It’s not done yet

Dear reader

In 2013, we used the word ‘fintech’ for the first time on Startupticker. One of the first companies we reported on back then was Contovista. In 2017, Gian Reto à Porta sold the start-up to the Aduno Group and since then has been active as a business angel. Over the last four years, he has invested in 16 start-ups, of which 10 are from Switzerland. There have also been investments in six venture capital funds, three based in Switzerland. This week, almost exactly nine years after establishing Contovista, which now belongs to Finnova, à Porta was named Business Angel of the Year 2022 by SECA.

History shows the opportunities offered by digitalisation and how quickly individual start-ups that know how to use these opportunities can develop. However, this fast pace individually does not mean that digitalisation as a whole is progressing very quickly. And so, after 10 years, fintech is anything but old hat. Two rapidly growing Swiss companies underline this: Amnis has entered five new countries, opened three further offices in Europe and tripled its team over the past 12 months, and has now closed an CHF 8.6 million Series A funding round; crowd investment platform Foxstone has raised CHF 10 million.

There is also plenty of room for innovation on the technical side. LatticeFlow has developed a platform that allows machine learning teams to build and deploy robust AI models – a step towards automated software creation. For this, the start-up has now received the Swiss AI Award.

In the field of digital health, Biped is working on a fascinating innovation: a smart harness that uses the technology in autonomous driving to help blind and visually impaired people orient themselves. Biped is now supported by the Biopôle Startup Fund. Pipra is also active in the digital health sector: its solution to assess the risks of surgical operations has received CHF 2.1 million in a seed round.

Pipra is also one of the companies that qualified for the first batch of the Plug and Play Switzerland programme. Our article tells you which other Swiss start-ups are supported. All these companies, plus about 10 other deep-tech start-ups, will pitch at Venture Day Basel, which takes place on 30 June.

You have to be patient a little longer for Startup Nights, which aims to bring 5,000 visitors to Winterthur in November – ticket sales have started. Discover the background in our interview with initiator Raphael Tobler.

The award ceremony of >>venture>> competition is scheduled for 28 June in Zurich. At the moment you can still vote for the Public Award. Voting is also still open for the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2022. Finally, a note on the event for the 30th anniversary of the EPFL Innovation Park, which takes place next Monday.

Have a refreshing weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch