MassChallenge Switzerland and Louis Dreyfus Company Celebrate 2024 Award Winners

Lausanne, Switzerland, November 1, 2024 – MassChallenge Switzerland, a leading startup accelerator, part of MassChallenge’s global network for innovators and zero-equity startup accelerators, hosted yesterday in Lausanne, Switzerland, its 2024 MassChallenge Switzerland Awards Ceremony, announcing and celebrating its 2024 Early-Stage Startup Accelerator Program winners, as well as the Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Climate Resilience Prize laureate.

The ceremony rewarded the 12 MassChallenge Switzerland award-winning startups with CHF 400,000 equity-free cash prizes, in recognition of their innovative solutions that will add value to society. The ceremony was also marked by the announcement of the2024 LDC Climate Resilience Prize, which this year goes to EcoBean.

As part of the ceremony,LDC’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Gelchie, handed EcoBean a non-dilutive cash award of CHF 100,000, commenting on its potential to drive climate resilience in food and agricultural value chains:

“I am honored to present this year’s LDC Climate Resilience Prize to EcoBean, whose impressive biorefining solution transforms spent coffee grounds into sustainable chemicals that can be used by the food, cosmetics, pharma and other industries – a model that is closely aligned with LDC’s own commitment to responsible waste management,” said Michael Gelchie. “Through our collaboration with MassChallenge, we are pleased to continue supporting ambitious projects that push boundaries and help turn innovative ideas into tangible outcomes and impacts.”

On this occasion, MassChallenge Switzerland also recognized its community of experts, including the 446 independent judges and 478 mentors who supported 118 startups this year, to launch, grow and scale their businesses during the four-month acceleration program.

“I would like to thank all our partners, judges, mentors, and speakers who dedicated their time and energy to providing feedback and advice, and a special thanks to our diamond sponsors who ran significant startup events at their offices,” saidMatt Lashmar, Managing Director of MassChallenge Switzerland. “2024 was our most ambitious and highest-rated program ever, with 78% of cohort startups rating the program as the ‘best ever’ and stating they’d score it 9 or 10 out of 10, if recommending it to another startup.”

Ian Roberts, President of MassChallenge Switzerlandadded: “I would like to congratulate all 755 agrifood applicants to the LDC Climate Resilience Prize, and especially the six finalists, on creating companies that can play a role in decarbonizing our food system. With such a range of solutions presented, the process to select the finalists was extremely challenging, and I thank our jury for dedicating their time and expertise to support us in this task! Finally, the partnership between MassChallenge Switzerland and LDC grows stronger each year, and we are proud to have such a dedicated, action-oriented and aligned partner.”

2024 LDC Climate Resilience Prize (CHF 100,000) winner

EcoBean:EcoBean transforms coffee waste into sustainable chemicals used by various industries – e.g. food, cosmetics, pharma – and offsets significant amounts of CO2 while doing so.

2024 Accelerator cash prizes winners

Diamond – CHF 150,000

Nooviis developing first-of-a-kind marking pheromones that prevent pests from laying eggs on crops that are non-toxic, zero-residue, pose no health risk to farmers, public or environment.

Platinum – CHF 80,000

Pack2Earthis a Barcelona-based impact company specialised in high barrier, robust materials made from plants & minerals to replace contaminating plastic in packaging and other sectors.

Myriad Opticsis developing new bacterial pathogen identification technologies to speed up testing in the food, pharmaceutical and medtech industries, to protect public health, avoid waste and help companies streamline their processes.

Gold – CHF 10,000

Adastra Sustainabilitybuilds high-fidelity data from the ground up to reveal the impacts of land conversion at any level of traceability.

Angry Cameldevelops egg white replacement with superior emulsification & foaming for food applications from Chickpea protein.

ANT Maschinesdevelops automated heavy-duty robots for port and yard operations.

EcoBeantransforms coffee waste into sustainable chemicals used by various industries – e.g. food, cosmetics, pharma – and offsets significant amounts of CO2 while doing so.

Envisionit Deep AIis an innovative medical technology with a holistic approach to Artificial Intelligence.

Riverkinis combining large-scale water quality measurements and earth observation data with advanced hydrological models to support water resources management.

SolidWattsis poised for massive scale-up by creating the new state-of-the-art in microwave dielectric heating for industrial processes.

Spectacular Labsis building portable pathogen-testing devices and reducing the traditional food testing timelines from days to 8 hours.

One Young World Award – CHF 10,000

Riverkinis combining large-scale water quality measurements and earth observation data with advanced hydrological models to support water resources management.