Finalists and winners

Eradicating muscle and joint pain: that is the vision of APTISSEN SA. The injectable gel Synolis^TM 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.”