Loomish Innovation
Awards
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Lifestyle-tech open innovation, since 2019

Where lifestyle‑tech solutions meet brands & investors.

FoodTech Award 2024 winner announced on stage at the Retail Tech Innovation event, Google Zurich
FoodTech Award 2024 · winner announced at Google, Zurich

The place where start‑ups come to do business

The Loomish Innovation Awards are an open innovation program where mature start‑ups and scale‑ups come to do business. Each edition is sponsored by a leading brand with a real innovation need. The best solutions pitch live to that brand's top management and to international investors.

Fashion · Food · Luxury · Beauty

11Award editions
6Years running
100+Applications per call
12Finalists pitch live

Past sponsors

Three sides of the table

Brands. Start‑ups. Investors.

One format brings all three together. A brand sets the innovation question, start‑ups answer it in front of the people who can buy, and investors watch solutions get validated by the market before they commit.

For brands

A tailored scouting of what you need now

Each award opens with the sponsor's own innovation brief. Loomish scouts internationally, screens over a hundred applicants, and brings twelve to the pitch day. Winners are offered the chance to explore a proof of concept with the brand.

For start-ups

Show off to the world's leading brands

Finalists pitch directly to the top management of the sponsor and to executives from its partner companies, investors and academics. They leave with contacts, mentoring and, for the winners, the chance to explore a pilot project with the brand.

For investors

Deal flow that brands have already tested

Holding companies, venture capital, private equity and business angels sit on the jury and in the room. They see mature solutions that a major brand has just chosen, before anyone else does.

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Made possible by Loomish, a Swiss investment management firm specialised in lifestyle‑tech, based in Lugano.

Involved to date

Partners and involved brands to date.

Over the editions, these organisations have hosted pitch days, sat on juries, or brought their executives, investors and academics to the table.

Partners and hosts

Brands that have sat on the jury

Track record

Eleven editions, four industries.

Every edition was sponsored by a brand with a question to answer, judged by its executives, and closed with winners offered a pilot project with that brand.

2019

Fashion Innovation AwardArtificial intelligence across the fashion value chain

Sponsored by
Google, Bally, Accenture Interactive, CRIF, AGIRE
Winners
Nextatlas, Spott.ai, Yosh.AI
Where
Fashion Innovation Week, Lugano. 100+ applicants, 12 finalists
2020

Fashion Innovation AwardSustainability edition

Sponsored by
Bally, with Credit Suisse, Microsoft, CRIF, Quantis, Netcomm Suisse, AGIRE
Winners
Piñatex, Returnity, Flocus, RePack
Where
Lugano. 100+ applicants from 11 countries, 16 finalists
2021

Food‑Tech Innovation AwardRetail edition: client engagement and rich data capture

Sponsored by
Barilla and Lavazza, with Accenture, Microsoft, UBS
Winners
Nextatlas, Animatico
Where
USI–SUPSI campus, Lugano. Jury incl. Coop, Metro, VéGé
2021

LuxForward AwardCircular design and new ownership models in luxury

Sponsored by
Cognizant
Jury
Bally, Breitling, Brunello Cucinelli, Design Holding, Dufry, Hugo Boss, MSC Cruises, Timex, Tod's, Valentino, Versace
Where
Lugano. 100+ applicants from Europe, Asia and North America
2021

Fashion Innovation AwardVirtual fashion and augmented customer experience

Sponsored by
Bally, with Accenture, Microsoft, UBS, Switzerland Innovation Park Ticino
Winners
Oppen Future, Obsess
Where
Pitch day at Bally headquarters, Caslano
2022

FoodTech Innovation AwardMarTech for food retail

Sponsored by
Barilla and Lavazza
Winners
Adventr, Nexoya
Where
Pitch day at Microsoft headquarters, Zurich
2022

Fashion Innovation Award3D design, VR and XR for customer experience

Sponsored by
Bally
Winner
PixelPool
Where
IMD, Lausanne. 12 finalists
2023

FoodTech Innovation AwardShoppable marketing

Sponsored by
Barilla and Lavazza
Winner
Typeface
Where
UBS conference centre, Lugano. 70+ applicants, 12 finalists
2023

Fashion Innovation AwardGenerative AI for sales, marketing and the supply chain

Sponsored by
Bally. Jury incl. Breitling, Hugo Boss, Richemont, Clinique La Prairie, Timex
Winners
Typeface, Syrup
Where
Rolex Learning Center, EPFL Lausanne. Winners announced at the e-Luxury Summit
2024

FoodTech Innovation AwardRetail media

Sponsored by
Barilla and Lavazza, with Accenture, Dagorà, UBS
Winner
Graffiti
Where
Pitch day at Accenture Zurich; winner announced at Google, Zurich
2024

Beauty Innovation AwardGenerative AI for customer experience; AI for the supply chain

Sponsored by
Antares Vision Group and Hyphen Digital
Winners
Renude, Authena
Where
Lugano. Jury from Acqua di Parma, Bulgari, La Prairie, Bayer, Galderma, Intercos and more
Lavazza presenting at the Food-Tech Award 2021 pitch day in Lugano
Food-Tech Award 2021 · Lavazza on stage, Lugano
Fashion Innovation Award trophies
Fashion Innovation Award trophies
Finalists pitching to the jury and audience at the Fashion Innovation Award
Fashion Innovation Award · pitch day
Barilla jury session at the Food-Tech Award 2021
Food-Tech Award 2021 · Barilla jury session
“It is always a pleasure to be inspired by the next generation of talent. Throughout the project there was a great collaborative effort of the award sponsors, partners and jurors, as we had the opportunity to get a closer look at over a hundred exciting solutions.”
Nicolas Girotto, CEO, Bally

Winners

Winners to date.

Chosen by the sponsor's own executives out of international fields of up to a hundred applicants, each offered the chance to explore a pilot project with the sponsoring brand.

NextatlasFashion 2019 · FoodTech 2021 · Italy
Spott.aiFashion 2019 · Belgium
Yosh.AIFashion 2019 · Poland
PiñatexFashion 2020 · United Kingdom
ReturnityFashion 2020 · United States
FlocusFashion 2020
RePackFashion 2020 · Finland
AnimaticoFoodTech 2021 · Switzerland
Oppen FutureFashion 2021
ObsessFashion 2021 · United States
AdventrFoodTech 2022 · United States
NexoyaFoodTech 2022 · Switzerland
PixelPoolFashion 2022 · Netherlands
TypefaceFoodTech 2023 · Fashion 2023 · United States
SyrupFashion 2023 · United States
GraffitiFoodTech 2024 · France
RenudeBeauty 2024 · United Kingdom
AuthenaBeauty 2024 · Switzerland
Loomish

Made possible by Loomish

Loomish is a Swiss-based investment management firm specialised in lifestyle‑tech, with a focus on Fashion, Food, Luxury and Beauty. We deliver expert guidance and facilitate investments, focusing on the disruptive technologies offered by mature European start‑ups.

Strategically located in Ticino, between the financial centre of Zurich and the global lifestyle hub of Milan, Loomish is a partner of the Dagorà Lifestyle Innovation Hub in Lugano. The awards are how we scout for, promote and help the tech innovators our brands and investors want to meet.

Fashion Innovation Award key visual
Fashion · Food · Luxury · Beauty

Next edition

Put your innovation question to the market.

Tell us which side of the table you sit on. We will come back to you with what an edition looks like, who was in the room last time, and what it would take to open the next call.

  • BrandsSponsor an award around the innovation need you have now.
  • InvestorsJoin the jury and see validated deal flow first.
  • Start-upsRegister interest for the next open call.

Or write to [email protected]