Female Founders News #27 – September 2025

Daniela Marino co-founder of CUTISS has secured an additional CHF 31 million, bringing its Series C round to more than CHF 125 million. The funds will support its Phase 3 trial of the lead product denovoSkin and to prepare for its commercialization. Arqh by Antonia Unger, who developed a solution that unites a precise optimization core with language AI to automate day-to-day dispatch and power strategic simulations also closed a funding round. Together with her co-founder Mert Erkul she raised $3.8M pre-seed funding to introduce their solution to the logistics industry. In the consumer products field, Swijin by Claudia Glass has managed to secure CHF 0.5 million to produce the second batch of its innovative sports and swimming bras for the woman. 

Investors in the Swiss shark tank program, ‘Höhle der Löwen Schweiz’ were impressed by the idea of Sarah D’Aquino, Fabienne Wirth and Christian Meyer who together co-founded Nidino to connect parents searching for a suitable caregiver nearby with parents that can offer childcare as daycare providers, as day families. Despite positive investor response, the deal of CHF 140’000 for a 10% equity stake from Bettina Hein and Roland Brack has not been sealed.

Also, Cinzia Bonett co-founder of Maiq, which developed an all-in-one SaaS platform for combined AI and user testing, was unable to secure the CHF 200’000 that was promised Roland Brack and Anja Graf during the show. Pet insurer Calingo Insurance by Anina Lutz and Matcha drink provider Soully (by Camille Zingg und Maresa Tennigkeit) also made it to the TV show. Calingo secured CHF 150’000 from multiple investors, while Soully did not close a deal.

Company milestones propel further growth

Global private equity healthcare specialist ARCHIMED acquired a majority stake in ExcellGene, a family-owned and sister company of Magellan Biologics & Consulting led by Maria Wurm, who will assume the role of Group CEO. ExcellGene is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) specializing in fast, high-yield cell line development and GMP-compliant protein expression services for biopharmaceuticals. Obaris, a spin-off from ETH Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) co-founded by David Klein Cerrejon and Nevena Paunović has also been acquired by Johnson & Johnson just one year following its incorporation. This acquisition allows the team to further advance their technology platform, OctoPatch, a painless suction patch that can be easily self-applied to the inner side of a person’s cheek.

Esha Indani, the founder and CEO of Snapbau is making strives in the construction industry with its platform designed to simplify procurement and the tendering process. The company has attracted several customers and is now expanding into France, Spain and Germany. Ex Nunc, co-founded by Kyriaki Bongard, Thomas Sèze and Zoé Berry is also making progress — it has launched its artificial intelligence solution for legal professionals. Their product, Silex, allows legal professionals to carry out very high-quality legal research in record time, and several law firms are already using it.

iOnctura, a Geneva-based company combating neglected and hard-to-treat cancers, has expanded its clinical trial program for lead candidate roginolisib into the United States. Led by Catherin Pickering, this milestone allows the company to conduct its OCULE-01 Phase II study in metastatic uveal melanoma at various sites in the States. TOLREMO Therapeutics AG, the startup founded by Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual to redefine cancer treatment by targeting non-oncogene addiction, has obtained two Fast Track designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its lead candidate TT125-802 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Ecosystem support and awards

Undae Science by Shanaz Diessler (CEO) and Aurélie M. Stephan (CTO) received CHF 100,000 Tech Seed loan from FIT to tackle sleep disorders. Their non-intrusive device, Noctae, allows clinical-quality sleep monitoring over several nights directly at home. Student Pool by Isa Dupont and her co-founder Gaspard Chevassus is a mobile application connecting health and social care students to healthcare institutions. They received a digital grant of CHF 20,000 awarded by the FIT which will support the team’s next steps. The female duo has also been selected to join Biopôle’s Vanguard accelerator, where they will benefit from expert support to boost their growth. Harantech, a project led by Dr. Sanae El Harane and Vibrant, co-founded by Dr. Sriparna Ghosal and Dr. Camille Piguet each received CHF 50’000 FIF Grant to support their development.

Chloé Albietz, CEO of Bioscibex, together with her co-founder François Carruzzo received Venture Kick funding of CHF 150’000 to accelerate the development of their first product, Swingo, which is designed to simplify and automate cell culture, making biologic therapies more accessible. Inveel, a spinoff of the Paul Scherer Institute founded by Barbara Horwath scored third place at the demo day of the *zünder accelerator program, winning CHF 5000. The startup impressed the jury with its printed sensors that allow robots to have a sense of touch and detect approaches. At the same award, Hera Organics stood out as the winner of the Audience Award for its sustainable menstrual sponge.

Margaux Peltier, CEO and co-founder of Enerdrape which generates renewable energy using geothermal panel technology, won the 2025 Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award. This award recognizes women entrepreneur who that has built or taken over a business less than 5 years ago. GutUp, which was founded in 2025 by Élise Garcia, was awarded the CHF 10,000 Coup de Coeur prize at the FIT Impact Award. Simone Thompson, co-CEO of CLIMADA Technologies, is one of the 33 early-stage innovators selected to join the JP Morgan Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures that offers up to $250,000. The startup offers a SaaS climate risk analytics platform, delivering actionable insights for the quantification of the financial impact of extreme weather events across the globe. CLIMADA has recently secured a key partnership deal with KPMG New Zealand, giving organizations access to high-quality hazard, exposure, and impact data to support better decision-making and risk management.

Flowit, spearheaded by Yasemin Tahris developed an AI-coach platform designed to engage employees and enhance their growth and satisfaction. This approach has won her the startup HR Innovation Award. Reecover led by Marie Perri won CHF 12,000 and the Audience Award at the 3Pi Pitch Competition at the ETH. The company is developing a nature-inspired recycling process that efficiently recovers europium from old fluorescent lamps. In the third place is Baxiva by Giorgia Greter, the company developing a vaccine against urinary tract infections that is intended to be an alternative to antibiotics. Several female-led startups also made it to the finalists of the Swiss Technology Award. Among them are CellX Biosolutions (Estelle Clerc), Alveolix (Nina Hobi), Navignostics (Jana Fischer & Andrea Jacobs). Sarah Harbart, co-founder of Kuori won CHF 20’000 in the Social Impact Catalyst award. The company develops biodegradable substitute materials for petroleum-based plastics. Kuori, along with UMushroom (Luba Schoenig and Tonia Zimmermann) Food Brewer (Géraldine Senn) and Genknowme (Semira Gonseth Nusslé) are also among the elected startups for the Kickstart Innovation 2025 program.

Leadership & role models

Barbara Angehrn Pavik has been appointed the new CEO and member of the Board of Numab Therapeutics, brining a wealth of experience in leading biotech companies such as Asceneuron, which secured over $100 million Series C round and Vifor Pharma, Amgen and more. Another industry veteran joining a startup executive is Simone Rey-Riek, who became the COO at Indivi. She has held local, regional, and global leadership roles at companies such as MSD, Biogen, Roche and Neurimmune, accumulating more than 20 years of experience. She will help scale Indivi, which develops digital biomarkers and novel digital endpoints for neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. These biomarkers can be captured via smartphones, which remotely and accurately capture neurological functions.

Veronika Missbichler was appointed the new Chief Operating Officer at fintech startup Teylor to accelerating the company’s international expansion. Smaranda Jaun is the new CEO at Composite Recycling, the startup sustainably transforming glass fibre and carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) into new materials for industrial integration. Meanwhile, Finance expert Danijela Karelse has is the new Chief Financial Officer of Ecorobotix, the scale-up company specializing in AI-based ultra-high precision spraying technology for crop care.