Six start-ups named as winners of this year’s W.A. de Vigier Award
Solothurn - The W.A. de Vigier Foundation has crowned this year’s award winners. Six start-ups have won the award, which comes with prize money of 120,000 Swiss francs. These are CellX Biosolutions, Visienco, New Roots, PAVE Space, Axmed and Clee Medical.
The W.A. de Vigier Foundation from the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, has presented its eponymous award for start-ups for the 36th time. This year, a total of six start-ups have been honored with the award, which comes with prize money of 120,000 Swiss francs, as detailed in a press release. Another four finalists were awarded 20,000 Swiss francs.
«We were deeply impressed by the quality of this year’s Top 10. The differences between the finalists were minimal – in the end, it often comes down to the people behind the projects», comments Hanna Byland, CEO of the W.A. de Vigier Foundation, in the press release, adding that: «Their commitment to responsible entrepreneurship gives us confidence that they will successfully bring their ideas to life».
This year’s award winners include the Zurich-based CellX Biosolutions AG, fronted by CEO Estelle Clerc, which offers bacteria-based solutions to clean chemical waste from toxic substances such as PFAS, pesticides and pharmaceutical residues and turn them into eco-friendly products. Visienco AG, which is headed up by CEO Edwige Guinet and is headquartered at Technopark Luzern in Root in the canton of Lucerne, has been awarded for its drug discovery platform powered by Artificial Intelligence, which involves testing on organoids – or miniature lab-grown human organs. The tests are designed to accelerate drug discovery cost-effectively and reduce the need for animal testing. New Roots AG, which is based in Oberdiessbach in the Swiss canton of Bern and led by CEO Freddy Hunziker, offers a sustainable alternative to cow’s milk, which has a major impact on the environment. This is a protein-rich lupin milk that can be processed at cheese dairies with a lower carbon footprint and reduced water consumption.
PAVE Space SA from Chavannes-près-Renens in the canton of Vaud, headed up by CEO Julie Böhning, was recognized for a project aimed at extending the lifespan of satellites by offering refueling and maintenance services in orbit. A prototype is set to be launched in 2027. Axmed AG from Basel is striving to facilitate access to medical care to underserved communities around the world via its medicines marketplace. As a B2B company, Axmed also functions under the leadership of CEO Emmanuel Akpakwu as an intermediary between manufacturers, distributors and non-governmental organizations. Finally, Matthew Lapinski, CEO of Clee Medical SA from Geneva, was presented with the award in recognition of the company’s approach to making brain surgery more precise and with reduced risks for patients by leveraging the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
