An encouraging short week

Dear reader

Ultimately, it is successful exits that demonstrate the attractiveness of a start-up location for investors. The sale of Metaco to US crypto company Ripple for USD 250 million is thus not only good news for Metaco and its investors, which include Zürcher Kantonalbank, Verve, Swisscom, SICPA, Avaloq and Swiss Post, but also for the entire Swiss ecosystem, which benefits from the global attention the deal has brought.

ANYbotics’ financing round also made headlines. The robotics start-up raised USD 50 million from a group of top foreign and Swiss investors. It is encouraging to see VCs such as Bessemer and NGP once again investing in a Swiss tech start-up after investments in Kandou and Scandit respectively. It’s also positive that Swiss players Swisscom Ventures and Swisscanto Private Equity were involved in the round – not so long ago, such growth rounds often took place without Swiss participation.

An important reason for the successful financing round is the great interest shown by customers. The ANYmal X inspection robot already has pre-orders and reservations of more than USD 150 million from global oil & gas and chemical companies.

Insurtech wefox also secured an investment of USD 55 million, along with an equally large credit facility. Here too customer interest also played a role: the funding comes on the heels of delivery of a record first quarter financial performance that signals the company’s clear path towards profitability.

From Monday to Wednesday good news came not only from companies in the growth phase, but also from early stage start-ups. Four promising projects are now being funded by Innobooster, three start-ups are supported by the Fongit Innovation Fund, and seven start-ups participating in the Innosuisse Coaching programme have completed a Swissnex Bootcamp in San Francisco. The majority of the funded start-ups come from the cleantech and life sciences sectors. For early stage start-ups and angel investors, the changes at the investor club SICTIC might also be of interest. We have summarised the most important ones in our article.

The coming week is all about Startup Days in Bern. The event is now fully booked – you will find both me and my colleague Ritah Nyakato there on Thursday. I would also like to mention swissnex Day in Lugano next Wednesday and the presentation of the student start-ups from two accelerator programmes at EPFL on Tuesday. And do not miss the imminent deadlines for the Luxury Innovation Awards and the Digital Economy Awards.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch