PORTFOLIO

DART Labs is an Incubator for teams that build technologies for a more human future. We incubate and invest in Swiss and European researchers, creators, and early stage startups; From our base in San Francisco, we then test and scale their ideas in the US. We are seeking ideas that will improve the way we live, learn, work, heal, collaborate, and treat our environment.

Together, we are smarter. We connect bold ideas from Europe, and then we test and scale them with the right strategic partners in the US. We believe that it’s time for a new type of incubator that fits the individual needs of our member companies, and where we become their extended team. We collaborate closely with our startups, and invest in and incubate the most promising ones. Founders need a space to test and scale ideas early without losing creative freedom. Our incubator is called DART because we are convinced that the best companies are built by diverse and radically interdisciplinary teams that bring Design, Art, Research and Technology together.

We took a selection of the most promising Swiss Startups to key events in the US to give them visibility and focused on industry matchmaking. Five startups we selected for our 12-month incubation program. We helped them validate and scale their business, we help find strategic partners, advisors, investors, organized demo days and events, offered visibility and an office in San Francisco.
DART name and thesis was always to bring Design + Art + Technology + Research together and to scout specifically in the art and design schools for entrepreneurial projects, but real talent, ready to commercialize, is very hard to find. We could not reach critical mass. We still found most of the promising teams and startups at the technical universities.
DART is now an independent company combining public and private grants with for profit activities to build a sustainable business model but at the same time guarantee a space for experimentation.
We added an investment arm to DART Labs to be able to support our startups also financially. January 2020 we welcomed our first private Swiss investors. In February and March 2020 we made our first 3 investments and more are planned.