The big show

Dear reader

At the awards ceremony of the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award, the stage belonged entirely to the start-ups. In front of more than 700 visitors – including international investors, corporate representatives, support organisations, experts and, not least, numerous founders – they showed the astounding breadth and amazing quality of Swiss start-ups. This was true not only for the top three Flyability, Lunaphore and Ava, but also for the 10 newcomers that found themselves in the limelight.

Descriptions of all Top 100 start-ups and detailed articles about the Top 10 can be found in the Top 100 Magazine. There are also interesting reports on the busy careers of start-up founders and an interview with Markus Gross, computer science professor at ETH Zurich and head of the Disney Research Studio in Zurich. In conversation, he reveals that the 10 or so start-ups that have emerged from this constellation already had an excellent network before their foundation.

With the quality of the top 100 start-ups, it is not surprising that they constantly provide good news. This week, Astrocast closed a financing round of CHF 9 million. A new EU project, worth a total of EUR 10 million, will make Insolight’s technology ready for the market. Abionic has partnered with Genentech: together, they want to develop and bring to market a quick asthma test. Climeworks is taking another step in growth through its merger with a Dutch company. Abionic and Climeworks can be found in the list of the 25 best Swiss scale-ups created for the first time in the Top 100.

In terms of growth, Swiss start-ups still have some catching up to do and Innosuisse has now launched scale-up coaching. Our article explains the goals, how start-ups can be specifically supported and which companies are eligible for the new offer.

Incidentally, Swiss start-ups were also in the spotlight abroad: Deep Cube was successful at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, and another AI start-up, Caplena, won a prize at an important German sector meeting. And in our interview Gmelius CEO Florian Bersier talks about his experiences as the first Swiss founder in the renowned Y Combinator acceleration programme.

At home, start-ups used the Startup Pitching Battle at Digital Day to attract attention – Oxygen at Work emerged the winner.

Next week you can meet my colleague Eugène Schön on 12 September at the event to present the study ‘Vaud Innove’, and I will be participating in the Fintech Fair in Zurich on 17 September. I would also like to draw your attention to ZKB Pionierpreis Technopark’s deadline on 22 September, which should not be missed.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch