Venture Kick to inject 5 million Swiss francs in 80 projects

Venture Kick is a philanthropic initiative that provides up to CHF 150,000 in seed funding to Swiss startups in addition to a well-structured entrepreneurial path towards building a winning business. Startups pitch to expert juries at three stages to obtain funding, gaining direct feedback and access to an international network of successful entrepreneurs and investors. Since its launch in 2007, Venture Kick has supported 675 Swiss startup projects with 29.25 million francs. The program has led to the creation of 519 companies and 6,967 jobs.

To further support this development, the program has since last year increased the financing package. In 2019, the jury members selected 75 new projects from Swiss universities to enter the 9-month program and allocated 4.35 million Swiss francs. In the same year, each startup that made it to the final stage received 150,000 Swiss francs. This year, too, Venture Kick will pay out 5 million francs to 80 idea-stage startup projects to bring Swiss science to global markets.

In line with the new changes, Venture Kick has launched the pilot project "Venture Kick Life Science". This special track will focus on biotechnology and medical technology projects, both key factors in Switzerland. In addition, the program committee plans to focus more on providing relevant technological solutions for a sustainable environment and tomorrow's food.

A successful journey of supported Startups
The venture kick program indeed helps startups to transition from one stage to another enabling them to become more mature and attractive for investors. As revealed in its annual report, Venture kick alumni startups attracted 3.5 billion francs after completing the program. Last year several Venture Kick Alumni were able to close large financing rounds, for example, Beekeeper (CHF 44.5 million), Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals (CHF 22.5M), Swissto12 (CHF 18.1M), Teralytics (CHF 17.5M), Bioversys (CHF 16M) and Versantis (CHF 16M).

The Venture Kick Foundation is supported by Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Hauser-Stiftung, André Hoffmann, Hansjörg Wyss, Martin Haefner, Igor Fisch, Fondation Pro Techno, ESA BIC Switzerland, Engagement Migros and Swisscom.