Swiss technology entrepreneur Thomas Taroni is one of the three winners of this year's "EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award". The founder and CEO of AI and cloud provider Phoeniqs was honored in the "Visionary Entrepreneurs" category, as EY announced on Monday.

The award ceremony took place on Friday at the Kongresshaus Zurich. A total of 70 entrepreneurs from 57 companies had been nominated. From nine finalists, an 11-member jury selected the winners in three categories. The "EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award" has now been presented in Switzerland for the 29th time.

Swiss infrastructure for sensitive bank data

Phoeniqs develops and operates cloud and AI infrastructure for companies with high requirements for data protection and data security. Its target groups include banks and other financial service providers in particular.

As finews reported in mid-October, Phoeniqs operates publicly available AI language models on its own infrastructure in Switzerland. According to the company, requests are also processed domestically. This is intended to allow banks to use artificial intelligence (AI) even for confidential information without passing it on to foreign AI services.

Demand has accelerated sharply with the spread of generative AI, said Carla Bünger, co-founder and vice president of Phoeniqs, in an interview with finews at the time.

Supercomputer and partnership with Sunrise

In June, Phoeniqs put a commercial AI supercomputer into operation at the Uptown Basel innovation campus in Arlesheim. The company relies on high-performance computers and a self-developed operating system.

For sales, Phoeniqs works with Sunrise, among others. The strategic partnership announced in May provides that the telecom company will facilitate access to business customers, while Phoeniqs provides the underlying AI infrastructure.

Capital raising and expansion planned

Bünger also told finews that Phoeniqs is working with two investment banks on its first structured capital raise. No target volume was disclosed. So far, the company has grown mainly from ongoing business, supplemented by individual investors.

Phoeniqs also plans to expand internationally. A subsidiary has already been established in Spain. The company sees further growth opportunities particularly in Germany and the Middle East. The AI infrastructure and data processing are to be set up locally in each case in order to meet local requirements for data sovereignty.

Further awards for biotechnology and industry

In addition to Taroni, two other Swiss entrepreneurs were honored. In the "Scale-up Leaders" category, the award went to Daniela Marino, co-founder and CEO of Zurich-based biotechnology company Cutiss. The company develops personalized human skin tissue, particularly for the treatment of severe burns.

In the "Entrepreneurs in Family Business" category, Pascal Bourquard Jr. was honored. He heads the Jura-based family company Biwi, which manufactures specialty materials for the watch, medical, and automotive industries, among others. The company holds more than 22 patents and supplies over 300 international brands.