Zurich Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified ETH Spin-offs and Scale-ups in Climate, Robotics, Drones and Fintech
Zurich is Switzerland's largest city and home to ETH Zurich, one of Europe's leading technical universities. That shows in its startups: carbon removal, legged robots, warehouse drones, survey drones and data capture software, plus a few consumer fintech apps that grew up in the Swiss market. The 2026 version of this article listed ten names. When we checked them, two turned out to be based in Lausanne and Basel, one appears to be an Icelandic company, and two have since been bought by large pharma and medtech groups. For this 2027 edition we checked each company on its own website or in its own press release in November 2026 to confirm that it still operates, that its address is in Zurich, what it sells and what it publishes about its funding. What happened to the old names is listed near the end.
Quick answer: the Zurich startups to watch in 2027 are Climeworks (carbon removal from the air), Scandit (smart data capture), ANYbotics (four-legged inspection robots), Verity (warehouse inventory drones), Wingtra (survey drones), Sonect (cash at shop counters), neon (mobile banking app) and CUTISS (lab-grown skin grafts, based in Schlieren next to Zurich). Scandit has the biggest published round: a $150 million Series D in 2022. For support, start with ETH Zurich's entrepreneurship programmes, Innosuisse and the Swiss Startup Association.
Are you getting customers from ChatGPT yet?
More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Rank on ChatGPT
Why Zurich Matters for Founders in 2027
Most of the companies on this list share an origin: ETH Zurich. Climeworks, ANYbotics, Verity and Wingtra all started in its labs, and Scandit was founded by researchers from MIT, ETH Zurich and IBM Research. ETH Zurich says it recognised a record 46 new ventures in 2025, which it now splits into 24 ETH Spin-offs (built on ETH research results) and 22 ETH Start-ups, according to its own facts and figures update of April 2026.
If you plan to visit, our guides to startup events in Zurich and startup events in Switzerland list where founders and investors meet. For other European tech cities, compare our lists for Berlin, Aachen, Eindhoven and Rotterdam.
Zurich Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared
Sources: each company's official website, imprint, newsroom or own press release, checked 1 November 2026.
The Zurich Startups to Watch in 2027
1. Climeworks: removing CO₂ from the air
Climeworks captures carbon dioxide directly from the air with its own direct air capture (DAC) technology and stores it permanently, and through Climeworks Solutions it sells portfolios of carbon removal to companies. Its journey page says its two co-founders met on their first day at ETH Zurich and founded the company in 2009, after capturing CO₂ under lab conditions at ETH. It opened Orca, its first plant that captures and stores CO₂, in Iceland in 2021, followed by the larger Mammoth plant in 2024 and a DAC Innovation Center in Switzerland in 2025. In a press release datelined Zurich on 10 September 2026, it said that upgrades over 18 months had more than doubled capture performance in upgraded collector containers at Mammoth and cut operating costs by more than half. Its site does not publish funding totals, so we cite none.
Lesson for founders: Climeworks spent years going from milligrams in a lab to a large plant, and it now pairs its own technology with a service that sells other suppliers' removals too. A second business line can bring revenue while the hard technology matures.
Best for: founders in climate tech, carbon markets and industrial hardware.
2. Scandit: turning any camera into a scanner
Scandit sells smart data capture software that reads barcodes, IDs, labels and shelf data with smartphones and other camera devices, used in retail, logistics and healthcare. Its company page says it was founded in 2009 by three researchers from MIT, ETH Zurich and IBM Research, lists Scandit AG's global headquarters at Hardturmstrasse 181 in Zurich, and reports more than 2,100 customers, more than 150 million active mobile devices and more than 50 billion scans a year. In a press release datelined Zurich on 9 February 2022, it announced a $150 million Series D led by Warburg Pincus at a valuation above $1 billion.
Lesson for founders: Scandit replaced dedicated scanning hardware with software on devices people already carry. If your customers buy expensive single-purpose devices, ask whether software on a phone could do the job.
Best for: founders in retail tech, logistics software and computer vision.
Boost Your SEO by Getting Featured in Our Blogs and get a backlink.
We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Get featured now!
3. ANYbotics: four-legged robots for industrial inspections
ANYbotics builds ANYmal, a four-legged robot that patrols industrial plants on its own and collects inspection data, plus software to plan robot missions and act on what they find. Its customers are in power and utilities, mining, oil and gas and chemicals. Its company page says the first prototype was built at ETH Zurich in 2009 and that ANYbotics was founded in 2016 to industrialise the technology. Its homepage reports more than 120,000 inspections analysed every month and more than 1,000 industrial assets monitored, and gives its address as Hagenholzstrasse 83a in Zurich, with a second office in San Francisco. It does not publish funding figures on its site, so we cite none.
Lesson for founders: ANYbotics took a research robot and aimed it at one paid job: inspections in places that are dangerous for people. A narrow, measurable use case is how deep tech gets its first customers.
Best for: founders in robotics, industrial AI and energy infrastructure.
4. Verity: drones that count warehouse inventory
Verity uses autonomous indoor drones and AI to track inventory in warehouses, so operators know what is on every shelf without manual counts. Its company page says it was launched in 2014 out of ETH Zurich and was co-founded by Raffaello D'Andrea, an ETH professor who earlier co-founded Kiva Systems, the warehouse robot company Amazon bought in 2012. It reports more than 180 team members and more than 150 patents, says its technology runs in over 100 warehouses with clients such as IKEA, Maersk and UPS, and names Anders Martens as CEO since October 2026. Its legal notice gives Verity AG at Binzmühlestrasse 81 in Zurich. Verity first came out of stealth in 2016 by flying drones over a TED audience, and its indoor drone show systems for live entertainment now run under the Verity Studios name.
Lesson for founders: Verity became known for spectacular drone shows, then built its main business in a less glamorous but larger market: counting boxes. The flashy first use case proved the technology; the boring one pays the bills.
Best for: founders in logistics, supply chain and autonomous systems.
Boost Your SEO by Publishing Your Startup Press Release with us.
We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Publish Press Release
5. Wingtra: survey drones for mapping
Wingtra builds a professional aerial surveying and mapping system: the WingtraRAY drone, sensors, high-precision GNSS positioning and software in one workflow, used by surveyors, construction, mining and infrastructure teams. Its company page says it started as a robotics research project at the Autonomous Systems Lab of ETH Zurich and reports more than 2,000 customers, more than 100,000 flights a year, more than 100 resellers and more than 125 employees. Its headquarters is Wingtra AG at Giesshübelstrasse 40 in Zurich, with another office in Fort Lauderdale in the US. It does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: Wingtra sells through more than 100 resellers instead of building a large direct sales team everywhere. For hardware sold worldwide, partners can be the fastest way to reach customers.
Best for: founders in drones, geospatial software and construction tech.
6. Sonect: cash at the shop counter instead of the ATM
Sonect lets people withdraw, deposit and send cash with an app at partner shops such as pharmacies and kiosks, as an alternative to ATMs, and offers the same infrastructure to banks and payment providers. Its about page says it was founded in Zurich in 2016, and its Swiss imprint gives Sonect AG at Seefeldstrasse 283 in Zurich. Its site lists more than 10,000 partner shops in Switzerland and Italy, and its European entity, Sonect UAB Europe in Vilnius, is licensed as an electronic money institution by the Bank of Lithuania. It does not publish funding figures. Note that the old sonect.co address no longer works; the company now uses sonect.net.
Lesson for founders: Sonect turned existing shop tills into a cash network instead of building its own machines. Look for infrastructure that already exists and can do a second job.
Best for: founders in fintech, payments and retail partnerships.
7. neon: a Swiss mobile banking app
neon is a Swiss smartphone account with a debit card, investing in shares and ETFs, joint accounts and its own pillar 3a retirement savings. Its story page says the founders started in 2018 and launched the app in 2019 with four investors from the Swiss TV show «Höhle der Löwen», that its community invested CHF 5 million in neon through crowdinvesting in 2021, that it added investing in 2023 and pillar 3a in 2025, and that it now has more than 250,000 users. Its imprint gives neon Switzerland AG at Buckhauserstrasse 24 in Zurich.
Lesson for founders: neon turned its users into investors with a crowdinvesting round. When your customers love the product, letting them own a piece can fund growth and build loyalty at the same time.
Best for: founders in consumer fintech and community-led products.
8. CUTISS: lab-grown skin for burns (Schlieren, next to Zurich)
CUTISS develops denovoSkin, a personalised skin graft grown from a patient's own cells for people with severe burns and for reconstructive surgery, and has built an automated system to produce it at scale. Its about page says it was established in 2017 and has around 50 employees, and it manufactures denovoSkin for clinical use in its own GMP facility. Its main office and laboratories are at Grabenstrasse 11 in Schlieren, a town in the canton of Zurich on the city's western edge, so it is a Zurich-area company rather than one inside the city limits. Its newsroom reports a positive one-year safety and efficacy readout from its Phase 2 trial in burn patients in December 2025 and a US patent for automated skin graft production in May 2026. It does not publish funding figures.
Lesson for founders: CUTISS invested early in automating its own production. In cell and tissue therapies, how you make the product at scale can matter as much as the science.
Best for: founders in biotech, medtech and regenerative medicine.
Where Zurich Startups Get Support
- ETH Zurich Entrepreneurship: ETH's office for founders runs programmes for entrepreneurial projects and early-stage ETH spin-offs and start-ups, explains the rules for founding a company, and manages a network of investors interested in ETH spin-offs.
- Innosuisse: the Swiss Innovation Agency supports SMEs, start-ups and research institutions. For start-ups it offers training, advice, support for international trade fairs and help testing foreign markets.
- Kickstart: an open-innovation platform that connects startups with large organisations. It says that since 2015 it has facilitated more than 400 commercial partnerships and supported more than 530 startups, whose alumni have raised more than CHF 3.1 billion.
- Impact Hub Zürich: coworking at three locations in Zurich, meeting and event rooms, and impact programmes for founders working on social and environmental problems.
- Swiss Startup Association: a member association for Swiss startups with a Startup Desk for legal support, an investor list and education sessions, plus network events.
Zurich Companies From the Old List That Changed or Could Not Be Verified
The 2026 version of this article listed ten names. Here is what we found when we checked each one in November 2026:
- Kept: Climeworks, Scandit, Verity (formerly listed as Verity Studios, now focused on warehouse inventory) and Sonect still operate from Zurich. CUTISS stays, labelled as based in Schlieren next to Zurich.
- Araris Biotech: acquired. In March 2025 Taiho Pharmaceutical agreed to buy the antibody-drug conjugate company for USD 400 million at closing plus up to USD 740 million in milestone payments, according to the joint press release. It continues its work in Zurich as a Taiho subsidiary, so it is no longer an independent startup.
- ZuriMED Technologies: acquired. The Zurich orthopaedics company behind the FiberLocker rotator cuff system received FDA clearance in February 2025, and Stryker announced on 26 October 2026 that it had completed the acquisition.
- MindMaze: a real neurotechnology company, but its own site gives its address in Lausanne, not Zurich, so we left it out.
- TOLREMO Therapeutics: an active cancer drug developer, but its own site gives its address in Basel, so we left it out.
- Evolytes: we found no Zurich address. Its website shows only a country picker, and company databases and press coverage describe it as a company from Reykjavík, Iceland, so we removed it and its funding figure.
We also removed the old article's statistics about graduates and venture capital, which had no source, and its links to third-party startup lists.
Which Zurich Startup Should You Learn From?
- You build climate tech: study Climeworks for its long road from lab to large plant and its second, service-based business line.
- You build B2B software: study Scandit for replacing hardware with software on devices customers already own.
- You build robots or drones: study ANYbotics for picking one paid job, Verity for moving from shows to warehouses, and Wingtra for selling through resellers.
- You build fintech: study Sonect for reusing existing shop infrastructure and neon for turning users into investors.
- You build biotech or medtech: study CUTISS for automating production early, and Araris and ZuriMED for what a trade sale to a large company can look like.
- You are just starting: if you study or research at ETH Zurich, start with ETH Entrepreneurship; otherwise look at Innosuisse's start-up support and the Swiss Startup Association.
Is your startup on ChatGPT?
More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Rank on ChatGPT
How Founders Use Zurich's Startup Scene
Notice the pattern: most companies here started as research at ETH Zurich, used university and national programmes first, and later raised venture money or sold to a large company. If you build deep tech in Switzerland, plan for each step. Compare programmes in our guides to startup incubators in Europe and deep tech accelerators in Europe, and see where similar companies cluster in our guide to deep tech cities in Europe. For money, see deep tech VCs in Europe, angel investors for early-stage startups in Europe, grants for early-stage startups in Europe and grants for female entrepreneurs.
If you are still choosing a base, compare Switzerland with other options in our guide to the best countries for startups in Europe and the top cities for AI startups in Europe, and test your idea in one of the startup competitions in Europe.
Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. B2B buyers research suppliers long before they call, so you need to be easy to find online: list your startup in the F/MS marketing directories, publish your startup press release, and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool so customers, investors and AI assistants can find you.
FAQ About Zurich Startups to Watch in 2027
Which Zurich startups should I watch in 2027?
Our verified list: Climeworks, Scandit, ANYbotics, Verity, Wingtra, Sonect, neon and CUTISS (in Schlieren, next to Zurich). Each still operates and gives a Zurich-area address on its own site, checked in November 2026.
Which Zurich startup has raised the most money?
Of the funding the companies publish themselves, Scandit's $150 million Series D in February 2022, at a valuation above $1 billion, is the largest round we can cite. Climeworks, ANYbotics, Verity and Wingtra do not publish funding totals on their sites.
Why do so many Zurich startups come from ETH Zurich?
ETH Zurich turns research into companies at scale: it recognised a record 46 new ventures in 2025. Climeworks, ANYbotics, Verity and Wingtra all started in its labs, and one of Scandit's founders came from ETH.
Is Zurich good for robotics and drone startups?
Yes. ANYbotics (legged inspection robots), Verity (warehouse inventory drones) and Wingtra (survey drones) are all based in Zurich, and all three grew out of ETH Zurich robotics research.
Which Zurich startups work on climate?
Climeworks removes CO₂ from the air with direct air capture and runs the Mammoth plant in Iceland. In September 2026 it reported that upgrades had more than doubled capture performance in upgraded units.
Are there fintech startups in Zurich?
Yes. Sonect lets people withdraw and deposit cash at more than 10,000 partner shops in Switzerland and Italy, and neon is a mobile banking app with more than 250,000 users.
Where can founders in Zurich get support?
ETH Zurich Entrepreneurship for ETH students and researchers, Innosuisse for national start-up support, Kickstart for corporate partnerships, Impact Hub Zürich for coworking and impact programmes, and the Swiss Startup Association for legal help and investor contacts.
What happened to the startups on the old list?
Climeworks, Scandit, Verity, Sonect and CUTISS stay. Araris Biotech was bought by Taiho and ZuriMED by Stryker. MindMaze is in Lausanne, TOLREMO in Basel, and Evolytes appears to be an Icelandic company.
What can founders learn from Zurich startups?
Start from strong research, pick one paid use case, reuse infrastructure that already exists, and plan early for scale-up: automated production, resellers or a second business line.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
