September 2025

Decoding the 2025 Top 100 Swiss Startup Award

Alexandre Meldem LinkedIn

Deep Tech Nation Switzerland

Last night, the Swiss innovation ecosystem gathered under the bright lights of the ZSC Swiss Life Arena in Zürich, a major ice hockey stadium. The choice of venue for the 15th anniversary of the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award was a clear statement about its scale, ambition, and the competitive spirit that defines a world-class deep tech nation. As Patrick Griss of Zühlke Ventures aptly said, “What the Oscars are to actors and the Nobel Prize is to scientists, the Top100 ranking is to the Swiss investor and startup community”. This is where Switzerland’s future economic champions are crowned.

This year’s podium showed the range and quality of this competitive pipeline. Taking the top honor was the Lausanne-based engineering startup Corintis, followed by CleanTech innovator DePoly from Sion, and the Zürich-based AI powerhouse DeepJudge. This trio represents the forefront of Swiss Deep Tech, each addressing key challenges in their fields.

The venue may have been icy, but the startups were hot (Source: Venturelab)

The event’s 15-year jubilee also showed the ecosystem’s maturity. The organizers, Venturelab, brought the winner of the very first award in 2011, Optotune, back to the stage to reflect on its trajectory. This was a testament to its long-term impact. For international investors, this 15-year track record provides confidence that the Swiss ecosystem is stable, sustainable, and can consistently produce successful companies. For global investors, it is a reliable signal for identifying the next generation of leaders in Swiss Deep Tech.

Special guest Livia Altmann, a member of Switzerland’s women’s national ice hockey team, drew a powerful parallel between the discipline of elite sports and the demands of building a startup. “Building a startup takes time,” she highlighted, “much like training to become a medalist, it requires endurance and resilience.” This analogy presents innovation as a high-performance discipline defined by teamwork, endurance, and execution under pressure.

“This evening once again proves that deep tech is at the core of the Swiss innovation landscape. Seeing the high energy of the Venturelab team, the startups, and keynote speaker Livia Altmann was inspiring. We are proud to see that even after 15 years, the Award continues to be a powerful showcase for Switzerland’s position as a world leader in deep tech.”

– Andreas Punter, Head Marketing and Communications at Deep Tech Nation Switzerland

The Class of 2025: A Snapshot of Switzerland’s Evolving Strengths

An analysis of the 2025 ranking reveals a clear picture of Switzerland’s current deep tech priorities and its developing strengths. The diversity and sophistication of the winners offer a detailed view into the sectors where the nation is leading.

The Podium: Three Pillars of a Mature Ecosystem

The top three winners represent three distinct and important pillars of a strong deep tech economy: advanced hardware, new industrial processes, and specialized software. This diversity is a powerful indicator of a strong, varied ecosystem (see full ranking here.)

#1 Corintis (Lausanne, Semiconductors)

The 2025 champion is addressing one of the key challenges in modern computing: heat. Corintis develops new in-chip cooling technologies that enable the next generation of high-performance processors. This is a core technology that addresses the physical limits of semiconductor performance. Corintis represents Switzerland’s long-standing excellence in precision engineering and the kind of complex technology that is difficult to copy.

#2 DePoly (Sion, Cleantech)

Ranking second is DePoly, an EPFL spin-off that has developed a new chemical process to recycle PET plastics back to their core components, regardless of color or contamination. This technology directly addresses the global plastic waste crisis and exemplifies the powerful trend towards a circular economy.

#3 DeepJudge (Zürich, AI)

The third-place winner, DeepJudge, focuses on software applications, providing an AI-powered platform for legal research and document analysis. This shows the maturity of the Swiss AI scene, moving into valuable, specialized business software that solves complex industry problems.

Broader Trends from the Top Cohort

Looking beyond the podium reveals several key trends that characterize the class of 2025:

The Unmistakable Ascent of CleanTech: The strong showing of CleanTech is the most visible trend. Beyond DePoly, the top of the list is populated by companies like #4 Voltiris, which provides green energy solutions for greenhouses, and #5 Bloom Biorenewables, which is creating biomass-based alternatives to petroleum. This large number of top-ranked cleantech ventures signals a major shift and a clear focus on sustainability-driven innovation.
Physical AI & Robotics: The ranking of #6 Tethys Robotics, a spin-off from ETH Zurich developing autonomous underwater drones, and #20 Ascento, which builds autonomous outdoor security robots, points to a strong and business-focused robotics cluster. Another key player is #15 RIVR, which pioneers Physical AI for last-mile delivery with its innovative wheeled-leg robots. These are companies deploying intelligent machines in challenging real-world environments.
A First-Generation of AI startups: The list also reveals a sophisticated evolution in the AI sector. Alongside application-focused companies like DeepJudge, the top 20 includes #18 Lakera AI and #19 LatticeFlow among others. Both companies are focused on the critical infrastructure of AI: enabling enterprises to build and deploy safe, secure, and trustworthy AI applications. The emergence of these companies is a sign of a mature ecosystem. For investors, these infrastructure companies are often more defensible and scalable than individual application startups.

From Insight to Impact: The Winners and the Swiss Deep Tech Report

The results of the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award are the living embodiment of the data-driven trends identified in the recently published Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025. The award winners provide real-world validation of the report’s key findings, from sectoral diversification to the critical role of academic institutions. The report shows a clear shift in company creation towards AI/ML and Climate Tech, a trend perfectly mirrored by the high ranking of winners like DeepJudge, DePoly, and Voltiris. Furthermore, the report identifies ETH Zurich and EPFL as Europe’s top engines for deep tech spin-offs, and the Top 100 list confirms this, with numerous winners like DePoly (EPFL) and Tethys Robotics (ETH) originating directly from these world-class universities.

For international investors, the award provides a clear roadmap to the opportunities highlighted in the report. The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025 reveals that while Switzerland excels at creating deep tech ventures, over 85% of all venture funding, and a remarkable 96% of late-stage capital, comes from international sources. This “late-stage gap” represents a major strategic opportunity. The Top 100 Award serves as a trusted guide to this opportunity. The jury is composed of 100 of the most influential ecosystem actors, including Deep Tech Nation CEO Johanne Sieber, who perform a crucial quality filter on the nation’s dense talent pool. This peer-reviewed selection process offers a validated pipeline of investable companies.

The Unicorn Predictor: A 15-Year Track Record of Identifying Future Leaders

The ultimate test of any startup award is its predictive power. On this measure, the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award has built a clear 15-year track record of identifying future global leaders. The 638 unique startups awarded since 2011 have created over 20,870 jobs, raised CHF 17.8 billion in capital, and achieved 87 exits and 9 IPOs, demonstrating the award’s profound economic impact.

The award’s history reads like a venture capital success story. In its earliest years, the jury recognized the potential of companies that would go on to define their industries. They spotted Climeworks, a fledgling ETH spin-off in 2011, which has since raised over a billion dollars to become a global leader in direct air capture technology. In the same period, they identified Scandit, whose data capture software was just beginning to show its potential; it is now a billion-dollar unicorn powering logistics for global brands.

Previous Top100 startups who’ve become Unicorns (From top left to bottom right: On Running Shoes, Climeworks DAC Plant, Scandit’s Scanning App, Araris Biotech Antibody-drug Conjugate)

The award also proved adept at identifying companies destined for the public markets, from the revolutionary running shoe company On, which had a successful IPO on the NYSE, to Sophia Genetics, a pioneer in data-driven medicine that went public on the NASDAQ. The award’s continued relevance is confirmed by the most recent successes, such as the 2025 acquisition of alumnus Araris Biotech for USD 1.1 billion. This consistent ability to identify future unicorns, public companies, and major acquisition targets makes the Top 100 a uniquely reliable signal for investors.

A Benchmark for Swiss Innovation

Over 15 years, the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award has evolved from an annual ranking into a cornerstone of the national innovation ecosystem. The program has become a vital platform, providing critical visibility and fostering connections that accelerate growth for new ventures. This year’s anniversary celebration was a testament to this journey, showcasing the ambition and professionalism that now characterize the Swiss startup scene.

At the heart of the celebration are the entrepreneurs themselves. This year’s winners, from Corintis’s foundational engineering to DePoly’s circular economy solutions and DeepJudge’s sophisticated AI, are the tangible outcomes of a world-class innovation system, representing the key trends shaping the nation’s future: a diversification into CleanTech and advanced computation, and a consistent ability to turn profound scientific research into market-ready solutions.

Ultimately, the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award is a powerful reflection of the country’s innovative capacity. It is a moment to recognize not just the winners on stage, but the entire community that supports them, from the expert jury of investors to the university tech transfer offices.