Shoot for the moon

Dear reader

As a CTO, Christian Rebernik helped shape successful companies such as Parship and N26. In 2017, he founded his own venture in digital health. My colleague Ritah Ayebare Nyakato talked to him about his experiences, and he describes what it’s like to build a business that pursues a seemingly impossible mission.

Fortunately, more and more founders in this country are pursuing such daring plans, such as Lymo from Geneva. The company is challenging platforms such as Über and Lyft, which has just gone public, with another business model that is not only more appealing to drivers, but also less likely to raise regulatory issues. Another example is Five up: the app, which offers volunteers a tool to manage their voluntary activities and aims to build a network for volunteering, wants to become the leading international platform in its field.

The success stories of the week show that Swiss start-ups can achieve ambitious goals. For example, for its running events in Europe the sporting goods brand Asics relies on support from iRewind, a company that provides personalised videos to runners immediately after the race finish. Another milestone has been reached by ScanTrust. The Lausanne company has partnered with HP Indigo to launch a counterfeiting solution that is already in use by Syngenta. The young cosmetics brand Elixseri has attracted famous department stores at home and abroad, and the Basel-based biotech company Polyneuron concluded a Series A financing round of more than CHF 22 million.

This shows that Swiss start-ups usually have a deep-tech background, but are active in very different fields of activity. This is confirmed by a look at the younger companies on the scene, such as the four projects that have now successfully completed the ETH Pioneer Fellowship programme. How much Switzerland has to offer in individual sectors is demonstrated by the winners of Venture Leaders Life Sciences. By the way, they will present at the Startup Champions Seed Night at EPFL on 11 April.

Looking ahead, the deadline for >>venture>> competition expires on 11 April. Early bird tickets are available only until Sunday for Startup Invest’s Swiss Startup Days, which will be held this year on 28 May. More than 100 participants have already registered.

You can meet me next week on Friday at the Seedstars Summit. In our article Seedstars CEO Alisée de Tonnac explains what makes the event attractive for Swiss start-ups. 

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch