On 15 June 2026 the >>venture>> awards were given at the SwissTech Convention Centre at EPFL, before some three hundred guests. Actival, a Neuchâtel spin-off of CSEM, took the Medtech & Healthcare vertical — the only Swiss Health Valley startup in that evening’s field.
Release, not spectacle
The company has patented active dental devices that release a beneficial fluid slowly, for orthodontics and preventive oral care. The jury’s language was patient-centred. Ours is simpler: delivery is a science, whether the vehicle is a serum or a small device worn in the mouth.
The prize is CHF 50,000 and a McKinsey consulting package, from a record 451 applications. Baxiva took Pharma & Biotech. Edwatec, an EPFL house working on optical amplification, took the grand prize. We keep Actival on this shelf because it is close to our own question — how a material is asked to arrive, and how slowly it is allowed to work.