Technology Fund welcomes new startups

In the first quarter of 2024, the Technology Fund has issued ten new guarantees, including nine for startups, bringing its portfolio of grantee recipients to 135. Selected startups offer solutions for sectors including energy, sustainable construction and data curation for AI modeling.

The Technology Fund offers loan guarantees of up to CHF 3 million to startups and SMEs to develop and commercialise marketable innovations that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote the use of renewable energies and conserve natural resources. Applications are assessed on the basis of their technological suitability and the applicant's financial capacity and then forwarded to a guarantee committee for approval.

«On average, the positive environmental benefit achieved in 2023 was around 14,000 t CO2eq per current portfolio company. The savings achieved by 132 portfolio companies in 2023 are estimated at 1.9 million tonnes of CO2eq. Cumulatively since 2015, this results in an estimated saving of 8.7 million tonnes of CO2eq.», says Simone Riedel Riley, Head of Technology Fund Office.

In Q1 of 2024, ten applicants were awarded with loan guarantees, expanding Technology Fund’s portfolio to 135 startups and SMEs that a total grantee sum of CHF 263 million.

The following startups have joined the portfolio so far this year:

FAIRTIQ AG (Bern): offers an innovative, hardware-free check-in/check-out solution for public transport tickets. The system uses the smartphone's location data to reconstruct the journey traveled and determine the best price.

Hydromea SA (Renens): is developing an autonomous and stationary robotics and communications platform for data acquisition, asset monitoring and analysis that will provide affordable and timely data access to a wide range of subsea sensors and structures in the offshore energy sector, helping to reduce CO2 emissions by replacing solutions that use highly polluting supply vessels.

keeValue (Brugg): uses artificial intelligence and real data to develop cloud-based tools that enable early and precise calculation of construction costs and eco-balances of planned construction projects and thus relevant CO2 savings.

Lightly AG (Zurich): develops data filtering software for AI data. This solution enables companies to focus on the truly relevant data and use significantly less energy for data storage and AI model training.

MeduSoil AG (Lausanne): produces and commercializes mineral binding agents designed to serve earthworks, special foundations, and building applications. Their binding agents typically reduces machinery and labor costs by 20 to 30 percent.

Swissframe AG (Bern): specializes in pre-wall systems for bathrooms in net-zero apartment buildings. The startup combines the bathroom's technical installations into a compact, stable frame system that is easily accessible for maintenance. Thanks to the innovative solution for ventilation and hot water, energy consumption can be reduced by more than half.

I&W Engineering (Rapperswil-Jona): manufactures high-quality electric travel drives for industries such as agriculture, construction, mining, track solutions, indoor applications and offers comprehensive services in the field of engineering.

In addition, the Technology Fund supported EVUlution, a cooperative initiative of energy suppliers including Repower and EWZ.

(Press release / SR)
Photo: Fairtiq app