Old and new start-up virtues

Dear reader

Crypto Valley becomes more Swiss, as demonstrated by the current report from CV VC, which lists, inter alia, the top 50 crypto companies in Switzerland. There are still many subsidiaries of global companies, but more and more classic Swiss start-ups are making it on to the list. Algotrader, Cysec Systems (formerly ARCATrust) and Metaco have been added to the current top 50 list. Accordingly, the number of jobs in Switzerland is increasing: the 10 largest employers from the top 50 list alone employ several hundred people in this country.

Other interesting news in the blockchain area came this week from Smart Valor: the charismatic Olga Feldmeier’s start-up has launched its crypto exchange. At the same time, it announced the conclusion of another financing round. Among the investors is VI Partners – the venture capital company, which was launched in 2000, is one of the pioneers in Switzerland and has previously been involved in classic deep-tech start-ups.

The combination of the Swiss start-up scene with the blockchain world is pleasing, combining traditional Swiss strengths with a ‘Think Big’ mindset and a certain sense of mission.

It is gratifying that visionaries outside the blockchain sector are also finding investors in Switzerland today. Redalpine participated in Daedalean, a Zurich-based company that is developing an autopilot for autonomous aircraft, with the objective of conquering the market in autonomous taxi drones.

Dagsmejan has also secured Swiss support. The well-known Swiss entrepreneur Beat Curti participated in the start-up’s current financing round, which aims to capture a billion-dollar market with its functional sleepwear. In addition, coatmaster, formerly Winterthur Instruments, informed about the growth financing it has secured over the last two years. 

Microcaps also has a billion-dollar market in its sights. It has developed a new device for microencapsulation, which is used not only for medicines, but also for fragrances and foods. The start-up, which was officially founded only this year, has already gained its first customers and also prevailed at Venture Kick, from which it receives CHF 130,000. The same amount goes to medtech start-up Oxyprem, which is developing a sensor to monitor the health of premature babies.

The selected projects for the Academia-Industry Training (AIT) programme shows how well filled the pipeline is with ‘scientrepreneurs’. More than 20 founders will attend camps in India, Brazil and Colombia over the next few months. Applications are open until 16 August for the Afro-Swiss Acceleration programme, which takes place in Addis Ababa in October.

BV4 launched an offer of a completely different kind this week: the company offers early-stage start-ups a free rating that helps them assess their attractiveness to investors.

Finally, I would like to point out a series on CNNMoney Switzerland, in which a total of 24 female start-up CEOs will be interviewed over the summer.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch