ProtonMail is the brainchild of a group of scientists and researchers who met while working at CERN.

By providing universal access to agronomic knowledge, Lausanne-based Gamaya aims to make global agriculture sustainable. Hyperspectral imaging technology attached to drones combines with artificial intelligence to collect information and analyse it, providing farmers with a wealth of data about their crops that isn’t evident from the human perspective. The tech points out how farmers can cut costs, grow more crops and solve potential problems such as weeds, pests, disease and nutrient deficiency.

Wind turbines are a fine way of producing renewable energy, but they are also big and not so easy on the eye. TwingTec offers a way to produce clean energy without the need for masses of infrastructure. A rigid, fully-autonomous kite flies 300 metres up in the air and the circular motions it makes generates energy. TwingTec aims to bring clean, renewable energy to off-the-grid places.

Globally, bees are in trouble. Wildbiene + Partner, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is providing a solution in Switzerland by allowing people to adopt wild bee colonies. A BeeHome with 15 cocoons is delivered to homes and the bees pollinate surrounding plants and flowers in Spring, during Autumn the bees enter hibernation and the colonies can be sent back to be renovated. A new BeeHome is delivered over winter. Wildbiene + Partner also provides farmers with cocoons to help pollinate their crops.