Aerial & Space

“Drone Valley” and the Depth of the Swiss UAV Ecosystem

The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025 counts more than 40 VC-backed startups in the aerial and space vertical, which have collectively raised USD 513 million since 2019 and represent a combined enterprise value of USD 2 billion. For a country of 8.7 million people, that concentration reflects a strong per-capita output – consistent with Switzerland’s broader deep tech performance – and spans a notably wide range of sub-sectors rather than clustering around a single application: Flyability has made Switzerland a reference point for industrial inspection drones capable of flying inside structures inaccessible to humans; Wingtra leads in fixed-wing VTOL mapping drones for surveying and geospatial applications; Assaia applies computer vision to optimize aircraft turnaround at major airports, with its ApronAI platform now contracted at more than 1,000 gates worldwide; and Sunflower Labs pioneered autonomous security drone systems and in 2025 received FAA approval for beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations across the United States – one of the first such approvals awarded to a European company. This sub-sector diversity is a direct product of the dual heritage of ETH Zurich and EPFL, which together form the engineering backbone of the cluster and have supplied founders, technology standards, and early-stage IP across all of these applications.

The Swiss drone ecosystem, which industry participants have informally named “Drone Valley,” operates within a regulatory environment shaped by proactive national policy. Switzerland was among the first European countries to integrate drones into civilian airspace at scale, and the Drone Industry Association Switzerland – which consistently places Switzerland in the top ten countries represented in the Global State of Drones report – has provided companies with direct access to regulators to influence framework development. The Swiss digital aviation authority U-Space and the national BVLOS testing corridors give startups a path to operational validation that is faster than the EU average, attracting companies to incorporate and test in Switzerland even when their primary markets lie elsewhere.

Space Infrastructure and ESA’s Swiss Anchor

Switzerland’s position in the space vertical rests on 2 EPFL spin-offs that are each defining new categories of commercial space activity, and on a structural institutional investment by ESA that signals the country’s growing role in European space sovereignty.

SWISSto12, founded in 2011 out of CEO Emile de Rijk’s PhD research at EPFL, manufactures advanced satellite RF products and systems using patented 3D-printing techniques that make components up to ten times lighter than conventional alternatives – a critical advantage where every kilogram of mass translates directly into launch cost. The company has deliberately avoided the crowded low-Earth orbit market in favor of building a new class of compact, cost-efficient geostationary satellites through its HummingSat platform, developed in partnership with ESA and scheduled for its first commercial launch with SES in 2027. In January 2026, SWISSto12 secured €73 million from ESA member states through the ARTES HummingSat Partnership Project, and a concurrent private round from European investors brought its total fresh funding past €100 million, according to the EU-Startups announcement. ClearSpace, also an EPFL spin-off, holds a €86 million ESA service contract to execute the world’s first active debris removal mission, ClearSpace-1, targeting the PROBA-1 satellite – a mandate that places Switzerland at the center of a commercial market for in-orbit services that ESA estimates will become essential as orbital congestion increases.

The institutional anchor for these activities arrived in May 2025 with the inauguration of the European Space Deep-Tech Innovation Centre (ESDI) at the Switzerland Innovation Park Innovaare in Villigen – ESA’s first physical presence in Switzerland, built in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute. ESDI runs research platforms in quantum, data, and materials science to accelerate the translation of deep tech into space applications. At the opening ceremony, ESA’s Director of Commercialisation Géraldine Naja signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation, formally connecting the European space community to Switzerland’s broader deep tech ecosystem. Together with the existing ESA Business Incubation Center at ETH Zurich, which provides up to €200,000 in non-dilutive funding to space-tech startups, Switzerland now hosts a layered institutional infrastructure for space entrepreneurship that few European countries can match.