Finalists and winners

Eradicating muscle and joint pain: that is the vision of APTISSEN SA. The injectable gel SynolisTM was launched by APTISSEN under the leadership of co-founder Silvia Scherer, who has a PhD in natural sciences. This is an innovative product that rapidly helps to restore mobility and provide long-lasting pain relief.

The judges say: “Silvia Scherer is a star entrepreneur who has shown enormous innovative spirit to successfully position her company in a short space of time. Unlike most others, a strong innovative spirit is not just perceptible, but tangible. This is reflected in the enormous potential of the actual product. If Ms. Scherer succeeds in implementing her vision and providing long-lasting muscle and joint pain relief with a product that can be administered by the customer, the company has a bright future ahead of it.”

Pini Group has multidisciplinary teams on all five continents developing smart, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for complex technical projects of any size – from railway tunnels to road bridges and airport terminals, and from power stations to hospitals and data centers. Group CEO Andrea Galli succinctly sums up what the company wants to do: “Make it happen.”

The judges say: “The decentralized organization of his company has allowed Andrea Galli to bring Swiss quality to the international stage in an innovative fashion. The specific structure of his company, is allowing him to successfully position it in a traditional industry. By applying his special concept he has built up a worldwide network of engineering offices and talent, enabling him to successfully implement even the largest and most complex infrastructure projects. At the same time, he has managed to control the extremely fast growth of his firm and achieve long-term business success.”

Esther Studer, Peter Galliker and Rolf Galliker are the third generation of their family to head Galliker Transport AG, which was set up in 1918 and has grown from a small haulage company into a logistics company operating throughout Europe – with 3,500 employees at 19 sites in six countries. This is partly because the three siblings are keeping up the tradition of thinking in terms of generations, not quarters.

The judges say: “The Gallikers are a family of entrepreneurs par excellence, whose personal commitment and passionate innovative spirit are helping them hold their own in a difficult market. What is particularly impressive is the extraordinary innovative capability that goes way beyond the traditional transport business and also credibly takes on the topic of sustainability. Galliker Transport AG walks the walk when it comes to shared values and implements its visions with foresight to the benefit of the long-term and sustainable development of the company. The three business personalities winning our award today are looking to the future and the next generation is already being brought into the company in a prudent manner.”

Four-legged robots with AI-driven agility take recurring, dirty and dangerous tasks off the hands of workers in the oil, gas and chemical industry, improving not just their productivity, but also their quality of life: that is the mission of ANYbotics, a spin-off of ETH Zurich’s Robotic Systems Lab run by co-founder Péter Fankhauser.

The judges say: “Péter Fankhauser and his team deliver cutting-edge technology from Switzerland. His pioneering offering is helping him to hold his own against global competition. He has not just managed to establish his company in a market in which it had to overcome major competition. The innovative spirit seems to know no bounds in this firm and impresses in all respects: a highly innovative hiring approach is taken when using reliable robotic technology in surroundings dangerous for people, with the robots hired reporting to HR departments like human employees.”

Some of the world’s most innovative companies put their trust in a partner from Switzerland when it comes to simplifying and accelerating digital transformation: under the leadership of founder Thomas Failer, Data Migration International AG is developing AI-based solutions for migrating, managing, archiving and mining data – the most important asset of its customers.

The jury says: “Thomas Failer is an exciting personality who has a distinct flair for identifying problems and developing solutions – with great success.”

The purchasing power of a company’s staff will increase noticeably if they are able to benefit from numerous advantages, offers and discounts – and with no sign of any downsides: this was the basic idea behind the platform Swibeco, which was founded by Ivan Brustlein and now looks after over 8,000 B2B clients. He now has 60 employees working under him.

The jury says: “Ivan Brustlein and his company have developed a fine-tuned business model, enabling them to stand out in an established market.”

Oscar Kambly and his wife took over the village bakery in Trubschachen in 1910, laying the foundation for a family business that even today is run by a husband and wife team – great-granddaughter Dania and her husband Nils Kambly. Even though the best-selling manufacturer of bakery products in Switzerland generates almost half of its sales abroad, the factory is still located in Trubschachen.

The jury says: “Dania and Nils Kambly head a beloved Swiss brand that everyone knows. The Kambly name is synonymous with quality, tradition and credibility.”

A novel injectable biomaterial is available to plastic surgeons to restore the soft tissue of patients without major interventions: AdiPearl™, developed by Volumina Medical SA – a medtech start-up that emerged from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and is run by co-founder Amélie Béduer.

The jury says: “Amélie Béduer heads her company with highly-innovative ideas, outstanding business acumen and pronounced foresight.”