Concrete and cement projects have a heavy presence in this year's Kickstart Innovation programme. They accounted for five of the 48 Proofs of Concepts (PoCs) and other partnerships between start-ups, scale-ups and established companies and institutions.
Swiss-based European innovation platform Kickstart runs a scale-up programme for high-growth startups with the goal to accelerate deep tech innovation in Switzerland. It has initiated a total of over 170 such collaborations since 2015 in the fields of Circular Economy, EdTech & New Work, FinTech & InsurTech, Food & RetailTech, HealthTech, Smart City & Technology and others.
Among the five concrete and cement projects, the City of Zurich plans to cooperate with Mobbot and to test Mobbot’s 3D printing with sprayed concrete in selected civil engineering projects before the end of 2020.
Holcim Switzerland and HeatNeutral are partnering up to advance the decarbonisation of production plants by using clean tech combustion as a heating alternative.
In addition, Holcim Switzerland and Neustark share the vision of carbon neutral and circular concrete production – the companies move one step closer towards this goal by engaging in a joint material test program.
In a fifth concrete and cement project, Holcim Switzerland and Mobbot are jointly working on the integration of recycled building materials into 3D printing technology.
Kickstart’s technology partner, CSEM, is supporting participating startups with the Deep Tech Journey Award, and this year the prize goes to Mobbot focusing on a unique approach to 3D concrete printing.
“This year many companies were challenged to change their operating processes and digitalise applications in a very short time,” said Katka Letzing, co-founder and CEO of Kickstart Innovation. “The partnerships established this year indicate that transforming processes early on using digital and other innovative solutions is a competitive advantage. For this purpose, large companies are increasingly interested in collaborating with high-growth start-ups.”
Over the past ten weeks, well-known Swiss companies and institutions such as AXA, Coop, Migros, Swisscom, die Mobiliar, Stiftung Mercator Schweiz, the City of Zurich, PostFinance, Holcim Switzerland, Energie 360°, Credit Suisse and other partner organisations have formed valuable partnerships with scaleups from more than 11 countries. The partnerships were announced during the Online Ceremony yesterday.
