At the KICKSTART-event in 2022 were more than 55 new innovation partnerships, including many in the vegan food industry. So not all focus on exploring how to get your own casino bonus on afterparty but a mix sounds good.
The international startups supported by the Kickstart program for their market entry in Switzerland come from eleven countries: including Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Norway, Germany and the USA.
Kickstart Innovation, one of the leading innovation platforms in Europe, has announced 55 partnerships in this year’s program. The partnerships include proof of concepts (PoCs), pilot projects or commercial projects between startups, scaleups and established companies and organizations in Switzerland and Austria. Further negotiations are ongoing.
Ten intensive weeks are behind us, during which well-known Swiss companies and institutions such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, Mobiliar, PostFinance, Sanitas, the city of Zurich, the canton of Vaud, Credit Suisse, Galenica, CSS Insurance have developed new solutions with startups from 16 countries, he said.
This year, 52 startups, 13 of them from Switzerland, as well as intrapreneurship teams, have developed solutions for the future of Switzerland. The ideas are diverse and range from a software platform for decarbonizing supply chains, to sustainable packaging solutions made from plastic alternatives, to vegan food made from waste products from food production.
Kickstart supports its partners, established Swiss companies and organizations, in identifying key themes. In the ten-week Kickstart program, the best national and international startups and scaleups develop solutions for these using an open innovation approach. The startups come from the application areas New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Smart Cities, Health & Wellbeing and Intrapreneurship.
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ON THESE COMPANIES YOU SHOULD HAVE AN EYE ON
Coop and Nordic Umami Company intend to recycle waste products from Coop’s food production and develop a vegan umami product line. This will be sold at retail and/or used in food production to enhance vegan meals and provide a better taste experience.
Coop is also working with Purcell on sustainable retail equipment and testing plastic-free, smart refill systems for food and everyday items. PlasticFri will provide Coop with sustainable plastic alternatives such as compost bags as part of a proof of concept to expand its retail sustainability efforts.
Vegan Swiss dairy New Roots and Coop have initiated a proof of concept to test a new innovative plant-based cheese at retail starting in 2023. New Roots is also working with Kraftwerk in Zurich to develop additional plant-based cake and dessert options, as well as a signature dish featuring New Roots’ plant-based cheese to be offered on the menu.
Planted (alumnus) intends to use SUPASO’s sustainable cold chain packaging solutions made from recycled waste paper for B2C shipping of its innovative plant-based dishes.
Ampliphi will work with SUPASO and Purcell to simplify access to sustainable packaging, saving time and money for consumer brands. New Roots is working with Ampliphi to pilot a data-driven approach to sustainable packaging and responsible plastic management.
SUPASO will use PlasticFri’s award-winning biodegradable film to further increase the sustainability and efficiency of its innovative insulated packaging and offer customers a competitively priced insulated shipping solution that is 100% cellulose fiber-based.
THE GREEN KICKSTART
The event “KIGI – Kickstart Green Innovations” offers green start-ups the opportunity to further develop their business ideas and present them. This also took place this year.
Innovations are sought for the sustainable shaping of the economy in the field of the future trends climate protection, resource efficiency, circular economy, environmental technology, mobility and bioeconomy.
The start-up event “KIGI – Kickstart Green Innovations” took place from May 3-4, 2022 and supported green start-ups and their sustainable business ideas. Teams received intensive coaching in the “Warm-up” and “Start-up Boot Camp” to prepare for their final pitch at the “Green Launch Day”.
The “KIGI – Kickstart Green Innovations” is organized by Umwelttechnik BW, the state agency for environmental technology and resource efficiency in Baden-Württemberg, with support from the Start-up BW state campaign of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economics.
WHAT ELSE IS NEW AND IN WHICH BRANCHE?
In the last year, the share of sustainable startups in the construction industry was only 25% of all startups in the construction industry. Construction has long-term negative environmental consequences and contributes to climate change not only with high CO2 emissions, but also has an enormous consumption of resources. Some German founders have already addressed questions such as how to make housing more climate-friendly or how to renovate and build more efficiently and, above all, more sustainably, and are thus driving the construction revolution forward in the long term. There are many reports and guidelines on how to be successful a start-up in this area. Time will show what we can excpect from these new spirits and ideas.
HOW GET SUSTAINABLE START-UPS SUPPORT?
In order to realize the full potential of sustainable business in early-stage companies, sustainability should become an integral part of all startup phases and key support programs. For this reason, the support project “Sustainability4All” was launched in January 2019 by the Startup Association in collaboration with the Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability and the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg.
The project aims to stimulate an early integration of sustainability concerns in newly founded and innovative startups and to support them through practical approaches. Through a variety of activities, e.g. events, competitions, news, brochures, workshops and new tools, the topic of sustainability is comprehensively anchored in the startup ecosystem in cooperation with selected network partners. They provide detailed information about these activities on their website and accompany the development of the topic of sustainability at eye level. At sustainable.startups.de, you will therefore find offers for a broad target group, in particular startups, investors, startup institutions of universities, startup competitions and other supporters of young companies.
“Sustainability4All” is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as part of the National Climate Initiative (NKI).
