Insights and background information from the Top 100 Startups Awards

The winners of the Top 100 Swiss Startups 2013 were officially announced yesterday at an event organised by IFJ and SECA. More than 330 founders, investors and start-up supporters attended the event at the Härterei in Zurich. Nineteen companies presented themselves: the top 10 and nine interesting newcomers. The full list of all Top 100 companies is available at startup.ch, and in the coming days startupticker.ch will publish articles about the top three – HouseTrip, BioVersys and Abionic.

The event, running for the third consecutive year, is an important get-together of the start-up scene. It was interesting to hear the discussions on stage and during the networking after the announcement of the top 10: most of the talk focused on two topics – financing and finding customers.

Jens Kelm, co-founder of InSphero (5th place), had the most impressive list of customers. The company, based in Schlieren, produces microtissues for testing drugs, chemicals and cosmetics, and has attracted large customers from various industries, including Merck and BASF. Kelm’s most important advice on how to find such customers may have surprised some: “Be patient.” It took InSphero quite a while to acquire such customers, but the team stuck to its strategy of attracting larger customers first.

Customers have also played an important role for L.E.S.S. (4th). Its edgelighting system, which can replace LEDs, enables high light transfer efficiency and optimal light distribution in a unique form factor – a nanostructured fibre. The ground-breaking technology hasn’t been appreciated by venture capitalists, so the start-up has had to find other methods of financing. At the Top 100 event, CEO Yann Tissot announced that the start-up has won the support of a big customer.

Start-ups such as L.E.S.S. show that finding financing isn’t an easy task. The last speaker of the day – Jean-Philippe Tripet from SECA – knows this very well. He said that most VC money is invested in later-stage life sciences companies, but that the Top 100 list shows how diverse ambitious start-ups are today. To mitigate this problem, SECA and CTI Invest are working on a CHF500 million fund-of-funds that will invest in several new VC funds. However, the Swiss Investment Fund is not yet supported by the federal government. “At the moment, politicians are sceptical but interested in our plans,” said Tripet.

But even though challenges exist, start-ups generally are happy with conditions in the country. “If we were to start another company, we would certainly do it in Switzerland,” said Marc Gitzinger, CEO of BioVersys (2nd). He mentioned several support programmes and awards that have helped to build up his company – and he is not alone. For example, three of the top 10 companies have won the WA de Vigier Foundation Startup Award, nine have been supported by venture kick and benefited from CTI Startup’s coaching programme. Apart from demonstrating the strength and diversity of Swiss start-ups, the event also proved the usefulness of the support programmes.