From China to Zurich

Dear reader

One of the constants of the Swiss start-up scene for a long time was investment abroad by Swiss funds, while Swiss start-ups often had foreign lead investors. This seems to have changed. This week, SIX Fintech Ventures, SIX’s new USD 50 million corporate venture fund, announced its first investments in two Swiss fintech start-ups: Shift Cryptosecurity and vestr.

Swiss start-ups have always played an important role in investment at Swisscom Ventures, and this should not change with the new CHF 200 million fund. This week, the fund’s first Swiss investment was announced. Swisscom Ventures, together with British venture capital company ETF Partners, is the lead investor in the USD 11 million financing round of drone start-up Flyability.

The largest round of financing this week was completed by biotech company Amal Therapeutics. It generated an additional CHF 24 million, and again Swiss investors were involved.

Significant sums of money are also on the agenda at UBS Private Investor Circle. UBS customers of the Private Investor Circle have invested more than CHF 120 million in start-up companies over the past four years. We talked to Verena Kaiser, Head of Direct Investments at UBS, about the background.

Swiss start-ups are not only attracting great interest at home but also worldwide. We asked Jordi Montserrat from Venturelab about his experience with Venture Leaders China and why Swiss deep-tech start-ups are well received in China.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of opportunities for Switzerland as a start-up location and individual companies to attract international attention. More than 40 start-ups will cause a stir at the next CES in Las Vegas in January.

A month later, the tech industry meets at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Start-ups have several attractive options to be there, including for the first time with Venture Leaders Mobile; start-ups can participate not only in the fair, but also in an attractive supporting programme. Those who move quickly can also book a very last place in the Swiss Pavilion at the fair via Switzerland Global Enterprise; SGE also has various visitor packages.

You should not miss the deadline of the Swiss Fintech Awards on 23 November – in addition to the prize money, there is also the media attention and access to an attractive network.

Next week, you can meet me at the Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel. I will be glad to see you there.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch