Perseverance leads to success

Dear reader 

Since 1 November, it has become a little easier for Swiss founders to recruit skilled workers from third countries. The State Secretariat for Migration has revised the relevant directive, and specific suggestions and ideas from the Swiss Entrepreneurs & Startup Association (SWESA) have been implemented.

Schlieren biotech company GlycoEra was entered in the commercial register only in 2020; CEO Veronica Gambillara Fonck’s team has now closed a Series A financing round of CHF 45 million. Although political success such as work permits or entrepreneurial success such as that of GlycoEra seem to happen overnight, they are always the result of years of hard work. For example, GlycoEra is a spin-off of biotech company LimmaTech, which in turn was spun off as an independent unit when GlycoVaxyn was taken over by GlaxoSmithKline.

If only because the hard work is invisible, awards that put companies in the spotlight make sense. Start-ups were honoured at Digital Day and Design Prize Switzerland. In addition, two Swiss female founders stood at the top of the podium at international awards. We also reported on the 13 companies in the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation’s UpScaler programme, six deeptech companies supported by the Innobooster program and on the start-ups that successfully agreed projects with large companies as part of Kickstart Innovation.

Hackathons are one of the few occasions where hard work and attention meet. Last weekend, a new record was set: Switzerland’s largest female hackathon to date mobilised 200 women.

In addition to awards, financing rounds are the main source of attention for start-ups and this week we reported on seven. Yet Swiss start-ups are also increasingly landing spectacular contracts: RigiTech is building a drone delivery network together with Biogroup, France’s largest laboratory network, and Cysec has signed a contract with the European Space Agency.

Next week you can meet me at the Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Startfeld Investors Forum with 10 selected start-ups takes place in St. Gallen. On Friday, accelerator programme *zünder’s award night will be held in Zug. And the following week, on 24 November, Swiss Fintech Investor Day takes place in Zurich. Finally, I would like to point out the deadline for the Venture Day Lugano – applications for start-ups are open only until Monday.

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora 

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch