FIT backs NativeAI with the FIT Digital Grant

The Fondation pour l’Innovation et la Technologie (FIT) has awarded NativeAI the FIT Digital Grant. We pitched the jury in Lausanne on 3 September 2026 and had the decision the following day.

What FIT is

FIT is the innovation foundation of the Canton of Vaud. It supports young Swiss technology companies based in the canton with non-dilutive instruments: grants for early technical and commercial validation, and seed loans for the stage after that. No equity changes hands.

For a company at our stage that matters twice over. The money is not the only thing on offer. The jury is made up of people who evaluate technology companies for a living, and the foundation sits inside the Vaud innovation ecosystem around the EPFL Innovation Park, where NativeAI is based.

What the jury pushed on

Three points, and none of them was comfortable: international competition, commercial scalability and technical scalability. Fair questions for a Swiss company whose core argument is that its infrastructure never leaves Switzerland. We are working through all three, and the grant is tied to measurable objectives rather than paid out against a slide.

Where the money goes

The grant is matched by CHF 20’000 of our own funds, and two thirds of the combined amount is committed before it arrives:

• ISO 27001 certification, which is in progress.

• Insurance cover at the level enterprise customers require in a contract.

• Server infrastructure in our Swiss datacenter, plus the legal and commercial groundwork around it.

This is not growth spending. It removes the two things that stop enterprise procurement from working with us, and it lets us onboard more concurrent users.

Thank you

Thank you to the FIT jury for the time and the candour, and to the team at the foundation for a process that is demanding without being bureaucratic. To founders in Vaud who have not applied: prepare properly, take the questions seriously, and apply.

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