Swissnex supports Swiss start-ups to expand into the Indian market

More specifically, what do you think it is you can achieve through your work at Swissnex?

Jonas Brunschwig: India remains a lesser-known country in Switzerland when it comes to science and technology. Part of our job is to tell the story of India as a key country in the knowledge economy, thus persuading Switzerland to engage more. The better we do this, the easier it will be to direct some of the attention towards ‘Incredible India’. What we see is that first-time visitors are often amazed by the level of excellence one can find here, and that is certainly encouraging.

Swetha Suresh: When it comes to Swiss start-ups specifically, we see a transition towards more market-ready innovations, and how they are using India as a tech and product development partner - on top of looking at the market itself.

What do you see as the major challenges in the coming years?

Jonas Brunschwig: We have a very strong Swiss network in India and are working hard on aligning our efforts with stakeholders from both Switzerland and India. While it is not something easy that can happen overnight, it is an incredibly exciting challenge for us.

Swetha Suresh: At the same time, not all the challenges are intrinsic to our work. Geopolitics could quickly turn into a major challenge as we have seen with the war in Ukraine, with value-based decisions forcing a country to decide on which side of an issue to stand.

What does your start-up do?

Saurabh Tembhurne: Sohhytec provides renewable systems for onsite production of green power. Our proprietary technology developed at EPFL is thermally assisted photo electrochemical catalysis that increases conversion of solar to hydrogen, twofold that makes it viable for large scale adoption.

As a Swiss start-up, how do you benefit from the programmes offered by Swissnex in India?

Swissnex in India helped us immensely right from the beginning. We were a part of Academia Industry Training program in 2016, that helped us understand feasibility of deployment in India. During the Innosuisse market validation and entry camps, Swissnex helped not only to connect with the right people at the right time but also helped us place our offering in the broader context of Indian energy market for green fuels. We got support on various aspects ranging from networking, local strategic planning, IP planning and manufacturing indigenization.

What are the specifics of the Indian market? And what are the opportunities for your business?

As India is trying to increase share of variable renewables and decarbonisation is a high priority, it presents immense opportunities for our technology. Steel, cement, fertilizers, mobility and even energy storage for the grid are sectors that our technology could help rapidly decarbonise.

What does your start-up do?

Sebastian Dümcke: Clemedi is developing diagnostics for infectious diseases by combining next generation DNA sequencing with artificial intelligence. Our first product is for diagnosing tuberculosis. This indication is of high relevance to India which accounts for 1/3 of the world’s drug resistant tuberculosis cases. Our product can predict resistance to 12 antibiotics within 48 hours which enables the physician to choose the correct antibiotic therapy from the onset.

As a Swiss start-up, how do you benefit from the programmes offered by Swissnex in India?

During our product development phase, programs such as Academia Industry Training and Innosuisse Market Validation Camp enabled us to get insights into the Indian start-up ecosystem and incubators such as C-CAMP and get in touch with first contacts within our field of interest. The generous travel grants from Swissnex allowed us to build personal relationships through in-person meetings. We also got a first understanding of the Indian healthcare market and the public / private split and such. After our product launch in Europe, the Innosuisse Market Entry Camp helped us engage with potential customers and really drill down on our value chain in India.

What are the specifics of the Indian market? And what are the opportunities for your business?

We could confirm the product market fit and the strong medical need that tuberculosis represents in India, in contrast to Switzerland. We also understood that we need to target the private healthcare market first, where patients pay for the costs of testing out of pocket. During our recent visit to India we identified 6 strong leads that are interested in product, amongst which two of the four largest pan-Indian hospital chains. We also were able to understand the pathway of acquiring an import license for our products through the contacts from Swissnex. Last we had the ability to interview doctors at a large Indian hospital chain which provided us new insights on how our product will reach the patients.