Let’s do it the Swiss way

Dear reader

Cossonay is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, north of Morges, with almost 4,000 inhabitants. From December driver-less minibuses will be available to residents and visitors. Just one example of the spread of the innovative spirit in Switzerland, where pilot projects such as the autonomous shuttle are available not only in the big cities but also in the countryside.

Perhaps the name Medartis is better known than the name Cossonay. It is a typical Swiss medtech SME and with a turnover of more than CHF100 million also very successful. Medartis took over the medtech start-up Mimedis this week.

A widespread innovative spirit and the strong Swiss SME: two examples of strengths that are not taken into account in international comparisons of start-up locations. But we should not over-react if Zurich and Lausanne are again missing from the list of hottest start-up cities in the world, and instead be pleased that the eight start-ups nominated for the Swiss ICT Award come from six cantons.

This does not mean that Switzerland does not have to improve – much catching-up is needed, particularly in the growth phase. The planned Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, which will provide more than CHF500 million for start-ups in the growth phase, promises a new impetus here.

When the idea for such a fund arose for the first time four years ago, there were doubts about whether enough interesting Swiss start-ups for such a large fund would exist. It is now clear that there is no lack of such companies. Several major financing rounds took place this week alone. Squirro raised CHF10 million, with investors including Salesforce Ventures and Orange Growth Capital. Ticketfrog received a single-digit million contribution, and Farmy completed a CHF5 million financing round, bringing federal councillor Ruedi Noser on board.

Young talent is not least provided for by the initiative Venture Kick, which has supported young companies with a total of CHF20 million since the company’s founding 10 years ago.

It is also very gratifying that the first Swiss start-ups have been supported with CHF50,000 each by the SME instrument of the EU research programme Horizon 2020. The instrument has been open to Swiss start-ups since January. Other new opportunities for start-ups are offered by Thomson Reuters’ incubator in Baar, which opened this week, and the Fusion Lifetech Accelerator, which is supported by EPFL and digitalswitzerland.

Finally, congratulations to Philip Bodmer, who has been chosen by Seca as its Business Angel of the Year this week. In his thanks, Bodmer pointed out that his main goal was to make a lasting contribution to the growth and prosperity of the start-up ecosystem in Switzerland. A business angel who thinks first of all about the economic consequences of his actions – this is also a typical Swiss strength.

Have a sunny weekend..
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, startupticker.ch