Scale-up Vaud announces the 44 companies newly labelled for 2026

Scale-Up Vaud celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with the announcement of 44 labelled scale-ups, highlighting the depth and consistency of Vaud’s innovation ecosystem and its ability to generate concrete economic impact in Switzerland and internationally.

Seven new companies join the 2026 community: Atinary, Corintis, Destinus, Enlightra, Nu Glass, Oculis, and Voltiris. Among them, Atinary sees the label as both recognition and a lever for global expansion: “Being recognized as a Scale-up Vaud company is a proud moment for Atinary. This label confirms our growth trajectory and deepens our roots in Switzerland’s premier innovation ecosystem as we scale our Self-Driving Labs® solutions globally” Said Hermann Tribukait, CEO of Atinary.

Economic impact: jobs, capital and exits

The contribution of the 44 labelled companies is reflected in job creation and investment. Collectively, they have created 2,822 jobs in Switzerland and 5,102 jobs in total. In 2025, the cohort raised CHF 689,000,000 in publicly announced fundraising rounds, demonstrating sustained investor confidence in Vaud-based scale-ups.

The year also confirmed the ecosystem’s capacity to support companies through to major outcomes, with two exits in 2025: Nexthink and Doppl.

A new generation scaling faster and earlier

This 2026 intake points to a new generation scaling earlier and faster. Over the last three years, the seven newcomers increased their number of full-time employees by an average of +58%, compared with +27% for last year’s new entrants. They are also significantly younger: 4.4 years old on average, versus 8.8 years for the previous year’s newcomers. Across the full labelled community, the average age is 9.5 years, stable year-on-year – an indicator of a robust pipeline that continually produces mature, investable scale-ups. 

A crucial step

Moving from startup to scale-up is a critical step, full of challenges and potential pitfalls. Doubling the workforce, welcoming new investors, and making numerous strategic decisions— how can one avoid missteps?

LeadiNNg to Scale-Up is a program jointly offered by Innovaud and IMD, designed to support CEOs through this transition. Four editions have already taken place, featuring startups that have since evolved into scale-ups. « Once again, we have a few companies getting the Scale up Vaud label for the first time who have been part of the LeadiNNg to Scale up Program.

Not only do they come more prepared to get the most out of the community but they also know how much the peer exchange they experienced during the program will increase as the Scale up Vaud community is bigger and will benefit the rest of their C-level team” commented Charlotte Ducrot, Head of Scale up Vaud “We look forward to getting the whole community together in the coming weeks, introducing the new companies and integrating them into this amazing network who goes way beyond than just a Label”.

Meet the Valley Scale-ups

Voltiris SA: Voltiris’ innovative spectral filtering solution transmits all light frequencies needed by the crops into the greenhouse and transforms the remaining radiation into renewable power. Crop and energy production don’t have to compete, they complement.

Atinary: The pioneer of Self-Driving Labs®, builds intelligent solutions that unite AI, robotics, and human expertise to accelerate the development of molecules and materials. Atinary reimagines the laboratory space to unlock limitless science, for a healthier and more sustainable future.

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