Smarterion has almost exhausted the potential available on the Swiss market. Since 2009, the SME from Mels has been offering tailor-made LED solutions – and with great success. Growth rates of 20 per cent or more annually helped the team to expand rapidly. Within 15 years, the company has evolved from a one-man operation into an important employer in the Sarganserland region, with 65 employees.

To ensure its success story continues, Smarterion is venturing abroad. The goal of the lighting innovators led by CEO Thomas Stepan is to conquer the international market with their first own product. The Innosuisse Swiss Accelerator programme provided the means to develop the luxKIT modular LED system, a patented world first.

LuxKIT is a modular LED system, comparable to a Lego set. Anyone can work with it – no experience required. The configuration is entirely flexible and easy to implement via our app. This combination of simple planning, fast ordering and tool-free assembly is something that has never existed before.

This product could change the rules of the game in our industry. The modular design allows us to get around all of the disadvantages associated with customer-specific lighting solutions, such as long delivery times or complicated logistics. luxKIT essentially eliminates the need for manufacturing companies to make lights to measure or for electrical professionals to supply and install them.

As an SME, we would not have been able to develop a mature product so quickly under our own steam. Without support, we would have had to rely on “salami tactics” and would have been too late getting our product to market, which would have given away our first-mover advantage. The support we received enabled us to set up highly automated, cost-optimised production within a reasonable period of time. Without funding, our product would have become too expensive and would not have been internationally competitive. The development of the app – a central component of our innovation – would have been a real challenge if we had had to do things on our own.

Such a collaboration would have been of little benefit to us, as we already have the know-how required for development in-house. Thanks to the direct funding received, we were able to lay the foundation for a highly innovative product portfolio that will enable us to grow internationally. So the Swiss Accelerator is definitely injecting the funds in the right place.

Thomas Stepan had to work through the night on several occasions over the past two years, since the schedule was so tight. His patent attorney drew his attention to the Swiss Accelerator programme at the start of 2023. One thing became immediately clear for the CEO: they could not pass up this opportunity. With two patents, the foundation for the modular LED system was already in place.

After the project got underway in May 2023, the team set about solving challenges posed by connection technology and fixing the shadows cast by the modules. In addition, a new kind of cover was developed: instead of the usual aluminium profiles, Smarterion uses a patent-pending system featuring a plastic film, which offers further advantages when it comes to logistics and assembly. In autumn, the first prototypes were created parallel to development of the production facility.

Smarterion presented the product at a trade fair in Frankfurt back in March 2024. The feedback from the industry was used over the summer as a basis for adding the finishing touches, and in October the production facility was finally ready for operation. Thomas Stepan and his team achieved a precision landing. Delivery began at the start of November – one day before the end of the project period.

For the new production facility and the attached warehouse, the location in Mels has been expanded by 600 square metres. Production is now running at full speed. And for good reason: interest in luxKIT is high. Sales in Germany have got off to a good start, and from 2025 onwards Smarterion will taking its product to other European countries.

Thomas Stepan is already sounding out the market in the USA and India as well, and is setting the course for the required certifications. The CEO expects Smarterion to be able to at least quadruple its sales by 2030. So the chances are good that this world first will become a global success.