The World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer Community, growing by 100 global members each year, consists of early- and growth-stage companies that demonstrate a high level of innovation and present an effective business model with the potential to significantly impact society and the planet in the long term.
Motivated by recent breakthroughs in the field, this year's cohort, which includes startups from 23 countries, a third of which are led by a female CEO, is using AI and data science to drive sustainability and fairer decision-making in industry and government. By joining the community, the selected startups, which must have received solid funding (usually Series A) at the beginning of their incubation phase, connect with like-minded people to learn and collaborate on innovative solutions to global problems. They participate in multi-stakeholder initiatives and partnerships and gain access to the Forum's platform and research and insight platform to improve their understanding of the world's most pressing issues.
Once selected, the Technology Pioneers are given the opportunity to commit to the Forum for two years. During this time, the CEOs are expected to actively participate in the substantive working groups of the World Economic Forum within one of the Forum's 10 centres.
The three Swiss startups honoured as Technology Pioneers 2024 are:
DePoly (Sion): To address the recycling challenge, DePoly is developing a universal chemical recycling process that converts plastics into raw materials without affecting their quality. Following the closing of a seed financing round in 2023, the startup is now scaling up its technology to reduce plastic waste by an additional 500 tonnes annually.
Swissto12 (Renens): is a leading manufacturer of advanced satellite RF products, payloads and systems, including the HummingSat: a small yet powerful geostationary telecommunications satellite developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). The company has more than 125 employees and is growing strongly.
Cybera (Zurich & Global): combine unique industry knowledge and professional insights with the latest technology to build a fintech platform that prevents financially motivated cybercrime for financial institutions and governments.
(Press release / SR)
Image: Unsplash/Adi Goldstein