Swiss Cyber Startups Position Themselves for Trustworthy AI
Every year, since 2020, Wavestone has identified Swiss cybersecurity startups in its eponymous radar. The year 2024 marks the takeoff of AI security – a critical year, characterized by the exponential progress of AI – within the Swiss ecosystem.
Not a day seems to go by without artificial intelligence making the headlines. While this raises fundamental societal questions, there is one issue on which all experts agree: this cutting-edge technology is associated with serious risks. Various types of attacks have already been identified, such as data poisoning where attackers manipulate data or models during training to alter the outcome of the AI; oracle attacks, which involve manipulating the tool to reveal information that compromises the models or training data ; and evasion attacks, where small input perturbations cause significant output errors.
Switzerland, as a hub of innovation and technology, has a key role to play in securing these solutions and presents Swiss startups that aim to address these risks.
Firstly, Calvin Risk offers a platform that allows risk management and AI compliance to be managed centrally, fulfilling the current regulations that are only set to increase, as the AI act has just been approved by the European Parliament.
As recently seen, Generative AI comes with a host of new attacks. This crucial problem is addressed by Lakera with its security solutions for Generative AI, notably against prompt injections and model extraction.
Finally, in contexts with strong sovereignty constraints, Clear Sky offers the deployment of an on-premises artificial assistant that guarantees that the most sensitive data – from both regulatory and strategic standpoints– do not leave the perimeter.
Integrating new AI security technologies is crucial for a safer and more ethical future.
Key figures
- 16 employees on average
- 128.55M CHF in public funding
- 42 Swiss startups
- 2021 average year of creation
Start-ups on the cyber radar in 2024
Geographical focus: A start-up ecosystem concentrated in Lausanne and Zurich, but Geneva is emerging as a challenger
Unsurprisingly, most startups are located around two main technological clusters: Zürich and Lausanne. This confirms an already existing trend since these two cities are hosting Swiss Federal institutes of technology (ETHZ in Zürich, EPFL in Lausanne).
These universities are providing fertile ground for startups as they offer support in terms of infrastructure but also in terms of collaboration with students and labs. In return, intellectual property is shared between startups and universities. This model is a success for Switzerland
as it allows to continuously improve the economy of these regions with a good balance between investment and research.
Nevertheless, Geneva registers several new start-ups in this edition, allowing it to position itself as a challenger to the polytechnic hubs. Furthermore, this dynamism is expected to strengthen, as Geneva recently launched a new start-up incubator: the Trust Village Geneva.
Methodology
Wavestone’s Swiss Cybersecurity Startups Radar identifies new players in the Swiss cyber innovation ecosystem. Its objective: to provide a global and critical view of an ever-renewing environment.
Startups were selected according to our eligibility criteria:
- Head office in Switzerland
- Less than 50 employees
- Less than 7 years of activity (established as of 2016)
- Business model around a specific product (software or hardware)
Startups were identified and evaluated according to the following procedure:
- Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) data consolidation
- Evaluation in regard to above criteria
- Qualitative interviews with the startups
