Innosuisse Grant Accelerates PEROVSKIA SOLAR’s Drive Toward Mass Solar Production

• Perovskia Solar secures CHF 1.05 m from Innosuisse to automate production, targeting one million flexible perovskite cells yearly for battery-free IoT devices.

Perovskia Solar AG has clinched CHF 1.05 million (≈ USD 1.3 million) from Switzerland’s innovation agency, Innosuisse—a timely boost that will flip the company’s Aubonne pilot line from partly manual to fully automated production. Once the new robotics and inline quality-control systems are humming, the site is expected to turn out roughly one million custom perovskite solar cells every year.

Why does that matter? These cells are paper-thin, flexible and tuned to squeeze energy from ordinary indoor lighting. Drop one behind an electronic shelf label, a smart tag or a fitness patch and—suddenly—the device can run for years without a disposable battery. For brands chasing low-maintenance, “install-and-forget” electronics, the appeal is obvious.

Chief executive Martin Pfannenschmid calls the grant “a bridge from lab to factory floor.” In the last twelve months, his team raised USD 2.4 million in seed capital, locked in development deals with more than ten IoT manufacturers and deepened ties with printing-equipment suppliers. The start-up’s pedigree traces back to Empa, but its network now sprawls across the EPFL and ETH Zürich deep-tech community—home to many of Switzerland’s fastest-growing hardware ventures.

Perovskite photovoltaics are hailed for their high efficiency and ability to be printed on lightweight substrates, yet bringing them to market at scale has been tricky. Moisture sensitivity, process repeatability and cost have tripped up more than one hopeful entrant. Perovskia’s answer is tighter in-line monitoring, automated optical inspection and a lean, roll-to-roll workflow. Executives say that combination will slash scrap, cut unit costs and guarantee the sort of Swiss-grade reliability buyers expect.

Installation of the new machinery begins this summer, with fully automated output slated for early 2026. At that point, management plans to expand beyond single-cell solutions into multi-cell modules and to explore manufacturing licences abroad—an approach that could push the technology into mainstream consumer devices sooner than many analysts predicted.

In an electronics world inching toward energy autonomy, Perovskia’s next-gen cells may offer a rare two-fer: greener gadgets and an end to midnight battery swaps.