Top 10 Startups in Switzerland to Watch in 2026
Switzerland’s startup ecosystem is entering 2026 with considerable momentum, particularly across artificial intelligence, robotics, healthcare, climate technology and deep tech. According to EY’s 2026 Swiss Startup Barometer, Swiss startups raised CHF 3.3 billion across 515 funding rounds in 2025, representing a 44% increase in investment volume compared with the previous year. AI is also becoming an increasingly important part of the ecosystem, with AI-based startups involved in 32% of Swiss funding rounds during 2025.
What makes Switzerland particularly interesting is the close relationship between startups, universities, research institutions and industrial companies. ETH Zurich and other Swiss research institutions continue to produce companies working on technologies that can have applications far beyond the domestic market. From autonomous underwater robots and robotic surgery to advanced materials, AI-powered accounting and real-time water monitoring, the startups featured in this list reflect the breadth of innovation emerging from the country.
These ten companies are not presented as a ranking, but as a selection of Swiss startups whose technologies, products, funding momentum or market opportunities make them particularly worth watching in 2026.
10 Swiss Startups to Watch in 2026
1. Nanoflex Robotics
Nanoflex Robotics is a Swiss medical technology company developing telerobotic systems for time-critical endovascular interventions, with an initial focus on stroke treatment. Spun out of ETH Zurich and incorporated in 2021, the company combines electromagnetic navigation with ultra-flexible robotic guidewires and catheters to give physicians greater control and dexterity inside blood vessels. Its technology is designed to make procedures such as thrombectomy more accessible by reducing the geographic barriers that can prevent patients from reaching specialist hospitals in time.
The company was founded by Matt Curran and Prof. Dr. Bradley Nelson, with Christophe Chautems also identified as a co-founder and CTO; Curran currently serves as CEO, while the wider leadership team includes regulatory and clinical specialist Dr. Chanel Allen-Megahey.
Nanoflex has attracted significant attention for demonstrating the feasibility of remote robotic intervention. In 2025, it conducted what it described as the first known transatlantic robot-assisted animal thrombectomy, with a neurosurgeon in Arizona remotely treating an animal at Inselspital in Bern more than 9,000 kilometres away. In June 2026, Nanoflex received €12.5 million from the European Innovation Council Accelerator, consisting of a €2.5 million grant and €10 million equity investment. The company said the financing would support clinical validation toward European CE marking and preparation of its first commercial platform.
Nanoflex has also signed an MOU with Genpharm to explore clinical, regulatory and commercial opportunities across Gulf and Levant markets. With its combination of robotics, medical devices, magnetic navigation and remote intervention, Nanoflex Robotics represents one of Switzerland’s more ambitious attempts to apply deep tech to a major healthcare access problem.
2. RhyGaze
RhyGaze is a Basel-based biotechnology startup developing gene therapies designed to restore vision in people suffering from retinal diseases that cause blindness. The company was founded in May 2024 as a spinout from the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel, or IOB, based on research involving scientific founders Botond Roska and Bence György. Its technology combines optogenetic proteins with gene therapy tools to introduce light-sensing capabilities into retinal cells that have lost their natural sensitivity to light. The approach is particularly notable because it aims to target cone cells, which are responsible for high-acuity vision, rather than simply replacing a defective gene in a conventional gene-replacement approach.
RhyGaze is led by CEO Katherine High, a prominent gene therapy executive who was previously involved in the development of Luxturna, while Linda Couto serves as Chief Scientific Officer and Paulo Falabella as Chief Medical Officer. The company has assembled an experienced board that includes representatives and partners associated with GV, ARCH Venture Partners, BioGeneration Ventures and the Novartis Venture Fund. RhyGaze attracted major investor attention soon after its formation.
In January 2025, it announced an $86 million Series A led by GV, with participation from ARCH Venture Partners and F-Prime Capital, alongside founding investors BioGeneration Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund. The financing is intended to advance its lead gene therapy toward early clinical trials. With a technology platform aimed at addressing diseases for which effective treatment options remain limited, a globally experienced leadership team and substantial early-stage financing, RhyGaze is one of Switzerland’s most closely watched emerging biotech companies.
3. apheros
Founded in 2023 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, apheros is a Swiss deep-tech company developing advanced metal foams for thermal management and other industrial applications. The company was founded by Dr. Julia Carpenter, who serves as CEO, and Dr. Gaëlle Andreatta, who serves as CTO, bringing together expertise in materials science, research, technology transfer and commercialization. Apheros’ core technology is a patented metal foam with an extremely high surface area, open porosity and customizable structure.
The company says its material can provide up to 1,000 times the surface area of conventional alternatives, allowing it to improve heat transfer and fluid flow. Its primary commercial focus is liquid cooling, particularly for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers, although the technology is also being developed for green hydrogen and electrolysis applications.
Apheros raised $1.85 million in pre-seed funding in 2024 in a round led by Swiss venture capital firm Founderful, with the financing intended to expand production, research and development and commercial activity. The company has subsequently focused on scaling its manufacturing capabilities. In 2025, its single-phase cold plate achieved thermal resistance below 0.01°C/W at a flow rate of 4 litres per minute, while its proprietary foaming processes were scaled to mid-scale production of up to 0.5 tonnes, corresponding to more than 20,000 cold plates per year.
Apheros also opened an CHF 8 million seed round in November 2025 and said it was targeting a Q1 2026 close. As demand for computing power and AI infrastructure increases pressure on data-center cooling systems, apheros is pursuing a materials-level solution to a growing infrastructure challenge.
4. Albatross AI
Albatross AI is a Swiss artificial intelligence startup developing technology for real-time product and content discovery. Founded in September 2024 by former Amazon AI leaders Dr. Kevin Kahn and Dr. Matteo Ruffini alongside entrepreneur Johan Boissard, the company is headquartered in Baar, with an office in Zurich. Its central idea is that conventional recommendation systems often rely heavily on historical user behaviour, static catalogues and batch-trained models, while online businesses increasingly need systems capable of understanding what a user wants at a particular moment. Albatross addresses this through sequential embedding models trained directly on live events, allowing its technology to continuously learn from interactions as they happen.
Its platform includes a Real-Time Discovery Feed and multimodal search capabilities designed for ecommerce, media and other digital businesses. The company says its infrastructure processes more than one billion events per month, updates embeddings more than 4,000 times per second and can deliver predictions in under 100 milliseconds.
Albatross has also attracted substantial venture backing. Its latest major publicly announced financing came in November 2025, when it raised approximately €10.5 million in a round led by MMC Ventures, with participation from Redalpine, Daphni and strategic angels. Earlier financing included a €3 million foundation round, bringing publicly reported total funding to more than €13 million at that point, while the company currently describes itself as having raised more than $16 million.
As ecommerce and digital platforms compete increasingly on personalization and discovery, Albatross is positioning itself around an important shift in AI: moving from systems that predict based on yesterday’s behaviour toward systems that respond to what users are doing right now.
5. Infinity
Infinity, the flagship product of Zurich-based NextBusiness AG, is a Swiss AI-powered accounting platform designed to simplify bookkeeping, invoicing and financial administration for freelancers, startups and small businesses. The company behind the platform was founded by a group of students in 2023, while Infinity itself was released in 2022 and has since evolved into a broader business-management platform. The team is led by CEO Stefan Wittwer, with Raksmey Oum responsible for growth and partnerships and Michael Schnyder leading AI and engineering.
Infinity aims to make accounting accessible to users without extensive accounting knowledge while using AI to automate repetitive financial tasks. Its platform includes AI-assisted bookkeeping, document processing, quotes and QR invoices, project management, time tracking, payroll functions and financial-statement assistance. The company says its AI can suggest more than 90% of bookings when provided with sufficient context, while accounting data is hosted on Swiss servers.
In June 2026, NextBusiness announced that Infinity had raised $3 million in its first major funding round. The round was led by EquityPitcher and included Tenity and Backbone Ventures, as well as business angels including early Facebook investor Daniel Gutenberg and Lukas Speiser. The company said the capital would be used to expand its engineering team and accelerate development of autonomous accounting. Infinity has continued to add functionality throughout 2026, including improvements to its AI-powered Live Capture, smarter tax-code suggestions, payroll features and a new REST API for invoices and estimates. Its ambition is ultimately much larger than digitizing bookkeeping: it wants accounting for Swiss SMEs to become increasingly autonomous.
6. MYNERVA
MYNERVA is a Zurich-based medtech startup developing wearable technology and digital health solutions for people living with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The company is focused on a particularly important problem: neuropathy can affect sensation and mobility, increasing the risk of falls and other complications among people with diabetes.
Its flagship product, Leia by MYNERVA, is a non-invasive smart wearable designed to improve mobility and reduce falls by providing personalized sensory stimulation and monitoring. MYNERVA’s mission is to combine hardware, personalized treatment and remote monitoring into a more efficient approach to managing diabetic neuropathy.
The company is led by CEO and co-founder Greta Preatoni, alongside co-founder Luigi Carotenuto, and has developed its technology through a research and clinical-development pathway connected to the Swiss innovation ecosystem and Wyss Zurich. The company has attracted attention through a series of awards and competitions, including the MassChallenge Switzerland Diamond Prize, the >>venture>> Grand Prize, the American Diabetes Association Innovation Challenge and other medtech awards.
MYNERVA entered an important development phase in 2026. Its startup profile records the completion of its first seed round on June 30, 2026, with the latest financing reported at CHF 3.6 million, while a longitudinal randomized clinical trial began in May 2026. The company says Leia is not yet commercially available but is moving closer to launch.
With diabetes affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide and diabetic neuropathy representing a significant unmet need, MYNERVA’s combination of wearable technology, neuroscience and digital health makes it a startup to watch as it moves toward broader clinical validation and commercialization.
7. Tethys Robotics
Tethys Robotics is a Zurich-based ETH Zurich spin-off developing autonomous underwater robots for inspection, monitoring and security in challenging marine environments. The company’s technology is designed for waters that can be turbid, confined or affected by strong currents, where conventional underwater inspection approaches can require large vessels, divers or expensive remotely operated systems.
Tethys combines autonomous underwater vehicle and remotely operated vehicle capabilities with sensor fusion and real-time three-dimensional mapping. Its flagship platform, Tethys ONE, is designed to automate subsea inspection and support applications including offshore energy, renewable infrastructure and defence-related operations such as unexploded ordnance clearance.
The company was founded by a seven-member team and is led by CEO and co-founder Jonas Wüst, with Johannes Lienhart as COO, Pragash Sivananthaguru as CTO and Gallus Kaufmann as CCO. Other co-founders include Andrej Studer, Florin Kümin and Bastian Schildknecht, while Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart and Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler are among its board members and co-founders. Tethys launched Tethys ONE in 2024 and has continued expanding its commercial and technical capabilities. Venturelab reported in February 2026 that the company had 18 employees and had raised more than CHF 8 million, including a CHF 3.5 million pre-seed round in 2025.
Its combination of autonomy, underwater robotics and industrial inspection addresses a market where collecting accurate data can be difficult, dangerous and expensive. As offshore energy infrastructure expands and operators increasingly need automated monitoring, Tethys Robotics is positioned at the intersection of robotics, marine technology and industrial automation.
8. Ascento
Ascento is a Swiss robotics startup developing autonomous outdoor security robots and AI-powered systems for protecting large industrial, commercial and infrastructure sites. Founded by ETH Zurich alumni Alessandro Morra, Ciro Salzmann, Dominik Mannhart and Miguel de la Iglesia Valls, the company combines wheeled-legged robotic mobility with autonomous navigation, computer vision and cloud-based monitoring.
Morra serves as CEO, while the founding team includes Valls as CTO, Salzmann focusing on electronics and software, and Mannhart on hardware and design. Ascento’s core commercial product, Ascento Guard, is designed to patrol large outdoor properties, check defined points of interest, detect unusual activity and provide security teams with automated monitoring. Rather than selling the robot purely as hardware, Ascento has developed a Robotics-as-a-Service model in which customers can rent the system, making autonomous security more accessible without the upfront cost associated with purchasing and deploying a fleet.
The company’s major funding milestone came in 2023, when it announced a $4.3 million pre-seed round led by Wingman Ventures and Playfair, with participation from robotics and technology investors including former Zoox founder Tim Kentley-Klay and Clearpath Robotics co-founder Ryan Gariepy, alongside non-dilutive support from Innosuisse and ESA BIC. Ascento has since focused on commercial deployment and scaling.
Ascento’s robots are intended to address labour shortages in the security industry while offering a flexible alternative to fixed cameras and traditional patrols. With autonomous robotics moving steadily from research environments into real-world industrial operations, Ascento’s progress in turning robotic security into a recurring service makes it one of Switzerland’s startups worth following in 2026.
9. Riverkin
Riverkin is a Zurich-based water technology startup building real-time data infrastructure for rivers and watersheds. Founded by hydrologist Dr. Jessica Droujko, the company combines smart sensors, hydrological research and data analytics to provide more detailed information about water conditions, flooding and sediment dynamics. Droujko serves as co-founder and CEO, while Martijn Bosch is co-founder and market and product lead.
Riverkin’s technology measures parameters including water temperature, pressure and turbidity at frequent intervals and can remotely transmit information from difficult-to-access locations. The company aims to help utilities, emergency services, researchers and other organizations move beyond sparse manual measurements toward continuous, site-specific monitoring. Its technology has already been deployed across four continents, with applications ranging from flood-risk prediction and sediment monitoring to hydropower management.
Riverkin has received support from Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem, including a CHF 150,000 InnoBooster grant, while its technology progressed from prototypes toward stable hardware approaching Technology Readiness Level 9. The company has reported deployments involving more than 68 sensors and paid pilots with organizations including Axpo, WWF and EWZ.
More recently, Riverkin received a €1.39 million Innosuisse grant for a €1.97 million project focused on hydropower. The funding is intended to help productize and validate its technology in demanding real-world environments where operators need better information about water and fine-sediment dynamics.
As climate change, extreme weather and growing pressure on water resources increase the need for better monitoring, Riverkin is developing the type of physical data infrastructure that could become increasingly important to water management and energy systems.
10. roboa
roboa is a Zurich-based deep-tech robotics startup developing soft, pneumatic robots capable of entering confined and difficult-to-reach environments. The company’s roots go back to 2019, when its founders began developing a search-and-rescue robot as an ETH Zurich student project. After years of research and prototype development at ETH Zurich’s Autonomous Systems Lab, the founding team began working full-time on the technology in 2024, and roboa AG was incorporated in February 2025.
Its founders include Alexander Kübler, Pascal Auf der Maur, Nicolas Aymon and Betim Djambazi, alongside board-level co-founders including Prof. Roland Siegwart. Kübler serves as CEO, Auf der Maur as CTO and Djambazi as CCO, while Aymon is COO. RoBoa’s technology takes a different approach from conventional rigid robots: its snake-like system uses growing-based locomotion to navigate spaces containing bends, sharp edges and other obstacles that can prevent traditional machines from reaching their destination.
Potential applications include inspection and maintenance of industrial infrastructure such as wastewater systems, chemical facilities and power infrastructure, as well as search-and-rescue operations in collapsed buildings and disaster environments.
In 2024, the company secured its first funding through Venture Kick and won the Swiss Technology Award; in 2025, it secured additional support through BRIDGE, InnoBooster, ESA BIC and Innosuisse. The company also grew to more than ten people and began moving from technology development toward field operations and commercial deployments. In 2026, roboa has continued expanding deployments and its team, making it an interesting example of how Swiss university research can evolve into a commercial robotics business targeting difficult industrial environments.
The Future Looks Bright for Switzerland’s Startup Scene
Switzerland’s startup ecosystem is entering 2026 with strengths that extend well beyond financial services and traditional technology. The companies in this list illustrate how Swiss founders are building businesses around some of the world’s most important technological challenges, from AI infrastructure and autonomous accounting to robotic surgery, underwater inspection, advanced materials, water management and healthcare.
The broader funding environment is also becoming more supportive: Swiss startups raised CHF 3.3 billion in 2025, while AI-focused companies accounted for a growing share of funding activity. A notable feature of this ecosystem is the connection between academic research and commercial innovation. Many of the startups featured here have roots in ETH Zurich or other Swiss research institutions, demonstrating the country’s ability to translate scientific and engineering expertise into products aimed at international markets.
If investment momentum continues and more of these companies successfully move from research and early commercialization into global scale, Switzerland could strengthen its position as one of Europe’s most important deep-tech and innovation hubs. For 2026, the opportunity is not simply to watch individual startups grow, but to watch how an entire ecosystem turns Swiss research, engineering and entrepreneurship into globally relevant companies.