Swiss Prime Site Start-up Accelerator Programme: Discover four companies disrupting the real estate sector

14.07.2022 14:16, Tracy Woodley

Venturelab’s industry partner Swiss Prime Site, one of Europe’s leading listed real estate companies, is always looking for pioneering startup ideas in the proptech sector. For the latest Swiss Prime Site Start-up Accelerator Programme, Swiss Prime Site’s management and industry experts called upon proptech startups that are reinventing existing business models and identifying new value creation opportunities in the real estate sector.

Over the course of the two-day Accelerator Programme, participants were given the opportunity to refine relevant use cases for Swiss Prime Site and its group companies (Swiss Prime Site Immobilien, Swiss Prime Site Solutions, Wincasa, and Jelmoli) that will lead to sustainable processes, improved operational efficiencies, and sustainable growth enablement. The range of proposed solutions addressed the whole real estate value chain ranging from climate reporting solutions, data-driven insights solutions, predictive maintenance, digital twins, and asset management software to smart buildings/IoT and circular building solutions that improve the sustainability of the core processes.

Eight startups were selected to pitch their ideas in front of the jury with the goal of securing funding and setting up a pilot project or proof of concept. The jury then chose four finalists who were able to present their use and business case to the Swiss Prime Site board: DuraMon, Novalytica, proximi.io, and Spotr.ai.

Bastian Zarske Bueno, Head of Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation at Swiss Prime Site, was enthusiastic about the range of technological solutions proposed by the participating startups, saying, "The 17th Swiss Prime Site Startup Accelerator Programme under the broad title 'proptech' was a great opportunity to get an up-to-date overview of the latest developments and innovations in the European proptech scene in the style of a tour d'horizon. The use cases developed offer promising future potential leveraging digitalization and sustainability and we are looking forward to the follow-ups initiated."



DuraMon: DuraMon allows owners/operators to reduce maintenance costs of concrete infrastructure, increasing safety, and decreasing CO2 emissions by using safer, more affordable, and sustainable construction and repair solutions.

Novalytica: Novalytica supports organizations develop well-defined data strategies to generate business-relevant insights and tools from stored information using specific expertise, data products, and data tools.

proximi.io: With Proximi.io platform developers can turn any application location-aware in minutes. In addition to getting the most precise position fix, the platform offers easy-to-use tools for geofencing, delivering mobile content, automating IoT devices, integrating to 3rd party APIs, and collecting analytics.

Spotr.ai: Spotr uses over nine image sources, ranging from humans to satellites, in order to analyze entire building portfolios in minutes.

The participating startups gained valuable experience and received constructive feedback to advance their solutions. Overall, the experience proved to be greatly rewarding for all:

Massimo Mannino, Novalytica AG:
“The workshops and exchanges with a range of people from Swiss Prime Site helped us to better understand the pain points and tailor our offering to the business needs. We also received great advice from experts that allowed us to optimize our pitch.”

Yurena Seguí Femenias, DuraMon GmbH:
“The Swiss Prime Site accelerator is extremely well designed, including many interactive discussions with experts who ask the right questions and provide insightful and tailored advice to the venture.”

Annina Koskiola, proximi.io:
"The Swiss Prime Site accelerator provided a unique chance to connect with a large group of decision-makers from the Swiss Prime Site group. We had great innovation sessions and received insights and feedback that will be useful to us also outside of the program. Intensive two days, but definitely worth it."

Tim Odenkirchen, Spotr.ai: 
"It has been two intensive and fruitful days! We quickly identified a suitable business case and I'm looking to working together with the Wincasa team in the coming months."