Strong finish for >>venture>> 2012

April 1st was the deadline for submitting business plans for Phase II of >>venture>> 2012, and the majority of plans came in that same evening. The 137 business plans match the all-time record of 2010 and surpass the average of around 100 submitted business plans across all eight >>venture>> editions. The huge number underlines the popularity of the competition.

Teams from across Switzerland participated, both with (57%) and without university association (43%). ETHZ and EPFL are still in the lead among the affiliated teams; however, entrepreneurs from the University of Zurich, HSG as well as from the universities of applied science (Fachhochschulen) are catching up. The team of >>venture>> is also delighted to have received many submissions from the universities of Berne, Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, and Basel. This represents a significant increase in team diversity and the team is happy that >>venture>> can reach more and more entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be.

The business plans submitted cover all major industries and show an enormous variety. Interestingly, the sectors Software, Web and Portals make up almost 30% of all business plans. In addition, we noticed that almost each business plan includes some sort of digital business intelligence. It seems recent success stories in the digital and Internet world have inspired and encouraged.

In the past weeks, the jury evaluated the business plans and the jury committee will then determine the top ten teams in early May. On May 24th, the day of the Prize Awards Ceremony, the Advisory Board will rank the top five teams.