Swiss Prime Site Start-Up Accelerator: Four proptech startups disrupting the real estate sector

Swiss Prime Site (SPS), Venturelab's industry partner and one of Europe's leading listed real estate companies, supports innovation in the proptech sector by providing a boost to disruptive solutions with the potential to revolutionize business models and create new value in the real estate sector. Last week, eight promising startups were given the opportunity to present their solutions to SPS management as well as industry experts for the 19th edition of the Swiss Prime Site Start-up Accelerator Programme.

The future of real estate development and management will be shaped by technologies that increase the quality of life and integrate sustainable infrastructure and processes in the value chain, including smart building and smart city solutions that affect mobility, energy consumption, water management, preservation, and health management.

Swiss Prime Site's two-day Accelerator Programme gives proptech innovators an opportunity to develop use cases relevant to SPS or its group companies, which include Swiss Prime Site Immobilien, Swiss Prime Site Solutions, and Wincasa.




On March 21 and 22, the SPS expert jury heard eight project pitches and followed up bilaterally with various applicants to explore potential commercial agreements (e.g. by finding appropriate locations in the SPS real estate portfolio).

The jury, which included industry experts and management from the Swiss Prime Site group, chose four finalists that proceeded to the next round of project reviews: Droople, irmos technologies, Rematter, and Uricycle.

Droople | Ramzi Bouzerda
Droople provides people and businesses worldwide with smart tools and insights to improve the way they use, conserve, and value water.

irmos technologies | Panagiotis Martakis
Irmos combines low-cost sensors and AI to revolutionize the maintenance and preservation of existing buildings and bridges and, in doing so, maximize their safe operational life.

rematter | Götz Hilber
Rematter combines high-tech manufacturing with innovative material use to provide highly sustainable and price-competitive solutions for the construction industry. The company’s premanufactured hybrid earth-timber floor slabs allow for re-use and easy disassembly.

UriCycle | Michel Riechmann
Delivering a green technology that enables local wastewater treatment at the household scale.

The finalists spent the next 1.5 days developing proofs of concept and business cases with SPS's experts, which they then presented to the executive board.

"This program aims to assess the use cases of startups within Swiss Prime Site Holding," said Götz Hilber of rematter. "It's a good opportunity if you want to test whether your product fits the needs and risk appetite of SPS. Thanks for the supportive atmosphere!"

The intense exchange with experts and peers offered the startups a chance to implement critical feedback and gain valuable insights that contribute to refining their solutions and processes. Michel Riechmann of UriCycle said: "It was very interesting to get feedback on our circular sanitation approach from the real estate sector. I was positively surprised that water use reduction and resource recovery are already on the future agenda of the sector."

"It has been an incredible and insightful experience," said Ramzi Bouzerda of Droople. "With Swiss Prime Site, some of us lived in two days what can take months in a customer journey. It’s a true accelerator!"

"The Swiss Prime Site Accelerator offered us exactly what we needed to develop a business case that is in line with the actual pain points of the enterprise," said Panagiotis Markatis of irmos technologies. "Executives of Swiss Prime Site spent hours and a lot of energy to provide us with precious insights and data that helped us understand the problem and shape the value that our startups can bring. This is an ideal setup to accelerate the match between innovative startups and SPS, and we are deeply grateful to be part of it!"

Two more Swiss Prime Site Start-up Accelerator Programmes are planned for 2023. Apply now if you have a digital solution to automate processes or if you have a solution to reduce CO2 emissions.



From left to right: Stefan Steiner (Co-Managing Partner at Venturelab), João Guerra (Program Manager at Venturelab), Götz Hilber (Rematter), Denis Vörös (Droople), Michel Riechmann (UriCycle), Panagiotis Martakis (irmos technologies), and Bastian Zarske Bueno (Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation at Swiss Prime Site)