80 Swiss Climate Tech Founders To Know

Driven by two strong technical universities (ETH Zurich, EPFL) that are spinning-off some of the most deep tech startups in Europe and fuelled by VC interest in the Swiss tech ecosystem - the climate tech scene of Switzerland has seen a boom in recent years.

It’s no surprise when we asked Linkedin who were the top Climate startups to know in Switzerland, the list came back with over 80+ names.

From energy optimisation in real estate to carbon capturing concrete, alternative meats to decarbonised chemicals - here’s a look into the Swiss climate ecosystem in 2023.

If there’s someone you think we’ve missed - please add them to the list here.

Before jumping in… if you’re interested in Swiss Climate Tech, you’ll want to join us at this years HackSummit in Lausanne for what will probably be the most fun Climate Tech event of the year.

With attendance from some of the top founders and VC’s active in global Climate Tech including Planet A Ventures, Ecovative, Zero Carbon Capital, Cradle and many more.

You can reserve an Investor Pass or a Startup Booth today and use code SWISSTECH for a discount on your ticket.

Agriculture

Mark Essam Zahran of YASAI - Builds and manages vertical farms based on a circular economy to transform food systems.

Benoit de Combaud at Infrascreen - Develops light filters for greenhouses that enables drastic improvements in climate management.

Nicolas Weber of Voltiris - Combines spectrum filtering for agricultural productivity with photovoltaic performance.

Aurelien G. Demaurex of Ecorobotix - Offering precise, safe, reliable and affordable robotic solutions to produce healthy and affordable food.

Batteries

Jodok Reinhardt of LIBREC - Recycles lithium-ion car batteries and returns all components back to the manufacturing of new batteries.

David Taylor of Unbound Potential - Creates solutions for long-term energy storage based on a novel membrane-less flow redox battery technology.

Paul Baade of eightinks - Building powerful lithium ion batteries with scalable manufacturing, novel cell designs and high performance materials.

Chemicals

Sotiria Mostrou of Biosimo Chemicals - Chemical engineering to develop and operate processes to produce bio-based platform chemicals.

Remy Buser from Bloom Biorenewables - provide a novel route to source molecules from plants as an alternative to petroleum-based products.

Samantha Anderson of DePoly - chemical-based method for recycling post-consumer PET containers.

Felix Bobbink of Plastogaz - develops a hydrocracking technology for the transformation of hard to recycle plastic waste into circular feedstock.

Samuel Hess of UniSieve AG - provides membrane solutions to save energy costs and CO2 emissions on many separation processes.

Carbon Capture

Jan Wurzbacher of Climeworks - offering carbon dioxide removal as a service via direct air capture (DAC) technology.

Carbon Marketplaces

Charles Peurois of Enchar - B2B market platform for biochar - providing a comprehensive platform for the sale and procurement of biochar.

Tim Duehrkoop of Xilva - Digital marketplace for investments in regenerative forests.

Raphaël Haupt of Toucan - Builds public carbon market infrastructure on the blockchain to help coordinate and fund efforts for climate challenge.

Thomas Käslin of Terra Preta - producing biochar from agricultural residues and creating Carbon Credits in exchange

Climate Finance

Christian Sutter of mympact - Track the carbon footprint of your spending, discover eco-friendly alternatives and reduce your impact.

Manuel Seiffe of MPower Ventures - partners with local entrepreneurs to finance and distribute clean energy to households and SMEs in emerging markets.

Climate Tracking / Mitigation

Aureline Grange of Open Forest Protocol - allows forest projects of any size, all over the world, to measure, report and verify their forestation data.

Thaïs de Tribolet of ROSE Framework - B2B Software solution to empower companies to establish a sustainability strategy and implement it.

Andreas Brenner of Jua - end to end deep learning model for weather forecasts.

Jürg Germann of Inverto - automate mangrove restoration as a service for mangrove restoration groups.

Construction

Valentin Gutknecht of Neustark - Developer of solutions to permanently store CO2 from the air in recycled mineral waste such as demolished concrete.

Thibault Demoulin of Oxara - Developing additives to transform construction waste, such as excavation materials, into an ecological, cement-free concrete.

Etienne Jeoffroy of FenX - turns mineral waste into high-performance, non-flammable and sustainable insulation panels for buildings.

Tobias Bonwetsch of Rematter - creates circular, low carbon buildings by starting with floor slab systems.

Energy Production

Margaux Peltier of Enerdrape - Builder of prefabricated geothermal panel technologies able to capture renewable thermal energy.

Sergey Pancheshnyi of E2S Power - implementation of thermal energy storage with a focus on retrofitting and repurposing existing coal fired plants.

Energy Optimisation

Ion Padilla of Wegaw - Remote sensing satellite data with machine learning to optimize renewable energy production for hydropower generation.

Gianluca Corbellini of Hive Power - SaaS platform to manage anything connected to the grid, from Energy Communities to EV Charging.

Stefano Grassi of Gilytics - Helping energy and engineering companies find the best route for powerlines and other linear infrastructure.

Andrew Bollinger of Sympheny - Offers a subscription-based SaaS platform to develop, manage & continuously extract value from energy systems.

Kevin Häfeli of Helio. Reducing emissions in the cloud by matching idle capacity with the demand of large-scale computing workloads.

Liliane Ableitner of Exnaton - SaaS platform for energy sharing and billing for energy suppliers to unlock digital business opportunities.

Till Quack of Zerofy - App to track your household footprint and switch to lower-carbon energy and products.

Energy Optimisation - Real Estate

Sébastien Cajot of Urbio - Develops generative design software for the key actors of the energy transition - with a focus on energy efficiency of buildings.

Evan Petkov of OPTIML - End-to-end software platform to generate intelligent low cost and low carbon investment strategies for existing buildings.

Dominik Bucher of Scandens - provides software solutions to create feasible, profitable and 1.5°C-compliant renovation plans – fast and at scale.

Gian Reto à Porta of Norm - Determines the energy efficiency and CO₂ emissions of properties and prepares specific renovation proposals.

Pietro Gagliard of CLEVERON - Allows you to save on heating costs and monitor air quality in indoor spaces.

Josef Timoteo Jenni of Yuon Control - helps you to save up to 25% of your heating energy with simple means and low investment costs.

Joel Samsinge of MOOST - Enterprise software transforming data from buildings into personalized notifications for saving energy.

Patrik Deuss of LEDCity - Reducing electricity consumption with modern LED technology, sensors, and artificial intelligence.

Felix Bünning of Viboo - Predictive Control as a Service (PCaaS) platform for manufacturers of building energy systems to optimize heating consumption.

Cyrill Burch of zevvy - Online software for easy billing of energy and service charges in small buildings.

Food Production

Christoph Jenny of Planted - Producer of plant-based proteins with a novel biostructuring approach combining protein structuring and biotechnology.

Christoph Mayr of MIRAI FOODS - Developing cultivated meat from animal cells with a "Fibration Technology" for efficient cultivation of tissue.

Tomas Turner of Cultivated Biosciences - Developing a fat ingredient from oleaginous yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy.

Freddy Hunziker of New Roots AG - Producer of 100% plant-based cheese, and other dairy alternatives, following traditional cheese-making techniques.

Flavio Hagenbuch of Luya Foods - Create alternatives to meat using mycelium fermentation technology and upcycled ingredients.

Vincent Vida of upgrain - Offers high-quality protein and fibre-containing foods that are produced using brewer's spent grain (BSG).

Samuel Bühlmann of Gaia Tech - Develops upcycling solutions to turn tons of agricultural sidestreams into clean label ingredients for cosmetics and food.

Silvan Leibacher of EggField - Developing whole and liquid egg alternatives for the gastronomy and food industry.

Christian Bärtsch of Essento - Development and production of insect based foods.

Food Waste / Emissions

Naomi MacKenzie of KITRO - Fully automated food waste hardware and software management solution for the food and beverage industry.

Olga Dubey of AgroSustain - Developer of plant-derived antifungal compounds against broad range of agronomically important fungal pathogens.

Manuel Klarmann of Eaternity - Realtime calculation engine on the carbon footprint of meals and restaurants.

Daria Reisch of Agrinorm - SaaS platform to manage product quality along the supply chain and uses AI to turn quality reports into actionable insights.

GHG Reduction

Juan Mario Michan of Daphne Technology - Measures, reduces and monetises GHG emissions from industrial sources.

Infrastructure

David Brandes of planetary - Manufacturing partner (“CDMO”) building bioprocessing, downstream and formulations capacity globally.

Materials

Guillaume Perben of Composite Recycling - Developed a unique process to recover glass fibers from composite material in an economically viable way.

Jessica Farda of Noriware - Creating new sustainable packaging from seaweed.

Amaël Cohades of CompPair - developer of a composite material able to repair itself and be better recycled, bringing circularity to the industry.

Sarah Harbarth of KUORI - develops and sells circular, materials that are produced with the help of food side streams such as banana peel or nutshells.

Ulrike Pfreundt of rrreefs - 3D coral reef structures to promote reef life and serve as coastal protection barriers.

Solar

Gian Andri Diem of dhp technology - Produces and sells unique solar folding roof to support with sustainable energy production.

Neeraj Kumar Dasila of SmartHelio - Advanced analytics platform to increase solar PV plant performance and digitizes asset management.

Julien Morard of smartsuna - Prepares turnkey estimations for solar equipment (batteries, modules, inverter, accessories).

Transport

Leigh Hackett of Metafuels - Producing sustainable aviation fuel using water, renewable electricity and sustainably sourced carbon dioxide.

Gianluca Ambrosetti of Synhelion - Decarbonizing long-distance transportation with sun-to-liquid fuel.

Theodore Caby of Qaptis - On-board CO2 capture kit that captures up to carbon emissions from any heavy-duty vehicles (truck, ship, etc.).

Duga Hoti of Flux Mobility AG - Manufactures and sells electric commercial vehicles.

Mario Blatter of eco.mio - Software product to cut carbon emissions and cost for our customers in business travel.

Water

Fajer Mushtaq of Oxyle - Novel technology that can efficiently eliminate a wide range of toxic and persistent organic pollutants from wastewater.

Christoph Kellenberger of Novamem - Membrane and filter manufacturer for water filtration, energy storage and liquid separations.

Dino Novia of Evodrop AG - Sustainable and efficient water treatment for (lime)scale in real estate and saline groundwater in agriculture.

Mike Hecker of BE WTR - Decarbonizing and relocalizing water supply chains through water hardware solutions for offices and homes.

Olivier Gröninger of openversum - Combining a filtration membrane system with microfranchising to provide safe and affordable drinking water.

If you’re building or investing in Climate Tech, come join us and 800+ others this May 11-12th in Lausanne, Switzerland for a global gathering of climate tech investors and entrepreneurs.

You can reserve an Investor Pass or a Startup Booth today and use code SWISSTECH for a discount on your ticket.

Disclaimer: The authors company, HackCapital, may have directly or indirectly invested in some of the startups mentioned above.