Tech innovators of tomorrow face off at Startup Champions Seed Night 2025
The 14th edition of Startup Champions Seed Night stood out for its celebration of 20 promising startups, competing in a highly anticipated pitch contest. With more than 500 attendees both at EPFL and online, the event united budding entrepreneurs from EPFL and the Canton of Vaud, alongside angel investors, mentors, industry leaders, and researchers. The evening demonstrated the strength of innovation coming out of the region.
Held on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at the Rolex Forum in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Startup Champions Seed Night drew an audience of 500 entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and industry figures. EPFL students, alumni, and researchers also took part in this event designed to support the growth of Switzerland's startup landscape.
In a 90-second pitch competition, rising entrepreneurs presented their ideas to win votes from the audience. The contest was divided into 4 rounds, each featuring 5 pitches. After several rounds of fierce competition, Claudia Bigoni (SaisiR), Gian Luca Barbruni (MoleSense Health Solutions), Tim Cousin (Roofscapes), and Julie Böhning (PAVE Space) emerged as the finalists.
In the picture up left (from left to right): Tim Cousin, Julie Böhning, Gian Luca Barbruni, and Claudia Bigoni
Vincent Delattre, an EPFL, Venture Kick, and TOP 100 alumnus, and Co-Founder of ONWARD Medical, shared his journey from concept to company in a keynote address, inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs. The medical technology firm, focused on developing therapies to restore movement, function, and independence for people with spinal cord injuries, secured EUR 50 million last year to fuel its growth.
“It’s great to be back on stage, where I pitched 11 years ago,” said Vincent Delattre. “Back then, the mindset was: why not do it? We had clinical evidence, the timing was right, and we brought in the right people for regulatory and operational support. Our goal was to help people—this started as a passion, not just a job. The real challenge was scaling: operations had to evolve, and the company moved through phases where it became hard to keep up. After 2020, we grew quickly and took advantage of a strong market.”
"In 10 years, what impact do you hope your startup will have on the world?", "What next two milestones do you want to achieve for your startup?", "If a genie granted you one wish for your startup, what would it be?", "If you had 5 million right now, what would you do with it?": these the questions posed to the 4 finalists. After the session, the jury deliberated and chose the winner: Gian Luca Barbruni, Co-Founder of MoleSense Health Solutions.
The event was organized by Venturelab and EPFL (EPFL Alumni, EPFL Vice Presidency for Innovation), and supported by Alpian, André Roland, EY Switzerland, Innovaud, and Kellerhals Carrard.
Learn more about the 20 startups that pitched at the Startup Champions Seed Night 2025:
Avenir: Transform companies' data into reports
Avenir leverages AI to transform companies' data into reports. This enables professionals accross the board to save time by reducing admin and removing the hates part of their job. Read more
AZURECELL SA: Engineering Hope. Restoring the brain. One cell at a time.
AzureCell is a Swiss regenerative cell therapy company born from two decades of pioneering neuroscience and cell-engineering research at the University of Geneva. We are scientists and innovators u... Read more
Badger Service SA: Empower businesses to build meaningful relationships
Badger empowers businesses to build meaningful relationships with their clients. For customers, it aims to aggregate all of their loyalty programs into one application and enables them to receive uniq... Read more
Bioscibex SA: Faster, cheaper & safer monoclonal antibody production
Imagine developing a life-saving biologic, only to realize that millions of patients may never access it because manufacturing is too complex and the drug too expensive. This is the challenge of mon... Read more
Circelec: Manufacturing recyclable and compostable circuit boards.
More than 4 million tons of printed circuit boards (PCBs) will become electronic waste globally this year, with most being non-recyclable. Current PCB production relies on harmful chemicals and non-bi... Read more
DigeHealth SA: 24/7 non-invasive solution for bowel obstruction prevention.
There are more than 8M abdominal surgeries per year. 1 patient over 4 will suffer from a bowel obstruction. Additionally, 60% of Crohn disease patient will suffer from bowel obstructions. Without time... Read more
Dyneo Technologies SA: Data-driven technologies for sustainable thermal networks.
Heating and cooling constitute one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. Thermal networks offer a promising solution to reduce these emissions, but their rapid expansion a... Read more
Ex Nunc Intelligence SA (Silex Legal): Revolutionizing the legal industry with technology
As the first LegalTech from EPFL, Ex Nunc Intelligence SA is revolutionizing the legal industry by developing a software that leverages the latest advances in AI, ML and NLP. Founded by a multidis... Read more
Focus Technology: Adaptive Surgical Loupes: Autofocus Eyewear for precision
Adaptive Surgical Loupes offer a groundbreaking solution for surgeons and dentists, integrating high-speed, real-time autofocus technology into traditional eyewear. This innovation addresses the core ... Read more
Healium: Med-tech startup revolutionizing chronic disease management.
Healium is a Swiss Medtech startup tackling medication non-adherence, which affects 50% of chronic patients and costs over €400B annually. The solution, called Medicase, is a smart, portable pill disp... Read more
Hikane: Hikane develops devices for visually impaired people.
Hikane offers a solution to help visually impaired individuals understand their environment through touch, using a simple and intuitive haptic device that can be attached to any type of white cane. Read more
Inkocell Therapeutics: Developing the next generation of cell-based therapies.
Different stresses, such as cancer treatment, trigger cardiac fibrosis, leading to heart failure and death. In the US, there are 18M cancer survivors, and 10% of them will develop cardiac fibrosis bec... Read more
Juvion Health Sciences SA: Improving health span in the elderly: Nurturing motion
Juvion’s vision is to redefine aging biology. We aim to prove that age-related loss of movement and memory is driven by weakening cell communication in the nervous system, and that it can be restored ... Read more
Luxtelligence SA: Electro-optic Interconnects for AI datacentres
We provide integrated circuits for optical interconnects in datacentres using a novel material platform with a robust supply chain using a proprietary manufacturing technology. Read more
MobiLysis Sàrl: Mobility solutions as all-in-one solution using drone data
Current tools advance towards the direction of showing the symptom but systematically fail to find the root cause, let alone fix it. We offer an all-in-one solution for monitoring and analysing mobil... Read more
MoleSense Sàrl: Shaping women’s health through molecular wearables.
MoleSense advances women’s healthcare with molecular wearables—a new class of medical devices that go beyond tracking vital signs to continuously and non-invasively monitor biochemical markers such as... Read more
PAVE Space SA: Comprehensive autonomous systems for space mobility
PAVE’s team believes in space as the next frontier for tomorrow’s industry. The company's first mission is to develop a kick-stage (vehicle for spacecraft) that enables any satellite to travel from th... Read more
Roofscapes: Transforming rooftops into green and accessible spaces
Founded in 2021 at MIT by three EPFL architecture alumni, Roofscapes adapts cities to climate change by transforming rooftops into green and accessible spaces. Its replicable solutions reduce urban he... Read more
SaisiR: Neurotechnologies to help patients regain independence.
Stroke is a major cause of disability worldwide, leaving 25 million people with severe impairments and unable to perform activities of daily living. SaisiR introduces a revolutionary therapy based on ... Read more
Verretex SA: Creating circular glass fiber textiles
Upcycling reclaimed glass fiber from any recycling process to produce high quality glass fiber mats. Read more
