Venture Kick: 5000 new jobs in 10 years

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Ritah Ayebare Nyakato/Stefan Kyora

29.11.2017
Venture Kick members of the strategy board

Venture Kick is today celebrating its 10th anniversary and the tremendous achievements it has reached. In 10 years 400 companies were created with almost 5,000 jobs. The winning formula is the combination of financial support, honest and competent feedback and the extremely competitive competition.

Established in 2007, Venture Kick’s aim is to support spin-offs at Swiss universities, accelerate the time-to-market and to raise the attractiveness of these young companies to professional investors. Through a nine-month program, Venture Kick offers guidance and support to young entrepreneurs, with high-potential business ideas, to help them transform their scientific idea into a product as well as to bring it to market. This effort has indeed paid off for all stakeholders associated with the program.

Today, 10 years since its inception Venture Kick reminisces about its accomplishments.

392 supported Startups: Out of 2905 applications that have been submitted through the ten years, venture Kick was able to support 522 projects with a total of CHF 21 million. 392 of the supported projects have incorporated in their companies. In contrast to statistics which demonstrate that at least 50% of startups fail within five years, Venture Kick startups have a clearly higher survival rate. Today, 89.5% of Venture Kickers are still active.

New jobs: Venture Kick is also pleased to have contributed to job creation in Switzerland. Thanks to the success of its alumni startups, in total 4748 jobs (Full-Tine Equivalents (FTEs), have been created.

Investments: The Venture Kick program also opens for the supported startups new avenues for investments as they not only receive pre-seed financing but also meet investors. Through the ten years journey venture Kickers have received a sum of CHF 1,808,000,000 in investment through awards, grants, equity investments from founders, business angels, venture capitalists or corporate investors, loans, equity transactions and exits.

The initiative is much more successful than planned. “Thanks to the successful start-ups, we have clearly overachieved the goals we laid down in a business plan in 2010”, comments Beat Schillig, founder and co-managing director of Venture Kick.

It is also encouraging to see the high dynamic of Venture Kick. The “leverage factor” measuring the money invested in start-ups in relation to the money they received from Venture Kick increased year after year. At the moment each 1 CHF by Venture Kick has been leveraged by CHF83 by follow-on investments. The number of applicants increased also heavily. “When we started we had 17 applicants per month, now 45 projects apply”, says Beat Schillig.

Beyond financial support
Besides financial support, Venture Kick offers an array of non-financial services. The initiative provides selected projects with a structured entrepreneurial path towards building a new venture. Venture Kick organises Kickers’ camps which are real boot camps. Entrepreneurs will get clear, honest and critical feedback if necessary. And they have the opportunity to train their pitching skills almost around the clock. Furthermore startups are given access to Venture Kick’s broad network of experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

In commemoration of the 10 years, Venture Kick has published the «Venture Kick Report 2017» providing further insights and company portrays.

Supported by private partners, foundations, individuals and corporates
Venture Kick is supported by 13 private partners, foundations, private individuals and corporates, all sharing the same vision of supporting the next generation of successful entrepreneurs for the prosperity of Switzerland’s economy and society.

Venture Kick is a program line of digitalswitzerland’s venture and growth program. The digitalswitzerland foundation as well as its independent foundation fund Venture Kick are hosted by «Fondation des Fondateurs» (FdF). As an umbrella foundation, FdF is monitored by the Swiss Federal Supervisory Board of Foundations.

The Venture Kick Foundation gave a mandate to IFJ Institut für Jungunternehmen for the operation of the initiative. With its mandate, Venture Kick has an experienced management team with Beat Schillig and Jordi Montserrat from IFJ. They report to the Strategy Board.

The Strategy Board defines the medium- and long-term goals and direction of Venture Kick. The Strategy Board consists of Igor Fisch (Selexis SA), Suzanne Schenk (ERNST GÖHNER STIFTUNG) and Pascale Vonmont (Gebert Rüf Stiftung).

Picture: The members of the Strategy Board together with Beat Schillig and Jordi Montserrat, Credit: Jasmin Frei, Pep Shot AG.

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