Startup Days 2025: Social Impact and Wellbeing Startups Take the Stage

By Christina Ioannou – Reporting from Startup Days, Bern, Switzerland

When people think of Swiss startup events, deep tech and cutting-edge AI often come to mind. And while tech-heavy ventures continue to dominate, this year’s Startup Days in Bern revealed a refreshing trend: social impact and wellbeing startups are truly thriving. Among a crowd of futuristic hardware and data-driven ventures, two companies stood out by putting mental health and human-centered innovation at the core of their business models: Resilient and Go Healthy & CO.

Resilient AI

Mental health in the workplace has become an urgent issue, with burnout and stress costing both employees and employers dearly. Resilient AI is tackling this challenge head-on with a scalable, AI-powered coaching platform designed to offer accessible and confidential mental health support. The company’s AI is trained by top Swiss therapists to provide 24/7 conversational coaching using a proprietary multimodal recommendation system.

Unlike traditional solutions that rely on reactive interventions, Resilient AI emphasizes prevention. Employees benefit from personalized guidance to build emotional resilience, while HR and wellbeing teams receive anonymized, aggregated insights that help detect and address systemic issues early, always with strict data privacy protocols in place.

Founder Max Grossenbacher shared his experience at the event:

“The Startup Days in Bern proved to be a highly valuable event for fostering connections within the startup ecosystem, and we even walked away with a strong potential collaboration. For us, the most impactful element was the structured 15-minute 1-on-1 networking sessions. These dedicated time slots offered an efficient and effective way to engage in meaningful conversations that led to tangible opportunities. Beyond this, it was also a fantastic opportunity to reconnect and catch up in person with many familiar faces from our existing network, reinforcing those important relationships.”

Max Grossenbacher Founder of Resilient AI

Go Healthy & CO: Passive Mental Health Monitoring

Go Healthy & CO is a digital health startup leveraging smartphone metadata, like GPS, screen time, and app usage patterns, to passively monitor brain and mental health. Using deep learning to analyze behavior, the platform delivers clinical-grade insights that support diagnosis, personalize treatment and improve medication adherence. Its B2B approach, targets hospitals and pharma companies, aiming to enhance clinical trials and secure insurance reimbursement.

‘With mental health needs increasing globally, Go Healthy’s non-invasive, data-driven model offers a timely and scalable solution.’ says Founder Joy Bordini. According to her ‘The Startup Days in Bern event was a great opportunity to connect with professionals across the health and entrepreneurship space, including the Women in Medtech network and founder Laura Santos-Carreras. These conversations offered valuable input for shaping Go Healthy’s next strategic steps.’

Joy Bordini Founder of Go Healthy & CO

More Than Talks: Holistic Support for Founders

What makes Startup Days a cornerstone for the Swiss startup ecosystem isn’t just the talks or the tech but its structure. The 15-minute 1-on-1 networking sessions emerged as one of the most impactful elements of the event. Founders and investors alike noted that these brief yet meaningful interactions often led to deeper conversations and new opportunities.

In addition to networking, the program featured rich discussions on everything from how to raise capital as a young startup to the technicalities of building and managing a venture capital fund. The sessions reflected a deep understanding of the startup lifecycle, offering tailored insights for founders, investors, and ecosystem builders alike.

Behind the seamless experience of Startup Days 2025 were dedicated organisers and a strong network of partners who made it all possible. From venue logistics to curating the speaker lineup, their effort was evident in every aspect of the event. Key partners included the Gebert Ruf Stiftung, Swisscom, BEKB, Innosuisse, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Impact Hub Bern, Venturelab, EPFL Innovation Park, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation, and many others whose support underpins the ecosystem’s momentum.

As technology continues to drive global innovation, Switzerland’s Startup Days is carving out space for startups that are equally focused on human wellbeing. The success and visibility of Resilient AI and Go Healthy & CO serve as a reminder that tech and empathy are not mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, increasingly interdependent. With mental health and social impact on the rise, events like these are more important than ever, not just for building companies, but for building a healthier, more inclusive future.