UPortunity - the ETH Start-up Accelerator

The application timeline for cohort #5 will be updated in due time. 

UPortunity is based on the following principles:

Vision
to become the leading university student accelerator, empowering ETH founders to create scalable Start-up companies.

Mission
to support ETH founders in transforming their ideas into commercial products, thereby benefiting society at large and contributing to the prosperity of Switzerland.

Purpose
to bridge the public-private funding gap, enabling ETH founders to further develop their ideas, achieving market and institutional investment readiness.

Values
to embrace ETH’s core values of respect, excellence, responsibility, diversity,
openness, curiosity and team spirit.

Applications for "UPortunity - the ETH Start-up Accelerator" will be accepted if the following main criteria are met:

• Teams with up to five members (with max three becoming an UPortunity Fellow). The lead applicant must be either:    
  •  A recent ETH graduate (Bachelor's, Master's, Doctoral, MAS, or CAS) who finished their degree within the past two years, or
  • A current ETH student in the final year of an ETH Bachelor's or Master's degree program, having successfully completed all required coursework and examinations. For Master's students, only the Master's thesis may still need to be completed
• applicants whose projects have demonstrated a innovative business idea and have a functional prototype, with at least TRL 4
• project must be based on knowledge gained by the applicant/s at ETH and not based on ETH Intellectual Property, Technology or research findings
• All applicants nominated to become UPortunity Fellows must be eligible to participate in the program on a full-time basis (100%) for its entire duration

The applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:

• the application meets all eligibility criteria
• at least a prototype has been demonstrated
• a convincing problem-solution fit has been identified
• the business model is commercially viable and innovative; and the
  business has the potential to scale
• the applicants / founder team demonstrates a strong entrepreneurial mindset
• the proposed project fits the scope of UPortunity

The most promising projects are invited to present their project at the in-person selection day on March 01, 2027 (8am - 6pm). All team members are required to participate.

You must reserve half a day (am or pm, schedule will be communicated 1 week prior). 

As compensation for the financial support and services provided by UPortunity, ETH is entitled to a "Fee-OnRaised-Capital" (FORC) of 2% on capital raised by an ETH Start-up (up to a total amount of CHF 4 Mio) that has emerged from or benefited from the UPortunity Program.

The program will culminate in a Demo Day. This will be a showcase event to raise awareness for the start-ups in front of an audience of investors and entrepreneurship community members and celebrate the end of the program.

The Demo Day of Cohort #3 will take place in January 2027.  The Demo Day of Cohort #4 will take place in June 2027. 

Applications for "UPortunity - the ETH Start-up Accelerator" will be accepted if the following main criteria are met:

• Teams with up to five members (with max three becoming an UPortunity Fellow). The lead applicant must be either:    
  •  A recent ETH graduate (Bachelor's, Master's, Doctoral, MAS, or CAS) who finished their degree within the past two years, or
  • A current ETH student (Bachelor's, Master's) in the final year of an ETH Bachelor's or Master's degree program, having successfully completed all required coursework and examinations. For Master's students, only the Master's thesis may still need to be completed
• applicants whose projects have demonstrated a innovative business idea and have a functional prototype, with at least TRL 4
• project must be based on knowledge gained by the applicant/s at ETH and not based on ETH Intellectual Property, Technology or research findings
• All applicants nominated to become UPortunity Fellows must be eligible to participate in the program on a full-time basis (100%) for its entire duration

No. Participation in UPortunity requires a full-time commitment throughout the duration of the program. During this period, you are expected to dedicate 100% of your time to developing your start-up and actively participating in all program activities, including workshops, office hours, and community events. If you are unable to commit full-time yourself, you may still be part of an application, provided that the lead applicant and the co-applicant(s) are able to meet the full-time commitment outlined above.

No, UPortunity is only for projects that don’t involve IP partially owned by ETH.

The ETH start-up label recognizes that a start-up was founded by an ETH member/ETH members. You can apply to the ETH start-up label either before or after participating in UPortunity. Find more information about the ETH start-up label here. 

For the duration of the program (3 months), joining the workshops (at least one team member) and community events (all team members) is mandatory. The workshops take place weekly, on Mondays and/or Thursdays, and the community events on Thursday evenings. For the rest of the time, it is preferred that you work from the UPortunity office space.

Yes, as part of UPortunity, you and your team can work from the UPortunity office space. It is located at Hardturmstrasse 161, 8005 Zürich, and is fully furnished with work desks, meeting rooms and a workshop/event space. Most of the program related activities will take place in the UPortunity office space. 

The project-expenses you can cover with the CHF 5'000.- are outlined in the UPortunity guidelines. Typically they are used for attending relevant industry events and fairs, marketing costs and expenses needed for prototyping (among others).