FIT supports four Vaud start-ups through its Digital programs

The Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT) is supporting four new start-ups from the canton of Vaud through its Digital programs: a CHF 200,000 Digital Growth loan to WasteFlow, CHF 50,000 Digital Seed loans to DOCumenter and Nextrainers, and a CHF 20,000 Digital Grant to RiveLock.

WasteFlow gives waste sorting centers continuous visibility over what passes along their conveyor belts. Operators currently rely on spot samples or manual checks, and the resulting blind spots cause production stoppages, sorting errors and occasional fires started by hazardous items such as lithium batteries. Sensors mounted above the belts film the waste while image analysis software identifies materials, estimates volume and mass, and flags dangerous objects in real time. Already deployed in centers in Switzerland, Spain and France, the company will use the loan to strengthen its commercial and operational teams and equip new sites.

DOCumenter, designed by Swiss physicians, automates medical documentation. The platform transcribes consultations from a microphone, generates routine documents and prepares billing according to the Swiss TARDOC system, with medical data processed on Swiss servers and erased once the document is produced. Physicians spend more than 30 percent of their time on administrative tasks, a leading cause of burnout in the profession. The loan will finance market entry with independent physicians and the first institutional contracts.

Nextrainers offers an online platform that generates a complete, personalized football training session in one minute, with tactical diagrams, from parameters entered by the coach. Preparing a session takes a coach an average of four hours per week, usually without a dedicated tool. The loan will support sales to clubs and federations in Switzerland and abroad.

RiveLock provides a conditional payment platform for renovation work: the client deposits funds with an approved Swiss payment partner, which releases them only once the work has been validated. In the Swiss renovation sector, 80 percent of companies experience late payments and a quarter of bankruptcies are attributable to unpaid invoices. The grant will fund product improvements based on user feedback and testing of the first customer acquisition channels.