Five new ICT scale-ups join Vaud's economic driving force

Scale-up companies are a driving force of the economy as they share a steady growth in Switzerland and abroad. Most of them started off as startups. Yet their main challenge is to grow and execute their business model at a larger scale, and better hit their market. “Only 1 to 3% of the startups experience a very high growth phase, which allows them to qualify as scale-ups” explains Patrick Barbey, Director of Innovaud. To become a scale-up is thus an important indicator of a young company’s strength and of its capacity to create jobs. “We are particularly happy for Sophia Genetics, a member of Scale Up Vaud since 2016, who entered the list of Europe’s best scale-up companies.”

To benefit from the Scale Up Vaud label, a list of criteria allows to validate a company’s eligibility. One of the principal criteria is to show a yearly growth of 20% at least (in term of jobs or revenues). These criteria are validated again each year for every scale-up company. “Companies that have experienced a high growth period for a certain amount of years then go through a stabilization phase, which is a normal phenomenon” explains Patrick Barbey. Thus, the companies that do not fulfil the annual 20% growth criteria anymore remain members of the Scale Up Vaud initiative and are still referenced on the website.

Five companies join the label this year: Beqom, Frontiers, Gamaya, Kandou and SPOTME (see their short descriptions below). Being part of the initiative will allow them to interact with other companies that are facing similar challenges. For Fabio Ronga, CEO of beqom, "joining Scale Up Vaud illustrates our commitment to the region. This community is the opportunity for beqom to take advantage of the efforts put in place by Innovaud to support Vaud scale-ups in their ascent and also to bring their experience and ideas. "