Swiss startups shine under the global spotlight

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05.03.2019
Lighthouse

The Financial Times, TNW and Techtour have each identified the most promising and fast-growing startups in Europe. Swiss IT and digital health startups with the potential to become Unicorns have secured a spot in the lists, making them the lighthouses of Switzerland. Beekeeper and Sophia Genetics appeared twice.

The Swiss startup environment is gradually developing and becoming more robust than never before: more innovative startups have established, more jobs are created and the country continues to defend its position in the Global Entrepreneurship Index and Global Innovation Index. Moreover, investment rounds in startups reached CHF 1.2billion, as evidenced in the 2019 Swiss venture capital report. ICT startups have particularly attracted great attention for raising majority funds (CHF 685M), a remarkable achievement that has increased the perceptibility of Swiss ICT startups worldwide.

The dynamic development led to increased recognition abroad: more startups continue to appear in the global spotlight across various platforms, profiled as one of the most promising startups with the potential to become the unicorns of tomorrow. For instance, in the recently published compilations from TNW, the FT1000 and Techtour50, which identified the most promising startups across Europe, eighteen Swiss startups secured a spot.

Tech5 Switzerland
TNW’s Tech5 presents the hottest startups from a particular country following their performance, growth and potential. The selected startups met the criteria, which includes notable investment rounds, team growth, media coverage and social impact. From the recent selection for Switzerland, the jury of 100 investors, influencers, entrepreneurs, and experts across Europe, identified the following Top 5 startups:

  1. Beekeeper – Developed a mobile app to simplify internal communication and process optimization. Last year the company raised $13M in its Series A round
  2. Frontify – Offers a cloud-based brand-management software platform. The company raised $8.3M, and it plans to expand the Americas and Europe
  3. Sophia Genetics – Specializes in medical bioinformatics. More than 920 hospitals in 77 countries use the SHOPHiA AI solution and have diagnosed over 315,000 patients worldwide
  4. Coorpacademy – Offers a digital learning platform for corporate training. The startup raised €14M, count over 150 clients and 40 content providers
  5. Once – Offers an AI-based dating app suggests one handpicked match for each user every day at noon. 8 million users use the app and more than 50 matches are made every month.

The five startups will join the Tech5 global community while newcomers will attend the Founders Day (May 8) and TNW Conference (May 9-10) in Amsterdam.

 

FT1000 Startups in Europe
The Financial Times compilation comprises of 1000 startups across Europe that have achieved the highest compound annual growth rate between 2014 and 2017. This year’s least CAGR was 37.7%, which set higher standards for the qualifying companies — three Swiss startups made in the rank.

  • Beekeeper (rank 247) – The communication startup appears for the first time on the list. It generated €2.8M revenue in 2017, CAGR of 89.3% and employed 90 people in 2017.
  • 89Grad (rank 863) – Appearing for the second time, the design and software applications developer generated 2.9M in revenues, CAGR of 43.0& and employees 31 people as of 2017
  • Little Green House (rank 878) – with its new childcare concept, the company has secured a spot for the third time. It generated €7.3M revenues, a CAGR of 42.2% and employed 120 people in 2017.


TechTour Growth 50 (TTG50)

The fifth list of TechTour’s TTG50 ‘super scale-ups’ in Europe identifies startups in various industries that are yet to achieve the Unicorn status. Ten of the 50 startups originate from Switzerland. These include:

  • Acronis (SaaS) – offers backup software, disaster recovery, and secure data access
  • Ava (Health) – developed a fertility, pregnancy and cycle tracking device
  • Beqom (Saas) – developed a compensation management software
  • Chronext (E-commerce) – a platform for buying and selling luxury watches
  • Coople (SaaS) – is an on-demand staffing platform with over 300,000 registered workers worldwide
  • Flyability (Hardware/Drones) – builds safe drones for remote places
  • Nexthink (SaaS) – helps companies to create highly productive digital workplaces for their employee
  • Scandit (IoT) - offers barcode-scanning software powered by machine learning
  • Sophia Genetics (Biotech) - Specializes in medical bioinformatics to accelerate the diagnosis of rare diseases
  • GetYourGuide (E-commerce) – offers an experience-booking platform for travellers.

Company CEOs of the TTG50 companies will convene at the Tech Tour Growth Summit in Geneva and Lausanne on March 28th-29th.

Further information about the selection and the startups can be retrieved from Tech5, TTG50 and FT1000.

(RAN)
Photo: Pixabay

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