Swiss Startup Showcase

InVirtuo Laboratories SA

InVirtuoLabs is a Swiss biotech startup revolutionizing drug discovery through advanced artificial intelligence and molecular simulations. The company has developed a full-stack computational platform to reimagine the way we design drugs. The platform is grounded on a proprietary foundational model for chemistry, InVirtuoGEN, representing the state of the art worldwide. InVirtuoGEN has outperformed NVIDIA's GenMol on all benchmarks in drug discovery, achieving up to 35% improvement in generating viable drug-like compounds. The company combines cutting-edge machine learning with deep molecular science expertise to de-risk the design of new therapeutics, positioning itself as a leader in AI-driven pharmaceutical research.

Presenter: Gianvito Grasso, Founder & CEO

Limula

Limula makes the most personalised cancer treatments available at scale with automation. We are a life science tools company offering a disruptive bioprocessing device that supports the production of Cell & Gene Therapies, directly at the point of care. We combine Swiss Made precision engineering with deep process development expertise to offer an enabling tool to biopharma and clinical centres, for the benefit of patients.

Presenter: Luc Henry, CEO

Go Healthy

Go Healthy makes mental health therapy reproducible, high quality, and data-driven. Using smartphone signals—typing, steps, screen time, app use—it turns daily behavior into objective insight. Clinicians gain a full view of each patient with zero extra effort: faster, evidence-based diagnosis, real-time tracking of therapy response, and automated alerts. Grounded in Digital Phenotyping, Go Healthy combines passive data (movement, usage, social patterns) and active data (clinical questionnaires) to build a precise mental health profile. The mobile app delivers timely, personalized suggestions to patients, while the clinician dashboard enables continuous monitoring and standardized care. The result: consistent, measurable therapy outcomes, faster recovery, and lower healthcare costs.

Presenter: Joy Bordini, CEO & Co-Founder

Bionomous

At Bionomous we develop easy-to-use automated platforms, from individual screening to plating of small biological entities like zebrafish embryos or organoids, to accelerate ethical, sustainable, and efficient innovation in life sciences.

Presenter: Arsenii Dmitriev

Startup Lightning Pitch Session

Di’namik Therapies

Di’namik Therapies is a clinical-stage startup incubated at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. We develop precision nanomedicines to revolutionise surgical cancer treatment. Our lead indication is head and neck cancers, affecting over 135,000 patients annually across our target markets. Surgeries for head and neck cancers suffer high rates of positive surgical margins and disease recurrence, driving substantial healthcare costs and poor patient outcomes. Our solution is a proprietary, light-activated nanoparticle that enhances treatment precision through fluorescence guidance, selectively destroys cancer cells using laser light, minimises off-target toxicities, and triggers long-lasting anti-tumour immune responses to prevent recurrence. After clinical validation in head and neck cancers, we will expand our versatile nanotechnology platform to other high unmet need indications, including lung, pancreatic, and liver and bile duct cancers.

Presenter: Michael Valic

Re:Pair Genomics

Re:Pair Genomics is a Canadian biotechnology company at the forefront of gene therapy, developing a proprietary AI-driven platform to design novel, cell-type-specific promoters. We are solving one of gene therapy's greatest challenges: precision.

Our machine-learning algorithm can design compact, synthetic promoters in a single day—a process that traditionally takes months. By enabling gene therapies to express their therapeutic payload only in the intended target cells, our technology dramatically increases efficacy and reduces off-target toxicity.

Our interdisciplinary team brings together world-class expertise in computational biology, synthetic biology, and preclinical validation, ensuring a rapid pipeline from AI-driven design to proven therapeutic assets.

We are actively seeking strategic partnerships to advance our precision-medicine platform and accelerate the development of safer, more effective treatments for oncology and rare diseases.

Presenter: Yosuke Niibori

Gene2Lead

Gene2Lead is an Ontario-based biotech startup leveraging proteomics data and AI-powered computational platforms to explore novel therapeutic strategies against disease. Our platforms are target- and disease-agnostic and can use either starting points for therapeutic development strategies. We offer a discovery pipelines that fuse in silico protein–drug interaction predictions with real-world experimental chemoproteomics data to provide clients with starting points for drug development. The key insight is that by leveraging chemoproteomic “hits” and omics data, our platforms prioritize targeting opportunities through large-scale ligandability and tractability assessments. These platforms further allow us to discover unique therapeutic modes against validated drug targets and predict novel targeting strategies against undrugged protein and protein sites across proteome of any organism of interest.

Presenter: Fettah Ergodan

BoutIQ Solutions Inc.

BoutIQ solutions Inc. harnesses AI/ML-driven optimization to revolutionize cell culture media development for regenerative medicine, cellular agriculture, and biotechnology. Our innovative approach accelerates the creation of complex, custom formulations, enabling next-generation, chemically defined media that enhance cell growth, physiological function, and maturity. By pushing the boundaries of media innovation, we unlock new possibilities for therapeutic advancements, sustainable food production, and bio-manufacturing.

Presenter: Doris Adao

Rime Therapeutics

Rime Tx bridges target discovery and hit finding with a single, function-first platform. Our phenotypic screens use proprietary Disruptide probes to simultaneously identify the most impactful targets and their functional, druggable sites. Each Disruptide hit serves as the chemical blueprint for small molecule drug design, delivering a validated target and how to drug it in one step.

Presenter: Madison Bolger-Munro

Meet the Judges

Sarah Farr
Senior Associate, Genesys Capital

Dr. Farr joined Genesys Capital in 2020 as an Associate, bringing to the team eight years of experience at the bench in laboratory research and discovery. She is responsible for sourcing deal flow and carrying out diligence on biotech and medtech investment opportunities. She serves on the Board of Directors of Antegrade Medical Inc. and is a board observer for Giiant Pharma Inc. and Questat Inc. Past board affiliations include Adapsyn Bioscience, Inc. and EBT Medical, Inc. Dr. Farr currently volunteers on the review committee for the McMaster University Seed Fund. Before Genesys, Dr. Farr worked as a Business Development Officer in the Industry Partnerships & Commercialization office at the Hospital for Sick Children, where she managed IP, industry partnerships, and start-up opportunities. Dr. Farr received her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto where she studied the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. She also has a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours) with a minor in Biochemistry from McMaster University. 

Derek Newton,
Senior VP, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Mitacs

Dr. Derek Newton is a recognized leader dedicated to advancing Canada’s research and innovation capacity. As Senior Vice-President Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Mitacs, Derek fosters transformative industry partnerships, champions entrepreneurial ventures, and helps companies tap into Canada’s top research talent to develop and adopt transformative technologies. Derek's career spans senior roles at the University of Toronto, Western University, and the Ontario Genomics Institute where he worked alongside provincial and national funding programs to drive research excellence and innovation. He is widely regarded for helping companies unlock the value of university partnerships, connecting them with top talent, breakthrough research, and impact. His efforts have resulted in enduring collaborations that translate research discoveries into real-world solutions. With a PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto and degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Waterloo, Dr. Newton combines scientific expertise with strategic leadership to advance Canada’s research and innovation ecosystem.

Parimal Natrhwani
President and CEO, TIAP – Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners

A highly regarded leader and advocate with strong relationships across the academic and health research community, global industry and investors, Parimal has been with TIAP since its inception in 2008, first serving as VP and subsequently appointed President and CEO in 2020. Parimal has 25+ years experience advancing health innovation, including forming, launching, scaling and managing more than a dozen start-up companies with activities such as raising early-stage capital, establishing strategic partnerships, recruiting management and advisors, and driving in- and out-licensing activities. Parimal was previously a healthcare analyst with a boutique investment bank, led commercialization activities at BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital as part of his role at the University of British Columbia’s UILO, and started his career as a research scientist at a start-up biotechnology company. Parimal is Chair of Vasomune, a Director of Fibrocor and Life Sciences Ontario, and an Observer on the Boards of Zucara and Radiant.