Financing worth millions available by the metre

Dear readers,

"Series A" financing worth several million Swiss francs is perceived to be difficult in Switzerland. So what happened this week is worthy of note. Four start-ups announced simultaneously that they had concluded such Series A rounds. They all have something special to offer. Hosco operates a job and careers platform for the hospitality industry and has achieved an increase of over 100 percent in user and sales figures over the last three years. The digital asset manager Werthstein specialises in investment opportunities in commercial trends and has a very experienced team. iKentoo offers iPad till systems to restaurants, bars and hotels as well as business software. It already has 2,500 customers in 14 countries. Advertima, a St. Gallen start-up whose systems use artificial intelligence to react to the age or mood of users, is already employing more than 30 staff.

The impressive list shows how broad the Swiss start-up scene is today. None of the four companies belong to the group of university spin-offs that have long formed the bulk of successful start-ups.

Like the four newly financed companies, MOVU is not a high-tech company but a web platform that makes moving house as easy as possible. The start-up was this week taken over by Baloise. MOVU will continue to operate independently within the group and will further expand its services.

MOVU is a reference project for Wingman, a new consulting company for start-ups. It was founded by the former GetYourGuide CFO Pascal Mathis and Eat.ch founder Lukas Weder. Both left their jobs to focus fully on start-ups. In an interview they reveal how much a workshop with them costs and why they have not launched an accelerator.

One of the pioneers among the support organisations is Swiss Startup Invest. The organisation is constantly refining its events. This year, the Swiss Startup Days will be for the first a full two days event. Registration for the Startup Days taking place on 24 and 25 October is now open.

Swisscom is one of the pioneers among major Swiss companies when it comes to start-ups. A relatively new initiative by Swisscom is "Calls for Innovation". We discussed the aim of the initiative and findings from the first two editions with André Schraner. Swisscom also announced the ten finalists of the Swisscom Startup Challenge on Thursday.

Like the start-ups themselves, the range of support offers is becoming more diverse. For example, this week a new competition for business ideas in the field of craftsmanship was launched. Cleantech start-ups also have various opportunities to present themselves to the 800 participants at SwissECS. Regarding cleantech, a new study provides an up-to-date overview of Swiss cleantech start-ups.

I wish you a lovely weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, startupticker.ch