Better done than perfect

Dear reader

How many start-ups are there in Switzerland? In which fields are they active? How fast are they growing? How is Switzerland doing in international comparison? We answer these questions in the just published Swiss Startup Radar. Over the course of a year, my colleagues at the HEC at the University of Lausanne – in particular Michael Rockinger – and I created a database, cleaned up data, and analysed and finally processed it. In addition to the work, it also needed a certain amount of boldness. At some point, one has to stop trying to improving the work and present the results. We have stuck to a proven start-up guideline: better done than perfect. The feedback on the study has been outstanding so far and motivates us to tackle another publication next year.

Startup Radar paints an unvarnished image of the Swiss start-up scene and the challenges that Swiss start-ups face. We show how young companies master these challenges every day on our news portal; for example, in the small home market. Start-ups are approaching foreign markets at an early stage and are successful: ImagineCargo has been included in APX, the Berlin accelerator from Axel Springer and Porsche. Energy Vault has won Tata Power as a customer and  Sublimd won a start-up award in Munich and is now entering the German market with a higher profile and a new country manager.

Eduwo is also on course for growth. The edtech start-up will be supported by a newly formed advisory board, which in addition to numerous industry insiders also includes former Axpo boss and current Economiesuisse president Heinz Karrer. Agrosustain secured financial support this week with an FIT seed loan of more than CHF 100,000, and medtech start-up CorFlow has won continued support from Innosuisse; its project in cooperation with several universities has a total budget of CHF 1.7 million.

Fintech incubator and accelerator F10 this week announced the 15 selected start-ups for the next programme. Nine companies come from Switzerland, with others from Brazil and Europe.

Applications are open until Sunday for the first Venture Leaders Mobile programme, which offers Swiss start-ups not only access to the Mobile World Congress but also participation in exclusive events around the meeting.

Next week you can meet me at Venture Day Lugano, where I will present the most important results from Startup Radar in a short presentation. Afterwards, I will attend the Boldbrain Challenge awards ceremony. My colleague Ritah Nyakato will be at the Startup Campus Ecosystem Connect event on Wednesday.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch