btov: Investments in eleven Swiss start-ups

Founded in 2000, originally as online matching platform named “BrainsToVentures”, btov has pioneered venture capital investment solutions for private, corporate and institutional investors in Switzerland and other European countries. Today, btov manages about EUR 420m in institutional funds, partner funds and direct investments of private investors. Swiss start-ups benefitted from the positive development of btov as the venture capital firm has increased the number of investments in Switzerland over the last years.

In 2018, btov invested in eleven Swiss start-ups: AVA, Deepcode, Equippo, Ledgy, Flatfox, Yamo, Sanalytica (Baze), Archilyse, Advanon, Luciole Medical, and Wine and Gourmet Digital. In total, btov invested about CHF7 million in these companies. We have asked Alexander Stoeckel to give us some background information about these investements. 

The number of investments in Swiss start-ups by btov was clearly higher in 2018 than in the previous years. Does this mean that the Swiss start-up scene is evolving and that you see more promising start-ups from Switzerland?

Alexander Stoeckel: We always believed that the Swiss start-up scene was very interesting. Clearly, Switzerland’s universities, the reliability and strength of the Swiss ecosystem, and the quality of the Swiss investment industry provide a very fertile soil for the growth of outstanding tech-companies. I believe that due to btov’s increased investment activities in Switzerland in the past 2-3 years - and our increased investment activities in other regions in Europe, too -, we were able to improve our visibility in Switzerland. And, in turn, we were approached by more Swiss teams, and more Swiss investors invited us to co-invest with them. Furthermore, I would agree to what your question implies, that the Swiss start-up scene itself is evolving and that we can expect even more promising start-ups to get launched and funded here. 

Nine of the eleven start-ups in which btov has invested are IT companies. Are life sciences not in the focus of btov?

Our investments are the result of a rigorous selection process during which we try to identify the companies most promising in our eyes and match them with the investment strategies of our funds and private investors. With our investments in companies such as luciole medical, GTX medical, and AVA, we have shown that we are interested in medtech & healthcare investments in Switzerland. If we invested less in this sector in Switzerland in 2018, it was not due to a lack of interest. Biotech, however, is a different story. We did and will do opportunistic biotech investments, but the segment itself is not in the focus of btov.