Solothurn, May 15, 2025 – On June 18, the W.A. de Vigier Foundation will once again shine a spotlight on Switzerland’s most promising entrepreneurial talent. At the annual Award Ceremony in Solothurn, ten outstanding startup founders will present their ventures to a live and virtual audience, competing for up to five W.A. de Vigier Awards, each worth CHF 120,000. The event will be opened by the Foundation’s President, André Hoffmann, and will feature a keynote address by WWF CEO Thomas Vellacott.

This year’s ten finalists were selected from over 200 submitted projects. After narrowing the field to 15 in February, the Foundation Board conducted personal interviews to determine the final nominees. “These ten entrepreneurs stood out not just because of their innovative ideas, but because of who they are,” says Hanna Byland, CEO of the W.A. de Vigier Foundation. “Their leadership, resilience, and authentic commitment to positive impact truly impressed the jury.”

These are the Top 10 CEOs and their companies (in alphabetical order)

Emmanuel Akpakwu | CEO Axmed AG
ACCESS TO MEDICINES FOR ALL
Axmed is a B2B medicines marketplace transforming healthcare access for underserved communities worldwide. By consolidating demand across public, private, and third sectors, the platform enables bulk purchasing, reducing costs and improving supply chain efficiency. It connects pre-approved manufacturers with buyers, ensuring access to high-quality medicines at competitive prices. Through strategic partnerships with governments, NGOs, and logistics providers, Axmed streamlines procurement and distribution.

Julie Böhning | CEO PAVE Space SA
IMPROVING SPACE MOBILITY AND LOGISTICS
This startup addresses the growing challenge of sustainable space operations by providing efficient orbital logistics solutions. With more satellites aging in orbit and increasing space debris, PAVE’s Satellite Life Extension (LEX) service will extend the lifespan of satellites by offering refueling, repositioning, and maintenance – reducing waste and replacement costs. To prepare for this, PAVE is launching an in-orbit demonstration in 2027, entering the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) market to track satellites and debris.

Estelle Clerc | CEO CellX Biosolutions AG
USING BACTERIA AS MASTER RECYCLERS
Chemical waste is mostly treated by burning or filtering, which is expensive, inefficient, and releases harmful CO₂. This startup offers a natural alternative by using special bacteria that break down toxic chemicals like PFAS, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. Developed at ETH Zurich, their technology finds and captures the best bacteria for the task, turning them into eco-friendly products that safely remove pollution. Starting in 2025, they will launch pilot projects with industry partners to make chemical waste treatment more sustainable and affordable.

Bilal Fares | CEO Azure Cell Therapies
REGENERATING NEURONS TO DEFEAT PARKINSON’S
Every 9 minutes, someone is diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a disease that destroys brain cells with no cure. Current treatments only manage symptoms and become less effective over time. Azure Cell Therapies is changing this by developing a breakthrough regenerative treatment: lab-grown neurons that can be safely transplanted into patients’ brains. Their technology ensures scalability, safety (low tumor risk), and long-term survival of these neurons. With 18 years of research, $8M in funding, and 5 patents, they are redefining the future of Parkinson’s treatment.

Simona Fehlmann | CEO sallea AG
REVOLUTIONIZING CULTIVATED MEAT AND FISH
Most cultivated meat today can only be made into unstructured products like burgers, sausages and nuggets because the cells grow in flat layers. sallea has found a way to grow real, structured steaks and fillets using edible scaffolds—a special support system that helps the cells grow just like in nature. Founded by an all-female team from ETH Zurich, their solution makes high-quality, sustainable meat and fish without harming animals or the planet.

Moritz Geilinger | CEO Flink Robotics AG
ROBOTS FOR MATERIAL HANDLING
Many industries, from e-commerce to pharmaceuticals, struggle with labor shortages, rising costs, and increasing demand for faster deliveries. Traditional warehouse operations rely on manual material handling, which is slow and difficult to scale. Flink solves this by providing smart, adaptable robotics systems that automate tasks like sorting, picking, and loading. Unlike rigid industrial robots, Flink’s AI-powered cobots adjust in real time, seamlessly integrating into existing workflows. This allows businesses to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure faster, more reliable deliveries.

Edwige Guinet | CEO Visienco AG
AI-POWERED ORGANOID HANDLING
Traditional drug testing is slow, expensive, and unreliable, with 90% of animal-tested drugs failing in humans. Organoids—miniature lab-grown human organs—offer a better alternative, but their use is limited by manual, inconsistent workflows. Visienco solves this with Orgadroid, an AI-powered benchtop device that automates organoid sorting with precision and scalability. Developed at CSEM, this technology ensures high-quality organoids, accelerating drug discovery, diagnostics, and personalized medicine—while reducing the need for animal testing.

Freddy Hunziker | CEO New Roots AG
VEGAN DAIRY MADE IN SWITZERLAND
Milk production has a major environmental impact. New Roots offers a sustainable alternative by replacing cow’s milk with lupins—protein-rich legumes that naturally enrich the soil and grow efficiently. Using natural biotechnology, lupin milk is produced and can be processed in existing cheese dairies without additional investment. The cheese is traditionally fermented and aged but with 80% lower CO₂ emissions and 6,000 times less water consumption. This innovative approach provides an ethical, healthy, and eco-friendly solution for cheese production.

Matthew Lapinski | CEO Clee Medical SA
ADVANCING PRECISION AND EFFICIENCY IN NEUROSURGICAL TOOLS
Clee Medical is transforming brain surgery with an advanced platform that combines ultra-high-resolution real-time imaging, AI-based navigation, and machine learning. This technology allows surgeons to operate with extreme precision, reducing risks and improving patient outcomes. By offering better visualization of complex brain structures, it enables safer, more effective treatments for neurological conditions. The system also lowers healthcare costs, speeds up recovery, and expands access to life-saving therapies.

Donato Rubinetti | CEO lonic Wind AG
SILENT, ENERGY-EFFICIENT DEVICE COOLING
This startup is transforming how electronic devices stay cool by replacing traditional fans with a silent, energy-efficient technology called Ionic Wind. Instead of using spinning blades, it moves air using an electric field, reducing noise, energy use, and wear and tear on devices. This means laptops and other compact electronics can stay cooler, run longer on battery, and last longer overall. With 48% more airflow and lower power consumption, this innovation makes modern technology quieter, more efficient, and more sustainable.

About the W.A. de Vigier Awards

The W.A. de Vigier Award is the oldest award for young entrepreneurs in Switzerland and, with annual prize money of up to CHF 700,000 is one of the most highly endowed startup prizes in Switzerland. Over the past 36 years, the foundation has distributed almost CHF 15 million of seed money. The results are over 100 flourishing startups, successful IPOs, multiple company exits and above all, many newly created jobs.

The following aspects are relevant for the evaluation of the projects: The entrepreneurial personality, the degree of innovation, the value for society as a whole, the technical and financial viability, market prospects and the potential for job creation.