15 Swiss Techs you want to start using - #SwissTechSeries
Welcome back to the Swiss Tech Series! We are now onto chapter three, focusing on customer products and services created here in our beautiful country. Discover innovative companies, bringing compelling solutions to your everyday needs.
For urban mobility
Mobility is a big sector for digital innovation, and there has been a lot of creative ideas in that space, including in Switzerland. With Meep.app, you can now move around the city as efficiently and sustainably as possible. The app allows you to plan your journey across multiple means of transportation including walking, biking, or public transports, allowing you to also pay through the app and providing recommendations. Already available in multiple cities across Europe, this brings a new meaning to urban mobility.
Fancy to move around the city on an electrical scooter when using Meep? Check out SoFlow, a Swiss-born new breed of light and powerful electrical scooters and boards. Beyond their eScooters and eBoards, SoFlow also sells a creative bike, a very fun FlowKart and a hover board…many ways to get around in style.
Prefer to have a flexible approach as to which vehicle you want to pick for today’s need? Convince your boss to look into Urban Connect and benefit from a wide range of vehicles from cars to electrical bikes with or without cargo to scooters.
Are you not just there yet with letting the car go? But you want it on your own terms? Head out to Carvolution, the all-inclusive car rental for short or long term, revolutionising the market. They take care of everything from getting your vehicle’s plates and insurance, to delivering you the car within 10 business days.
To help you help the planet
While moving around, exercising, working, or traveling, you might get thirsty, and for that Rebo Bottle has a great solution! Not only is it a fantastic-looking smart bottle to drink from, but it is also connected to your smartphone tracking your intake, letting you know how many plastic bottles you have saved. These counted bottles are then saved and converted into credits. These credits are bought by corporate sponsors to fund plastic pollution clean ups. Do something good for the planet and order one today!
Continue your water-saving efforts with Gjosa a new Swiss tech saving up to 79% of water and energy when you shower. The company has even attracted the attention of L’Oréal with whom they have now partnered to create a sustainable solution for hairdressers.
Now that your thirst is quenched, and that you saved water while getting ready, it might be time to experience a Planted meal. Planted harvests and produce plant-based meat. From chicken to beef, from Kebab to Schnitzel they have created a whole suite of sustainable alternatives to your meat cravings! Featured in many restaurants and shops, they are an attractive alternative.
To communicate and organize your life
The widely used WhatsApp has gone under a lot of public debate lately, in particular with their decision to force users to accept to have their data shared with their parent company Facebook. While many users will accept anyways, to keep using the service that has most of their friends connected on, you might want to look at Threema, the Swiss secured and private chat solution. While they are not free, like WhatsApp, they have a 3 Swiss-francs one-time fee which helps them continue developing the app, without selling your data or showing you ads, ever. It is now commonly known that there is no such thing as a free app, if you don’t pay for the app, you are the product, and you “pay” with your data the access to the platform. Threema offers a neat interface, similar to others, and is dedicated to keeping your discussions secure and private through end-to-end encryption.
When not chatting with your friends, family, or co-workers, take advantage of Gmelius a collaborative platform built for Gmail. Easily combine your Slack discussions with your Trello board and keep your deadlines synchronized in Google calendar for example. Leveraging the power of existing apps and automation Gmelius functions as powerful connector between your existing applications.
Last but not least, one tech that you most probably have been using on a personal or professional basis without knowing it was a Swiss company: Doodle! Yes, the famous scheduling tool, which has evolved into a powerhouse providing an extensive suite of products is a Swiss Tech, supported by VentureLab which was featured in our article on the Swiss tech and innovation ecosystem.
To buy and sell things online
Whether you want to sell something, or find something to buy, there are two large Swiss companies: one is ricardo.ch (link in French), similar to an eBay, it has been around for many years and benefits from a solid reputation for a safe way to buy and sell between users. The second one is anibis.ch (link in French also), easily recognisable with their octopus mascot, they also provide Customer to Customer platform, as well as a powerful mobile app.
More into buying or selling previously-loved watches? Chronext is a Swiss platform, leader in the world of second hand luxury watches online. They also offer Chronext Lounges around the world, if you prefer to collect your watch in person. The company is said to be looking into going public later this year. Competing against many other online marketplaces for watches, they offer a secure platform, and inspected watches.
You can also decide to sell your own data online, through the services of BitsAboutMe a novel and creative tech, born in Switzerland, which empowers you to get full control and transparency over your online data. The app centralizes your accounts, tells you which data is used by which system (Facebook, Gmail, Uber, etc.) and you centrally know what you want to continue sharing with them, and what you don’t want to share. You also can sell your data to companies and actively make a profit, instead of letting only other companies benefit from it.
and to travel
Similar to Airbnb, HouseTrip was launched in 2010 and purchased by TripAdvisor in 2016. They offer vacation rentals around the world, represent a serious contender to Airbnb and Onefinestay, and come from Switzerland. Vacation rentals have gained significant traction in the past years, and has seen double-digit growth even during the pandemic as people were looking for different spaces to spend their lockdowns, take extended “flexcations” (holidays with the family including some hours to work). While it used to be a marginal trend, travellers now solicit regularly, and for all types of travel (business and leisure), these alternative accommodations as they come with many perks such as more space, additional rooms, kitchen and living room for example.
As we slowly get into the summer, and with most countries easing their restrictions, it might be the perfect moment to book this life-long dream trip of yours! Now you know which Swiss tech you can do it on, don’t wait too long or your dream house could already be taken.
That’s it for the customer services and products from Switzerland. As usual, it would be near impossible to list all of the Swiss companies present in that space, the idea of these series is to showcase great companies and inspire you to follow closely the vibrant Swiss Tech scene! If you feel we’ve missed an important one, please do get in touch, and we’ll be happy to add it.
Next up: Augmented and Virtual Reality
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