India

AssiStart 2025

When

Location

Event type

Upcoming
September
  • October 9, 2025 — October 16, 2025 India 09 Thursday India
    Immersion program, Startup Training, Innovation

    AssiStart 2025

    Meet the four Swiss startups participating in this year's AssiStart: Indo-Swiss Assistive Technology Week 2025.

    Info & tickets

As part of the ‘AssiStart: Indo-Swiss Assistive Technology Week 2025’, powered by Innosuisse and managed by Swissnex in India, four startups headquartered in Switzerland will visit India for one week from October 9 to October 16 to explore and expand into the dynamic Indian market while contributing to global advancements in assistive technologies.

Participants will begin with online modules and coaching sessions from Swissnex four to six weeks before their visit, setting clear milestones for impactful engagement. During the visit, they will gain in-depth insights into India’s assistive technology landscape through group workshops and sector immersion, and take part in five to six tailored bilateral meetings with key actors, supported by briefing and debriefing sessions with a Swissnex coach.

They will also showcase their innovations to around 400 ecosystem players at dedicated conferences such as the International Purple Fest in Goa (hosted by the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and the Office of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Government of Goa, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, and United Nations India) and benefit from 15 days of follow-up support to build on the connections and opportunities created.

Our partners in supporting the startups in their exploration of the Indian market are the AssisTech Foundation (ATF), India’s first assistive technology ecosystem dedicated to empowering Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) by enabling learning, livelihood and living opportunities.

Read about the startups participating in AssiStart 2025 below.

AssiStart 2025 Startups

    DAAV

    DAAV, an assistive-tech startup that was born as a spin-off of Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). They work on enhancing airport mobility for passengers with reduced mobility. Their flagship product, DAAV-air, is an autonomous, omnidirectional robotic wheelchair equipped with AI-enabled navigation to maneuver through crowded environments with precision and ease without the need for human assistance. Their wheelchairs have various modes including ‘follow-me’, where the wheelchair uses sensors to automatically follow a companion (like a family member or airport staff) without needing manual control; ‘full autonomy’, where the wheelchair navigates entirely on its own—the passenger selects a destination (boarding gate, restroom) and the chair drives there safely, avoiding obstacles and crowds; ‘tele-operation’, where a remote operator (airport staff member) can guide the chair via a control system, if the user needs assistance or is in tricky environments. This allows passengers flexibility and independence while ensuring safety and comfort. Headquartered in Biel, Switzerland, DAAV offers its robotic wheelchair solution to airports and ground-handling firms through subscription-based plans.

    Lighthouse

    Lighthouse empowers visually impaired and blind individuals through their intuitive and stylish eyewear products. Their TAMI eyeframes are worn like regular glasses and discreetly scan for overhead and upper-body obstacles, areas that traditional mobility aids like white canes can miss, and alert the user via gentle haptic feedback. They don’t replace traditional mobility aids but rather complement them. The TAMI frames are lightweight, come in multiple unisex styles and colours and can even support prescription lenses.

    Magnes

    Magnes’ NUSHU smart shoes transform mobility in people with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), dementia, and also in elderly individuals who are at risk of falling. Their shoes are wearable devices, embedded with sensors and AI algorithms that are able to perform clinical-grade gait analysis and provide real-time biofeedback. This means that if the system detects that a user’s walking pattern is unstable or irregular, the shoe will vibrate in a specific way to alert them to correct their step, slow down or shift balance without needed visual or auditory cues. The sensors monitor gait patterns continuously as patients go about daily activities and AI analyses the movement data for clinical insights and automatic reporting. Born as a spin-off of ETZ Zurich, Magnes’ shoes address pressing needs in neurological care.

    DeepPsy

    DeepPsy specialises in advancing personalised psychiatric treatment by offering clinicians a more objective and data-driven approach to mental healthcare as opposed to trial-and-error treatment selection that can be inefficient. Their algorithms analyse biological signals rather than relying on symptom-based guesswork in treating mental illnesses such as depression and other emerging neuropsychiatric conditions. They develop algorithms to process electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) data and extract biomarkers that correlate with patients’ likelihood of responding positively to various psychiatric treatments. Their science-backed reports help psychiatrists identify individualised responses early and choose treatments accordingly, thereby shortening time to effective care and enhancing outcomes for mental health patients.
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Partners

Contact

    Rahul Kulshresth

    Head of Innovation
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