Swiss Start-ups that master the art of selling

Nine young companies presented at the last Swiss Venture Day of CTI Invest. There were seven longer presentations and in addition two companies closing a financing round soon gave elevator pitches. Only one start-up (Medimaps) was clearly a Later Stage Company. Medimaps Group, established in 2006, has developed market leading medical software that assesses bone texture.

But it was amazing to see, that most of the other young companies are selling first products too. Transcure Biosciences for example was founded in 2011 as a spin-off from the Universities of Geneva, Pretoria, and Zürich. The company develops humanized immune system mouse models for preclinical drug development. A first model is already available. Transcure can offer access to HIV mice for anti-HIV drug companies that are interested by preclinical drug profiling in relation to efficacy, latency, resistance and/or rebound parameters. Compared to SIV monkey models, HIV mice are cheaper, safer, and ethically acceptable.

Another example is Amphasys. The company focuses on developing and marketing a novel, chip-based single cell analysis technology. It’s a platform technology which can be used for very different application fields. Before entering bigger markets Amphasys was already able to sell tools to the scientific market. In addition the start-up has published a list with publications about cell types and applications tested so far with its device. 

Of course it is not possible to disclose details here but most of the other companies spoke about first successes on the market. Maybe the impression that Swiss start-ups are not good at selling does not longer reflect reality.