Tech4Eva - releasing the power and well-being of half of the planet’s population
Press Release - Lausanne, Switzerland, April 21, 2021
FemTech on the rise
With the rapid rise and early successes of start-ups dedicated to women’s health, FemTech is becoming a hot topic and a promising asset class for investors. In 2019, the global femtech market generated $ 820.6 million, with a market value estimated to be worth $ 50 billion by 2025 (Frost & Sullivan)
Tech4Eva , the first FemTech accelerator in Switzerland, is a joint endeavor of EPFL Innovation Park and Groupe Mutuel. The program has the ambition to accelerate the growth of promising Femtech start-ups, and to create an innovation platform in Switzerland, where disruptive start-ups and projects from around the globe can meet and develop innovative solutions for improving or advancing technologies relating to women’s health. It also aims to create a global FemTech community by connecting all stakeholders active in the sector.
The inaugural program received over 110 early and growth stage start-ups applications from 25 countries around the globe - 34 of those are Swiss-based - 70 of which are led by women founders.
Collaboration between these two leading entities has been the key driving force behind the program and the launch of this new community in the Swiss tech ecosystem, “Tech4Eva is part of our endeavour to develop thematic innovation clusters through close collaboration of start-up, corporate and academy. We are very happy to be able to leverage Groupe Mutuel’s network and expertise in the healthcare industry to accelerate the growth of Femtech start-ups, whose founders are very often women themselves" shared Lan Zuo-Gillet, Deputy Managing Director, EPFL Innovation Park Foundation. Nicolas Loeillot, Chief Innovation Officer, Groupe Mutuel ``Partnering with the best innovation park in Switzerland is a key success factor for us to attract and grow innovative solutions that will tackle women's health problems, starting with prevention and better treatments. Today, we are building something important together."
Tech4Eva Accelerator Program
Tech4Eva’s 9-month acceleration program consists of multi-layer activities, such as mentorship by corporate experts, specialized workshops, roadshows, peer-to-peer experience, training curriculum as well as focus groups in different areas of FemTech. It will help selected start-up companies and early stage projects to refine their business models and go-to-market process strategy, develop pilot projects with potential business partners; It will assist more mature start-ups in their business development process and connect them with potential investors and customers by leveraging the network of EPFL Innovation Park and Groupe Mutuel, the network of their partners in the FemTech: Fermata (Asia), Women in Wearables (UK), Joyance Partners in USA, as well as governmental agencies such as Swiss Embassy UK, Swissnex Boston and SGE Japan.
Invitation: Tech4Eva Opening Ceremony
Groupe Mutuel and EPFL Innovation Park invite the public to the opening ceremony of theTech4Eeva accelerator program.The kickoff event will feature notable FemTech entrepreneurs and speakers: Martin Velasco, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Anecova and Pascal Koenig, Co-Founder of Ava Women. Key players of Swiss Innovation ecosystem will be present as panelists: Alois Zwinggi, Managing Director of World Economic Forum and Chairman of Innovation Council of Swiss Innovation Agency, Ursula Oesterle, EPFL Vice President for Innovation, and Sophie Revaz, COO, Groupe Mutuel. The event will also convene key players and FemTech hubs in Asia, Europe, USA and UK to celebrate and support FemTech in Switzerland and around the globe.
The event will also showcase the 15 selected “growth” start-ups and 15 early stage projects/ start-ups that offer innovative technological solutions focused on fertility, menstrual health, wellbeing, family health, menopause, mental health, prevention, treatment and care, in the form of apps, exchange platforms, diagnostic tools, therapeutic devices or preventive medicine supported by artificial intelligence (AI).
A challenge will be submitted during the event to call for ideas, in order to address a specific health problem that has direct and indirect impact on the company's performance. Winning ideas will be further developed within a focus group formed by the Tech4Eva community of start-ups and whoever outside of the community who are interested to take part in the co-creation process. Selected ideas will be highlighted and featured in the world first FemTech anthology 2021.
Further information on Tech4Eva: www.tech4eva.ch
EPFL Innovation Park
Media contact person
Simone Theiss, Program Manager
Mobile +41 78 776 10 60, Email: theiss@epfl-innovationpark.ch
Groupe Mutuel Media contact
Loïc Mühlemann
Head of Communications
Mobile: 079 797 86 69, Email: lmuehlemann@groupemutuel.ch
Founding Partners:
About the EPFL Innovation Park https://epfl-innovationpark.ch/
The EPFL Innovation Park supports disruptive innovations and the transfer of technologies of the EPFL and other regional academic partners. It provides flexible office space, training, acceleration and coaching services to 250 high-tech companies: start-ups, SMEs and R&D centres of large companies. Together with its partners and a dynamic community of venture capital firms, experts and service providers, the Innovation Park is positioned as the main pole of entrepreneurship in Western Switzerland.
About Groupe Mutuel https://www.groupemutuel.ch/en/private-customers.html
With over 2,700 employees throughout Switzerland, Groupe Mutuel is at the service of 1.3 million private customers and 25,500 companies.
As the only comprehensive insurer in Switzerland, Groupe Mutuel is the reference partner in the field of health and retirement benefits for private and corporate customers.
Its turnover exceeds CHF 5.4 billion. Thanks to tailored solutions, whether for basic insurance (LAMal/KVG) or supplemental insurance (LCA/VVG), it is the 3rd largest health insurer in Switzerland. Groupe Mutuel also offers an extensive range of products for individual retirement benefits and patrimony insurance. Based in Martigny, the insurer provides companies of all sizes with solutions such as loss of earnings in the event of illness, accident insurance (LAA/UVG) and occupational pension plans (LPP/BVG). In the field of health insurance for companies, Groupe Mutuel is ranked 5th nationwide.