SWISSto12 sets out to conquer space
Great projects are sometimes born incrementally, through decisive stages. This is how SWISSto12 built its success, step by step. In 15 years, the start-up has become a fast-growing global company in the space industry. The Renens-based company was originally founded on a technology for manufacturing antennas using 3D printers.
Today, it designs and produces satellites for the biggest telecoms operators, as well as communication systems for satellite manufacturers worldwide. The Vaud-based company has consolidated its success thanks to an intellectual property strategy designed in partnership with P&TS from 2016. Portrait of a success story with its founder, Emile de Rijk.
Sometimes, need creates opportunity. For SWISSto12, it all began 15 years ago in an EPFL laboratory, within a spin-off created by Emile de Rijk as part of his doctoral thesis. The key idea originally arose from specific needs linked to antenna manufacturing.
For antennas to perform their function, they are subject to very precise and complex geometric constraints. “It is therefore not possible to make them in a single piece from a block of metal,” explains the founder. “Traditionally, they are made by assembling countless small parts, rather like a mechanical watch.”
It was precisely this complexity that gave rise to the process patented by SWISSto12. The innovation was born of necessity, explains the founder: “Paradoxically, it was a limited budget for purchasing equipment that created the opportunity. As we were forced to find solutions in-house, one thing led to another and we came up with the idea of using the principle of 3D printing to make these antennas.” It was precisely this technique that enabled SWISSto12 to launch a series of successful innovations.
It quickly became logical for the telecommunications satellite sector to become SWISSto12’s main area of development. It is a fast-growing market, but one that is difficult to break into, because product qualification is extremely long and complex, with a high demand for performance. « We were making highly competitive products, which have a significant impact on the data rate a satellite can exchange with users. »
Shared geostationary satellite
After more than a decade developing radiofrequency products and telecommunications payloads for the world’s leading space players, SWISSto12 gradually moved up the value chain. This led the company to enter the geostationary satellite segment and offer HummingSat, a new category of small geostationary satellites. Thanks to this proprietary platform, SWISSto12 is no longer limited to supplying subsystems or payloads. It can now deliver complete telecommunications satellites suited to the needs of operators and governments looking for connectivity solutions that are faster to deploy, more incremental and more economical.
« This market has only a few players, which are aerospace giants, » explains Emile de Rijk. « In geostationary orbit, they offer only large, extremely expensive satellites. These are oversized for business cases that are regional or interesting, but whose modest scale could not justify such an investment. » SWISSto12 therefore seized the opportunity. The Vaud-based company had the idea of offering its customers the chance to pool the deployment of these business cases by using a smaller geostationary satellite.
Once again, the idea has been crowned with success. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, stresses Emile de Rijk. The journey has involved many twists and adaptations, as the company repositioned itself along the value chain to offer its customers the best place.
Incremental innovations
At each stage, the SWISSto12 team has had to develop specific expertise: antenna design, aerospace engineering, satellite systems engineering, and expertise in mechanical, thermal, electrical and electronic engineering, propulsion, avionics, onboard software and so on. « The systems we work on are highly interdisciplinary, and our innovations are achieved within this interdisciplinarity and in an incremental way. We have therefore regularly had to find the right people, get closer to our customers, raise funds and develop our intellectual property. »
SWISSto12 is now meeting a considerable challenge of growth and execution, with several satellites sold and payloads for two low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations. The company now has almost 300 employees and two subsidiaries, in the United States and in Spain.
The common thread running through SWISSto12’s meteoric rise is, quite clearly, the constraints on product design and engineering: « The thinking that has guided us throughout these developments is the need imposed by the chosen market, namely a lighter, more compact and less costly design, and faster delivery. »
10 years of strategic collaboration with P&TS
« Our strategic collaboration with P&TS since 2016 has enabled us to define together the most suitable roadmap to protect and promote ourselves », stresses Emile de Rijk.
« The main question to settle remains determining what should be protected as a trade secret and what should be protected through a patent filing. »
The trade-offs began very early on, and over time the number of patents filed has grown, notes the founder. He stresses that what matters is not the number of patents filed but the quality of the protection strategy.
This is to avoid any unpleasant surprises caused by competitors’ intellectual property. Today, SWISSto12’s technologies are protected by several hundred patents and are monitored very closely in collaboration with the P&TS team.
« Innovation is a collective process »
« A portrait of an inventor, fine, but innovation is above all a collective process,” Emile de Rijk is keen to stress. “We owe the scale of the result to the way we work as a team and pool our strengths. Success comes above all from the judicious aggregation of the skills of an innovative team. »
Emile de Rijk holds a doctorate in physics. He completed his bachelor’s degree at EPFL and his master’s at the University of Amsterdam, before returning to EPFL to carry out his thesis on antenna manufacturing technologies. He now acts as conductor of a virtuoso company with multiple successes and skills.
SWISSto12 timeline
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2011–2014: operational manufacturing technology and search for target markets
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2015: satellite telecoms market selected
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2016: antenna and radiofrequency product design capability
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2019: first products in space, major fundraising round
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2022: major turning point: order and development of the first complex telecoms satellite
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2026: take-off and rapid growth: the company has almost 300 employees and CHF 170 million in revenue
The story of the hummingbird brand
Where does the name SWISSto12 come from? From another world, remarks Emile de Rijk with amusement. He explains that in its early days, the company produced antennas for a completely different type of application, MRI imaging, which is based on signals and waves with a frequency measured in terahertz, i.e. 10 to the power of 12 hertz. That is the reason for the number 12, combined with the word « Swiss ».
