The perfect mix of talent and tech: empowering startups in the Swiss food ecosystem

Innovation succeeds when the right people connect around the right opportunities, supported by technology that brings clarity, focus, and speed. From communities and global connections to structure, speed and intelligence, here’s how two Valley partners featured in the SFNV Navigator are helping startups and corporations to innovate faster and smarter.

Matthew Lashmar | Managing Director, MassChallenge Switzerland

Since 2016, MassChallenge Switzerland has supported more than 1,175 startups, helping them collectively raise over CHF 2.9B across food, climate tech, health, and sustainable industries. Their programmes are equity-free, and the next application call for the early-stage accelerator will open in mid-January. Experts who want to join the MC Experts community can register here.

Q: MassChallenge is known for connecting startups with the right partners. How do you describe your role in the innovation ecosystem?

At MassChallenge, our strength lies in our global network — founders, experts, and corporate partners who are deeply committed to turning bold ideas into real-world solutions. We support startups at the moment when human connection matters most: finding the right partners, gaining clarity on expectations, and understanding the market. Innovation scales when relationships are strong.

Q: What makes MassChallenge particularly effective for startups entering or growing within Switzerland?

Switzerland is an incredible place to innovate, but difficult to navigate if you’re new. We focus on the people needed to innovate effectively: connectors, collaborators, and relationship builders. Startups benefit from our experience supporting hundreds of founders and partners. We help them gain direction, confidence, and traction.

Q: If you could give one piece of advice to startups setting out in food, what would it be?

Being a food startup is hard. Look for people who’ve walked your journey. This could be one of the many corporate partners who support MassChallenge – or one of the many expert mentors that give advice to startups in our programme. When you find someone who can help, be clear about what you want and what value you bring to the other entity, but stay open minded to learn and adapt your plan. Startup and partner collaborations only work if there is strategic alignment, so startups must put in the effort to make sure they fit and can be part of the corporate’s agenda.

However, when the conversation starts, MassChallenges experts and partners will likely have strong feedback about how to scale and operationalise the startups’ idea. At this point, the startup should listen and adapt to advice. Experience can save them significant time and money, and get their solution to market faster delivering impact and adding value to society.

Find out more about Masschallenge Switzerland

Olga Guerous-Roquebert | CEO, Innopearl

Innopearl is a next-gen platform that streamlines how corporations prioritise innovation needs, scout startups, and make decisions.

Q: For readers new to Innopearl, what challenges does your platform solve for corporates and innovation partners?

Working with large companies can be incredibly valuable for startups, but progressing from an introduction to a pilot, and then to a commercial contract, is often slow and unclear. That’s because the challenge isn’t just about the innovation. It’s structural.

Within a corporate, no single R&D or Innovation leader can champion an opportunity all the way through. It requires a joint, cross-functional effort. But each function, Marketing, R&D, Operations, Procurement, has its own priorities. When information is scattered and discussions happen in silos, aligning everyone around a clear use case can take months.

Innopearl solves this by creating a digital structure where there was none. Our AI-powered platform guides teams end-to-end. It turns fragmented inputs, such as strategic priorities, market shifts, technical requirements, into clear, actionable innovation briefs. From there, it enables teams to evaluate opportunities consistently, collaborate in one workspace, and make better decisions much faster. For startups, this means clearer expectations, fewer delays, and faster traction with potential corporate partners.

Q: How does Innopearl complement organisations that emphasize the human side of innovation?

These organisations bring strong knowledge and connections, which allow them to select high-quality startups; and let’s say around 10% of those go on to sign real partnerships. It is a great conversion rate. But the question is, why not more?

Too often, this is not because other startups are not good enough or mature enough. It’s because large organisations lack a systemic, powerful way to include partnerships into a holistic solution design. Combining the human side of innovation and technology helps bridge this gap by providing clarity on why innovation is needed, what solutions exist, and how to align internally to make partnerships work.

• Clarity on the WHY: Innopearl’s AI-powered opportunity engine analyzes internal priorities and market context, producing ready-to-use, strategically aligned challenge briefs for R&D in minutes instead of weeks.
• Clarity on WHAT is possible: Startup networks will identify the innovators that fit the organisation’s needs, drawing on their global community and experience. When uploaded to the Innopearl platform, AI-ranking will compare innovators to find the best solution.
• Alignment on the HOW: Innopearl’s Alignment Accelerator strengthens cross-functional collaboration and decision-making through structured assessments, insight-driven use cases, and clear next steps.

As society evolves and requires faster, bolder responses, companies that want to stay relevant need both: human insight and technology. Together, they accelerate innovation far more effectively than either could alone.

Q: What has surprised you most about how innovation teams use the platform?

What’s surprised us most is how quickly teams move from “discovery mode” to real operational decision-making once they have structured visibility. Many teams come in expecting inspiration; instead, they end up using Innopearl to validate assumptions, map internal and external needs, and make faster go/no-go calls.

Another pleasant surprise is the cross-functional engagement: R&D, procurement, sustainability, and strategy functions often end up collaborating on the platform far more than they anticipated. It shows that when information is transparent and contextualized, silos disappear naturally.

Find out more about Innopearl

Two distinct approaches, one shared mission

Although MassChallenge and Innopearl operate in different ways — one through human networks, the other through structured intelligence — both serve the same purpose: to help startups and corporates collaborate more effectively.

Their support allows startups to benefit from clearer corporate challenges, faster connections with the right partners and experts who understand their journey and technology that brings transparency and structure. At the same time, corporates benefit from well-defined innovation briefs, access to qualified, relevant startups, improved internal alignment and measurable impact on innovation projects. 

It’s a reminder that innovation moves fastest when people and technology pull in the same direction — and the SFNV Navigator is here to help you find the partners who make that possible.

The SFNV Navigator is your guide to scaling in the Swiss food ecosystem.

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