Voltiris among winners at 2024 MassChallenge Switzerland Awards

Voltiris as one of 12 startups awarded at MassChallenge Switzerland 2024, sharing CHF 400,000 in equity-free prizes

Lausanne, Switzerland, November 1, 2024 – MassChallenge Switzerland, part of MassChallenge’s global network for innovators and zero-equity startup accelerators, hosted yesterday in Lausanne, Switzerland, its 2024 MassChallenge Switzerland Awards Ceremony, announcing and celebrating its 2024 Early-Stage Startup Accelerator Program winners, as well as the Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Climate Resilience Prize laureate. 

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Hosted in Lausanne, Switzerland, the 2024 MassChallenge Switzerland Awards Ceremony was attended by over 400 guests and simultaneously broadcast worldwide. The ceremony rewarded the 12 award-winning startups with CHF 400,000 equity-free cash prizes, in recognition of their innovative solutions that will add value to society.

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The ceremony was also marked by the announcement of the 2024 LDC Climate Resilience Prize, recognizing the startup whose solution has the greatest potential to drive climate resilience in food and agricultural supply chains. LDC’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Gelchie, handed the non-dilutive cash award of CHF 100,000 to EcoBean.

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On this occasion, MassChallenge Switzerland also recognized its community of experts, including the 446 independent judges and 478 mentors who supported 118 startups this year, to launch, grow and scale their businesses during the four-month acceleration program.

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This year, 6 new judges were inducted, Vanessa Ballard, Yi Huang, Marc Pettersson, Emmi Kavander, Alex Chueh, and Karin Biondi Morra, into the prestigious SuperJudge Club, reserved for judges with five years of continuous service across all our judging rounds. Biland Sadek and Isabelle Gundel were recognized as the top mentors of 2024 due to their significant contributions to the program and their mentees’ success.

MassChallenge’s partners Reuteler & Cie and Kellerhals Carrard also awarded over CHF 100,000 of in-kind prizes to our 2024 startups, providing 12 hours of IP and legal services, to 12 selected startups (details below). We also proudly supported Riverkin with CHF 10,000 for their participation in the One Young World 2025 Summit.

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“I would like to thank all our partners, judges, mentors, and speakers who dedicated their time and energy to providing feedback and advice, and a special thanks to our sponsors who ran significant startup events at their offices” said Matt Lashmar, Managing Director of MassChallenge Switzerland.
“2024 was our most ambitious and highest-rated program ever, with 78% of cohort startups rating the program as the ‘best ever’ and stating they’d score it 9 or 10 out of 10, if recommending it to another startup.”

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Ian Roberts, President of MassChallenge Switzerland added: “I would like to congratulate all 755 agrifood applicants to the LDC Climate Resilience Prize, and especially the six finalists, on creating companies that can play a role in decarbonizing our food system. With such a range of solutions presented, the process to select the finalists was extremely challenging, and I thank our jury for dedicating their time and expertise to support us in this task! Finally, the partnership between MassChallenge Switzerland and LDC grows stronger each year, and we are proud to have such a dedicated, action-oriented and aligned partner.

LDC Climate Resilience Prize CHF 100,000 winner  

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Ecobean transforms coffee waste into sustainable chemicals used by various industries – e.g. food, cosmetics, pharma – while offsetting significant amounts of CO2.

2024 Accelerator cash prizes winners

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Discover more about our Winners and 2024 Finalists here.

Diamond – CHF 150,000
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Noovi is developing first-of-a-kind marking pheromones that prevent pests from laying eggs on crops that are non-toxic, zero-residue, pose no health risk to farmers, public or environment.

Platinum – CHF 80,000
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Pack2Earth is a Barcelona-based impact company specialised in high barrier, robust materials made from plants & minerals to replace contaminating plastic in packaging and other sectors.  

Myriad Optics is developing new bacterial pathogen identification technologies to speed up testing in the food, pharmaceutical and medtech industries, to protect public health, avoid waste and help companies streamline their processes.

Gold – CHF 10,000
Adastra Sustainability builds high-fidelity data from the ground up to reveal the impacts of land conversion at any level of traceability.

Angry Camel develops egg white replacement with superior emulsification & foaming for food applications from Chickpea protein.

ANT Maschines develops automated heavy-duty robots for port and yard operations.

Demetria changes the way in which endometriosis is diagnosed, helping to move the disease from invasive to non-invasive diagnosis, by better utilising the ultrasound stage of the diagnostic pathway.

EcoBean transforms coffee waste into sustainable chemicals used by various industries – e.g. food, cosmetics, pharma – and offsets significant amounts of CO2 while doing so.

Envisionit Deep AI is an innovative medical technology with a holistic approach to Artificial Intelligence.

Riverkin is combining large-scale water quality measurements and earth observation data with advanced hydrological models to support water resources management.

SolidWatts is poised for massive scale-up by creating the new state-of-the-art in microwave dielectric heating for industrial processes.

Spectacular Labs is building portable pathogen-testing devices and reducing the traditional food testing timelines from days to 8 hours.

One Young World Award – CHF 10,000

Riverkin is combining large-scale water quality measurements and earth observation data with advanced hydrological models to support water resources management.

2024 In-kind prizes winners

Reuteler & Cie – 12 hours of IP Services
Adastra Sustainability builds high-fidelity data from the ground up to reveal the impacts of land conversion at any level of traceability.

Azure Cell Therapies is developing next-gen cell therapies for Parkinson’s disease that are differentiated by their safety, scalability, and sustained disease-modifying effects.  

HeroSupport has developed a breast immobilization device that changes this. Their solution ensures the perfect breast position for each patient, at each treatment session.

Myriad Optics is developing new bacterial pathogen identification technologies to speed up testing in the food, pharmaceutical and medtech industries, to protect public health, avoid waste and help companies streamline their processes.  

Riverkin is combining large-scale water quality measurements and earth observation data with advanced hydrological models to support water resources management.

SolidWatts is poised for massive scale-up by creating the new state-of-the-art microwave dielectric heating for industrial processes.  

Kellerhals Carrard – 12 hours of Legal Services

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Aseptuva: Aseptuva is developing a UVC technology for disinfection of catheter entry sites on a patient’s body to combat hospital acquired infections.  

CellX Biosolutions: CellX Biosolutions develops innovative bacteria-based products to tackle industrial chemical pollution.  

Inkocell Therapeutics enables NK cells to eliminate the cause of the disease with a single treatment.

Protofib: ProtoFib is set to transform the landscape of bioplastics by valorizing agri-food waste into sustainable, eco-conscious materials.  

REMA’s mission is to help our customers to produce their own green hydrogen at an economical price.

Treeless Pack offers a sustainable, cost-efficient and scalable microorganism-based nanocellulose production to serve customers in building materials and packaging industry with a fossil-free alternative.

MassChallenge Switzerland Diamond Partners

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Bühler, Givaudan, Nestlé, dsm-firmenich, Louis Dreyfus Company, OMYA, SIG Group, Swiss Economic Forum, Inartis Foundation

ABOUT MASSCHALLENGE SWITZERLAND
MassChallenge is the global network for innovators. Headquartered in the United States with seven locations worldwide, MassChallenge equips bold entrepreneurs to disrupt the status quo and create meaningful change. Since launching in 2016, MassChallenge Switzerland has accelerated more than 950 startups that have raised over CHF 2bn in funding and created 59,000+ jobs. Learn more and follow us on X, LinkedIn.

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