Two funding events stood out this month. The first from Basel-based NUCLIDIUM, led by CEO and co-founder Leila Jaafar, which closed an oversubscribed CHF 26 million Series B extension to bring the round to CHF 105 million. The radiopharmaceutical company develops copper-based "radiotheranostics" that pair cancer diagnosis with treatment. The new capital will carry its lead prostate- and breast-cancer programs, NU101 and NU201, into Phase 1/2a therapeutic trials this year.
A second headline saw Zurich-based LimmaTech Biologics agree to an acquisition by Lilly for up to USD 780 million in cash, combining an upfront payment with clinical and regulatory milestones. LimmaTech develops vaccines against hard-to-treat bacterial infections, including a preclinical pipeline targeting pathogens that drive infertility in women.
Smaller rounds filled out the month. Moonlight AI, the Courroux-based diagnostics startup co-founded by CTO Nicole Romano, raised USD 3.3 million in seed funding to turn routine blood and cytology images into genomic insights for cancer labs. Geneva-based energy and mobility startup AMP IT closed a round that brings its total funding to EUR 7 million for its private EV-charging platform. And Lausanne-based Baabuk, maker of sheep's-wool footwear, closed a crowdfunding campaign on CONDA.ch at roughly CHF 504,000 from 283 investors—about double its CHF 250,000 target.
Non-dilutive support also flowed to female founders. SurgExplore, founded by Negin Ghamsarian at the University of Bern, received an InnoBooster grant from the Gebert Rüf Stiftung for its AI platform that converts cataract-surgery video and health records into structured clinical data. Violetta Dyka's Design for Dignity (HKB) drew a further CHF 75,000 from First Ventures—bringing her total Gebert Rüf Stiftung backing to CHF 150,000—for a modular privacy system designed for Switzerland's federal asylum centers. And female-founded Noriware, which makes algae-based packaging, was among eight companies sharing more than CHF 1.08 million in the Swiss Climate Foundation's first 2026 round.
Growth and milestones
Female-led companies turned momentum into traction across sectors. In cleantech, plastics-recycling firm DePoly secured contracts worth CHF 50 million for its demonstration plant, due to open this summer. In energy, Zurich-based exnaton—co-founded by CEO Liliane Ableitner and COO Anselma Wörner—launched a plug-and-play integration with clever-PV that lets dynamic electricity tariffs steer household appliances automatically. And in Bern, LOXO, co-founded by Lara Amini, put its driverless delivery vehicle "Mathilde" into live public traffic with logistics group Planzer—a European first for automated city logistics.
Healthtech kept pace. Monthey-based Bioscibex, led by CEO Chloé Albietz, began delivering its SW1NGO bioprocessing device to first customers, while Zurich diagnostics firm Oncobit, led by CEO Claudia Scheckel, launched its Oncular blood-monitoring assay for uveal melanoma in the US with partner TrilliumBiO. EPFL spin-off Bionomous, co-founded by CMO Ana Hernando Ariza, unveiled Sortivo, an automated platform for sorting organoids and zebrafish embryos.
In foodtech, Soully—founded by Camille Zingg and Maresa Tennigkeit—won Switzerland-wide Coop listings for its matcha soda and reported roughly 330 percent year-on-year growth, while food-waste platform Kitro now serves more than 500 professional kitchens across 40 countries.
Finally, the Zurich fintech Happy Pot, founded by Habiba Alami, said the number of active collection "pots" grew fivefold over nine months, with first-quarter revenue topping all of last year.
Awards and accelerators
At the PERL awards, PAVE Space took the CHF 50,000 top prize, with Rea Diagnostics and SurfAce Cleantech among the CHF 10,000 innovation-prize winners—all three named PERL finalists last month.
At the 15th Startup Champions Seed Night at EPFL, OptiZone, led by Mina Baniasad, was the evening's winner, and sports-tech startup Aiving won first place and a Coup de Cœur at the Sport Innovation Challenge in Lausanne. On the other side of Switzerland, GlycoEra took home the CHF 10,000 runner-up prize at the ZKB Pionierpreis for its autoimmune-disease therapies. Even further east, Surface Cleantech secured investment at the HSG START Demo Day after completing the accelerator program and impressing the jury with its reinforcing coating for compostable packaging films that enables manufacturers to reduce material usage by up to 30%.
Meanwhile, seven of this year's >>venture>> finalists are female-founded—MyHandyPlus, Botana AI, Santella, EmerStat, RegCheck, Reilo and Optizone. They will compete alongside 11 other startups for a CHF 150,000 grand prize on June 15 in Lausanne. Internationally, the three female-founded startups Pregnolia, UNOMR and Reilo featured among the five Swiss names in Hello Tomorrow's Top 100 Deep Tech ranking.
Accelerators opened their doors to female founders across sectors. Lepto joined the 20th ESA BIC Switzerland cohort; IMPLANZ, kuafu, Onconix and Santella were selected for the Newcomers 2026 class at Swiss Startup Days in Bern—Onconix won the Best in Class award for this year. Reilo joined the Brainforest Venture Program based in Zürich; Kelva Systems and sefit health join the Social Impact Catalyst Investment Readiness Program; and Maika Health and NeurodAIgnostics joined the fourth batch of the Digital Health Accelerator.
Role models
In leadership news, Zurich-based BLP Digital—fresh off its USD 50 million Goldman Sachs investment—appointed Claudia Seeger as Chief Marketing Officer. She joins from Chameleon Collective.
I also spent May 20th at the Collective Gathering at Casino Bern, the pre-event to Swiss Startup Days dedicated to female entrepreneurship. The afternoon's tone was collaborative rather than competitive—but the conversations didn't shy from the harder questions facing women building and funding companies in Switzerland, such as pivots due to health issues, the seismic-shifts that maternity brings and the search for a deeper purpose.
Upcoming events
There is still time to join Innosuisse's Women in Entrepreneurship event on June 22nd, 12:00–14:00, at EPFL—an afternoon on how diverse teams across gender, background and discipline drive entrepreneurial innovation.
