Agritech startup Ecorobotix has been awarded the 2024 Avantgarde Award by the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce (Swiss AmCham) Southern California, in recognition of its dedication to advancing Swiss-American business relations through forward-looking innovation and impactful contributions to sustainable agriculture. The company was already selected as a finalist last year, and this year it impressed the jury with its precision spraying solutions for crop management. Their flagship product ARA sprayer is an ultra-precise device utilizes advanced AI and six RGB cameras to target individual plants, enabling it to apply herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers with remarkable accuracy—up to 95% less chemical usage compared to traditional methods. Capable of treating up to 4 hectares per hour, the ARA enhances farm efficiency and profitability while promoting sustainable farming practices and compliance with environmental regulations.
Calvin Risk awarded "InsurTech of the Year" award:
Calvin Risk is the 2024 InsurTech of the Year, selected by the jury from a pool of 42 nominees and 8 finalists. Recognized at the Swiss InsurTech Hub’s Summit and Awards ceremony, the startup impressed the jury with its solution to the growing risks and efficiency gaps facing AI models in enterprises. The ETH spinoff built a platform that uses adaptive assessments and continuous monitoring to provide a real-time overview of a company's entire AI portfolio, predicting potential risks (qualitatively and quantitatively) and their associated value-at-risk. The solution provides a modular framework for proactive AI governance with two core capabilities: governance digitization for internal directives and risk evaluations, and automated AI testing between development and deployment.
Swiss Italian Startup Award Mynerva
Held in Geneva, the first edition of the Swiss Italian Startup Award was organized to bring together top Italian and Swiss entrepreneurs to build connections and share their insights on their innovations. The event welcomed 12 finalists to pitch their ideas to the public and jury, following which four awards were bestowed. Swiss startup Mynerva took home two award prizes: the Jury and Public Choice award. The Zurich-based medtech startup is developing a wearable device for people with diabetic neuropathy. Their neurostimulating medical device helps reduce chronic pain and restore the sense of touch through non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation driven by AI algorithms. The technology captures information from foot-ground interaction and converts it into electrical impulses delivered to healthy nerves on the ankle, improving gait biomechanics and reducing fall risk.
Tinamu wins first commodities Technology award
The first Commodities Technology Innovation Award co-created by Ampersand World and the business magazine Bilan went to Tinamu Labs, the provider of an environment-independent, automated way for commodity inspection in warehouses. The company focuses on automating the flight of drones, both indoors and outdoors. They use standard hardware (drones and sensors) and equip them with their software stack to allow them to navigate autonomously in unknown terrain, using computer vision/SLAM. To capture accurate data on bulk material inventories, they also use photogrammetry to create a digital/point cloud-to-point jum and then visualize accurate inventory data on its online dashboard tool. Customers appreciate the simplicity (Tinamu offers data as a service, thus avoiding the purchase or management of drones, sensors and software) and the reliability of this new data source, which improves logistics planning and production. So far, Tinamu has focused on Europe and is beginning to expand globally in South America, Australia, Africa, serving customers in the metals and minerals sectors (copper, zinc, gravel, etc.) and grain/agriculture (whip, wood chips, fertilizers, etc.).
(RAN)