At the end of September, Cyltronic moved out of Technopark Winterthur. While this may sound like a farewell at first, it is above all a success story: Over the past few years, the startup has grown significantly at Technopark and simply needs more space for the next stage of its development. With the move to a new location, Cyltronic is beginning the next chapter of a journey that started at the RUNWAY Startup Incubator.
Since the end of September, Cyltronic is no longer based at Technopark Winterthur – and for a very positive reason: The company has simply outgrown the space available to it.
Cyltronic develops and manufactures smart IO-Link servo actuators for mechanical engineering applications. Combining a servo controller, servo motor and ball screw in a single compact unit, its solutions enable intelligent and precise motion control in machinery. As the company continues to develop and manufacture these products, it requires more space and greater production capacity. Cyltronic has now found both at its new location at Bleichestrasse 32 in Winterthur.
From RUNWAY to Its Own Office at Technopark
Cyltronic’s story in Winterthur began in 2020 within the ZHAW startup ecosystem. At the RUNWAY Startup Incubator, the team initially worked on developing its idea and the underlying technology. What started with early concepts and prototypes gradually evolved into a growing company with increasing space requirements.
The COVID-19 pandemic also played an unexpected role in this development. As some of the RUNWAY Startup Incubator’s facilities were used less intensively for a period of time, the young company was able to make use of additional space to advance its development and expand its operations, recalls Cyltronic Co-Founder and CEO Jeremias Wehrli. What started on a small scale gradually developed into a professional business operation.
The next step was a move into Cyltronic’s own office space at Technopark Winterthur. As the company grew, so did the amount of space it occupied. Most recently, Cyltronic used a significant part of the first floor of Technopark’s new building. The premises provided not only workplaces for its growing team, but also the infrastructure needed for the development, assembly and production of its servo actuators.
For Jeremias Wehrli, this flexibility is one of Technopark Winterthur’s greatest strengths:
“Technopark Winterthur’s flexible office structure allows startups to grow step by step. There are many offices and spaces of different sizes, making it relatively easy to move from one to another and scale the business responsibly.”
Growth Is Not Always a Straight Line
Like many young technology companies, Cyltronic’s development has not been a simple upward trajectory. The year 2024 in particular proved challenging. The team had to reassess its existing strategy, set new priorities and reposition the company.
At the same time, this turning point laid the foundation for the company’s next phase of development. Thanks to its new strategic direction, Cyltronic was able to establish an important collaboration with Kistler. The partnership resulted in a compact servo press for Kistler’s Integrated Joining System and became an important milestone in Cyltronic’s journey from a difficult period back towards growth.
“For me, the fact that the Kistler Group developed a licensed product together with us is a real seal of quality. It confirmed that we were on the right path,” says Jeremias Wehrli.
Ready for the Next Stage of Growth
Today, Cyltronic finds itself in a very different position. With continued growth, however, the company’s infrastructure requirements are increasing as well. Production in particular requires more space than Technopark can reasonably provide in the long term.
At its new location at Bleichestrasse 32 in Winterthur, Cyltronic now has the space it needs to expand its production capacity. At the end of September, the company therefore handed over its final premises at Technopark Winterthur.
“It was important to us to stay in Winterthur when looking for a new location. With our production site at Bleichestrasse 32, we have been able to do exactly that – and we are very happy about it,” says Jeremias Wehrli.
For Cyltronic, one chapter has come to an end while another is just beginning. From the RUNWAY Startup Incubator to its first dedicated office spaces and later to development and production facilities at Technopark, the company has gone through several stages of growth in Winterthur. The fact that the available space is no longer sufficient is therefore less of a farewell than a natural next step in Cyltronic’s development.
And for Technopark Winterthur, Cyltronic’s departure is ultimately good news: A startup that found the space it needed to grow here has now outgrown it.
