February 19, 2025 – Switzerland, the global frontrunner in innovation, has once again demonstrated its remarkable prowess in leading the pack. With 13 consecutive years atop the Global Innovation Index, the nation not only serves as a cradle of world innovation but has also forged the first-ever innovation strategic partnership with China, harboring immense potential for collaboration in technology, innovation, and finance.
Recently, Venturelab unveiled its prestigious “Swiss Innovation Top 100” list, a curated compilation of the most cutting-edge and promising start-ups and growth-stage tech innovators in Switzerland. This list has become an internationally recognized barometer of the innovation ecosystem. Since its inception in 2011, it has annually showcased 100 pioneering companies with the most innovative spirit and market prospects, along with 25 potential unicorns, spanning life sciences, engineering machinery, robotics, ICT, low-carbon technology, food tech, and other frontier domains.
To delve deeper into Switzerland’s innovation treasures, Insight Tech, Venturelab’s Chinese partner, has launched a special series of reports, granting readers an exclusive glimpse into the Swiss innovation realm. In the 142nd edition, we spotlight Noriware, a star enterprise that made it to the “Swiss Innovation Top 100” in 2024.
Noriware, an emerging engineering tech firm in Switzerland founded in 2022, is pioneering a new era of biodegradable seaweed-based packaging films. Crafted from natural seaweed, these films are entirely green and pollution-free, capable of composting naturally and seamlessly integrating with existing plastic production equipment, offering a revolutionary alternative to traditional plastic films.
According to the Color Masterbatch Industry Network, Noriware’s innovation is particularly significant amidst the global crisis of mounting plastic waste and low recycling rates. Co-founded by Jessica Farda and Stefan Grieder from the University of St. Gallen, the company’s core technology stems from deep collaborations with ETH Zurich and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Northwestern Switzerland. Jessica’s business acumen and Stefan’s expertise in polymer engineering have laid a solid foundation for the company’s innovative development.
Seaweed, a rapidly growing natural treasure rich in polysaccharides, is the ideal choice for Noriware’s biodegradable film research. The company closely collaborates with seaweed farming and processing enterprises, collecting vast amounts of seaweed for refined processing to extract natural polymers and biomass. Combined with its proprietary patented technology, these are transformed into high-performance, multifunctional biomaterials.
Noriware’s film is a flexible, transparent, and eco-friendly material, particularly suited for dry goods packaging. It boasts stable quality, excellent moisture resistance, and is entirely made from natural materials, decomposing naturally in soil and compost without residual pollution. Notably, the film can be recycled along with paper, preserving paper’s value as a single-material recyclable. Furthermore, it requires minimal adjustments to fit existing plastic processing equipment, effortlessly integrating into current production systems.
Noriware’s initial target markets are product outer packaging films and shopping plastic bags, with a potential market size of up to $14.4 billion. Since its establishment, the company has secured multiple rounds of funding and support, including a pre-seed round of CHF 1 million and grants of CHF 1.4 million and CHF 0.9 million from Innosuisse. These funds will enable the company to expand its team, upgrade laboratory facilities, and strengthen business cooperation with European manufacturers.