Far-reaching consequences

Dear reader

I hope you are healthy and in good spirits. As we all know, these difficult circumstances will last for some time and the effects of the crisis will surely be felt for years to come. This applies not only to the negative effects, but also to the positive consequences. The lockdown has brought a big boost in terms of digitalisation. It is astonishing how many start-ups now have their hands full, including companies that facilitate or enable work in the times of social distancing, such as Beekeeper and Skribble, and including B2C start-ups, such as Farmy and Airconsole.

At the same time, digitalisation of the healthcare system is making progress – even though it may not be fighting coronavirus directly  – with reports of success delivered this week by eedoctors and OneDoc. A German transport company has introduced Fairtiq’s public transport app faster than planned since it allows contactless payment. And two start-ups that announced the completion of financing rounds this week – Aktiia and Assetmax – are also driving digitalisation.

But the negative consequences will be around for a long time. The Federal Council has put together a rescue package to alleviate the consequences for small businesses and SMEs that have lost sales. You can find the details in our articles in German, English and French. However, the package does not include support for start-ups in trouble because they are unable to run a financing round as a result of the crisis. This blind spot is now being discussed in Bern. According to reports start-ups have also an issue in the relevant commission delegations and we have reported several times on the activities of Judith Bellaiche and Andri Silberschmidt: they propose, among other things, a pandemic fund modelled on the Technology Fund.

At the same time, a pragmatic proposal from Venturelab would allow start-ups that in normal times would be financed by investor funds to be supported as part of the federal government’s liquidity support. More than 400 start-ups took part in a Venturelab survey on the proposal in less than 24 hours, and more than 70% said that the proposal would help them. The poll is still open.

Many other support organisations have responded to the crisis. Experts from the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation are now available to all start-ups for information and advice. The Vaud-based foundation FIT has loosened the repayment procedures for its loans, and Innosuisse has ensured that start-up support is secured. Incidentally, the innovation agency presented its figures for 2019 this week – and they are impressive.

Numerous other organisations are currently offering webinars and online events; in some cases, the announcement is very short notice, so take a look at our calendar. Several hackathons against Covid-19 will take place over the next few days: CodeVsCovid19 from today and VersusVirus next weekend. The Seedstars Summit will be held online next Friday; by yesterday, 3,000 people had already registered. And finally, I would like to point out the deadline for the SEIF Tech for Impact Awards – 31 March.

Have a good weekend with as many positive virtual and real experiences as possible.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch