Tech4Eva, the startup accelerator dedicated to women's health launched in 2021 by EPFL Innovation Park and the health insurer Groupe Mutuel, was not renewed in 2026, according to the magazine PME of 3 November 2026. French-speaking Switzerland's femtech sector thus loses its flagship programme, just as its startups are looking for investors to move from prototype to market.
Tech4Eva in figures: 110 startups over five editions
Tech4Eva billed itself as Europe's first accelerator dedicated to femtech, the technologies designed for women's health. Its director, Lan Zuo Gillet, former deputy director of EPFL Innovation Park, takes stock in PME: 765 applications from 71 countries and 110 startups supported over five editions.
According to the same former director, alumni have raised nearly 300 million francs, and the programme contributed to the exit of five of them. This is the former director's estimate: PME specifies neither the period nor the details of the calculation.
The format changed along the way. The announcement published by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) on 9 March 2021 planned a first cohort of 15 startups over nine months, starting in April 2021. On the programme: workshops, mentoring, investor meetings and a tour of Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The last call for applications, circulated by EPFL for the fifth cohort, described a global, virtual six-month accelerator, starting in May 2025, open to 10 to 15 projects. Startups had until 15 February 2025 to apply.
Why the accelerator is ending
Two causes explain the shutdown, according to PME: a change in priorities at the two founding institutions and fragile funding, which relied on a single sponsor. Groupe Mutuel is not closing the door. A spokesperson for the insurer tells PME that the company is "considering how to continue [its] commitment in the field of women's health".
Originally, the partnership was meant to benefit both sides. The 2021 announcement promised startups pilot projects within Groupe Mutuel and its corporate clients, as well as access to EPFL Innovation Park's investor network. The park, which offers La Forge and Le Garage among others, remains a major gateway among the incubator structures in French-speaking Switzerland.
What is becoming of French-speaking Switzerland's femtech startups
Tech4Eva alumni and their neighbours in the Lake Geneva region are making progress, but along different paths. A distinction must be made between fundraising, which brings investors into the capital, and research contracts, grants and partnerships.
| Startup | What it is developing | Known funding | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspivix (Epalinges, VD) | Gynaecological instrument using gentle suction for the cervix | 800,000 francs in autumn 2026, around 10 million since 2015 | Crowdfunding |
| Impli (Biopôle and London) | Microneedle patch that measures hormones continuously | 1.4 million pounds from the British public research body NIHR and 1.5 million euros from SPRIND | Public funds and research contract; partnership with Bayer |
| MoleSense (Lausanne) | Skin patch that analyses sweat for high-risk pregnancies | More than 300,000 euros, then 1.5 million euros from SPRIND | Non-dilutive funds and research contract |
| Testmate Health (Geneva) | Disposable urine test for screening sexually transmitted infections | 1.62 million francs in 2021, 6 million dollars in May 2024 | Funding rounds, including a seed round |
Aspivix illustrates the hardest step. Its instrument has obtained CE marking in Europe and clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US health authority. Yet Mathieu Horras, of Aspivix, describes to PME a "second valley of death": the costly phase between market launch and adoption by hospitals. To get around investors' reluctance, the company of around fifteen employees has turned to crowdfunding.
Impli and MoleSense, for their part, have secured German funding. Both based at Biopôle in Epalinges, they are among the eight international teams selected for the continuous hormone monitoring challenge of the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND), according to Biopôle on 24 July 2026. This 40 million euro programme over three years grants each team a research contract of 1.5 million euros for its first stage.
This is not fundraising: SPRIND does not take equity. According to PME, MoleSense has twelve months to prove that its sensor can track four hormones continuously over seven days. Before that, the EPFL spin-off had been supported by the Venture Kick initiative and by the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM).
Testmate Health, a University of Geneva spin-off founded in 2020, has followed a more conventional path. According to PME, its seed funding round in May 2024 was led by the US fund RH Capital, with support from Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB).
Who is taking over in French-speaking Switzerland?
No structure has replaced Tech4Eva to date, but several institutions are stepping up their commitment. These are mostly intentions and announced projects.
- EPFL is recruiting an assistant professor in women's health engineering, for a new chair, according to PME.
- CSEM has made women's health a strategic focus. It is running projects with Impli, MoleSense and VidaSense, whose belt monitors the heart of the mother and the foetus.
- Clinique de Genolier, near Nyon, wants to break down silos in women's care. Its chief executive since June, Aurélie Meynet, hints at an announcement, without revealing its content.
- Lan Zuo Gillet wants to create, together with several figures of Swiss femtech, an independent, non-profit structure funded by several sponsors. No date or partner has been announced.
Generalist accelerators also take in women's health projects. At the MassChallenge Switzerland awards in Lausanne on 29 October 2026, the Diamond Prize went to N23 Health, a Swedish startup screening for breast cancer with a portable ultrasound device. According to MassChallenge Switzerland, 64% of the startups in its 2026 cohort had a female co-founder.
Why investors remain reluctant
The main obstacle lies in the profile of funders, according to the witnesses quoted by PME. Mathieu Horras notes that venture capital events mostly bring together men, who must be convinced of the clinical reality of gynaecological pain.
The lag in research also weighs. As early as 2021, the Tech4Eva announcement noted that only 4% of health research targeted women's health. Samantha Paoletti, head of life sciences research and development at CSEM, points out in PME that women were long excluded from clinical trials, for fear of hormonal fluctuations.
Femtech supporters put forward considerable markets, to be taken as estimates. PME cites a McKinsey study: closing the health gap between women and men would add at least 1,000 billion dollars a year to the global economy by 2040. The market for treating menopause symptoms alone is valued at between 120 and 350 billion dollars. These figures describe a need, not the return on an investment.
To follow the other players in the region, our section on the startup ecosystem in French-speaking Switzerland lists programmes and announcements.
What we don't know yet
- The form Groupe Mutuel's commitment to women's health will take: the insurer says it is considering the matter, with no timetable.
- The timetable and sponsors of the structure Lan Zuo Gillet wants to create.
- The content of the expected announcement from Clinique de Genolier.
Sources
- PME, "Femtech: Tech4Eva s'arrête, la Suisse romande veut rebondir", 3 November 2026
- EPFL, "Tech4Eva – The first startup accelerator in the field of FemTech", 9 March 2021
- EPFL Memento, Tech4Eva 2025 call for applications
- Biopôle, "MoleSense and Impli Selected for the SPRIND Challenge on Continuous Hormone Monitoring", 24 July 2026
