The reality behind the buzzwords

Dear reader

The global start-up scene is full of buzzwords that are always suspected of being just hype, and often not without reason. But sometimes it turns out that a real trend actually lies behind it. Take unicorns, for example: this week it became known that the Italian Angelini Group is taking over Swiss biotech company Arvelle Therapeutics for just under USD 1 billion. After NBE Therapeutics in December, it is the second Swiss start-up in a short period of time to be valued at USD 1 billion or more on exit.

Another example is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Last year, 11 spin-offs in this field were founded at ETH Zurich alone, making a significant contribution to the record number of 34 spin-offs in 2020. And Swiss AI start-ups are also enjoying success in the market: Largo’s AI-based tool is used to improve the chances of success of hundreds of feature films in production.

Even a tangible example of the much-cited ‘ecosystem’ made headlines this week: one of the winners at the Watt d’Or 2021 awards was a network of companies that wants to make heavy goods traffic more environmentally friendly with the help of locally produced hydrogen fuel.

I was also pleased that an entrepreneur is now taking the failure culture seriously and talking openly about the end of his start-up: this week we reported on the history of Alibion.

On the other hand, founders were not deterred from starting an entrepreneurial life last year. An analysis by the IFJ shows a record number of new entries in the commercial register. Even with start-ups in the narrower sense, the pipeline is still well filled; for example, members of Business Angels Switzerland invested in 14 companies last year – find out which ones in our article. And 23 start-ups are present at the virtual Swiss pavilion at the consumer electronics fair CES.

The past year was full of challenges, and a number of start-ups are currently working to improve the situation in 2021. We report on details under the tag CoronaSolutions.

I wish you a good start to the new year!
Stefan Kyora