Accelerating innovation: Zühlke's Scale-Up Coaching empowers startups
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Zühlke, a global transformation partner with engineering and innovation at its core, wrapped up the selection phase of its Product Scale-Up Coaching program with a Pitch Event in Schlieren. The coaching program is specifically designed to help innovators evolve their prototypes into market-ready products, leveraging Zühlke's extensive engineering expertise. After refining their pitches with expert Pitch Training from Zühlke Ventures, eight leading startups presented their visions.
Each year, Venturelab partners with Zühlke to help promising Swiss startups accelerate their journey from prototype to scalable product. This year, for the first time, the final selection round took place as a live Pitch Event at Zühlke offices in Schlieren, offering an engaging new format for both startups and jury members.Out of 55 applications, 8 startups were shortlisted for pitching live on May 15, following a preparatory session led by Stephan Wehrli, Investment Principal and Partner at Zühlke. The jury, made up of startup experts and investors, selected four winners: Francesco Stella (Embodied AI), Nicolas Langer (neurodAIgnostics), Panagiotis Martakis (irmos Technologies), and Til Schlotter (UNOMR). Their projects stood out for their market potential and readiness for scale-up.
The winners will receive engineering coaching from Zühlke worth CHF 20,000 and access to the company’s network and expertise in order to overcome challenges surrounding the transition from prototype to product.
Top: Francesco Stella and Nicolas Langer
"I was truly impressed by the quality of the pitches at the Zühlke Scale-up Competition. Every startup came well-prepared, delivering professional, concise, and compelling presentations—all within the time limit. The atmosphere was electric: highly motivated yet collaborative, with founders showing genuine interest in each other's ideas," highlighted Stephan Wehrli, Investment Principal and Partner at Zühlke. "It was a pleasure to attend and to meet such inspiring entrepreneurs in person."Ahead of the event, startups also received a tour of Zühlke's offices and labs. For Zühlke, this long-standing competition reflects its ongoing interest in helping early-stage ventures address complex engineering challenges even in regulated industries.
"Zühlke workshop gave us more production thinking specific to our project, as their experts worked on a similar hardware recently. We learned that some components may cause problems with certification and production discontinuation. Finally, they provided us with a component that solved our critical technical problem."
Past participant Tomas Sluka, CEO and co-founder, CREAL
The Product Scale-Up Coaching continues to play a key role in helping startups build robust foundations for growth in fields such as healthcare, finance, and industry. Learn more about the Zühlke Product Scale-up Coaching.
