Growth without the hype

Dear reader

The Swiss Fintech Awards were presented on Tuesday. In Rüschlikon, NetGuardians and Pelt8 won the prize for the best growth stage and early stage start-up, respectively; SICTIC was recognised for its contribution to the Swiss start-up ecosystem. NetGuardians took some time to make it to the top of the podium. The company was founded in 2007. Now it is not only in the limelight, but is also on a growth course. NetGuardians employs more than 90 people and is gaining customers in Switzerland, Africa and south-east Asia almost every week, most recently Twint and the Bank of Africa.

Immomig and SpiroChem are of a similar age and also expanding. Both companies made acquisitions this week, with proptech Immomig taking over Neuchâtel-based Immodating, which was founded in 2012. SpiroChem, a contract research organisation (CRO) headquartered in Basel, has acquired a Canadian company.

Young companies are also showing how to grow after the hype that sometimes accompanies start-ups has died down. Flowbank, which has been active for two years, has more than 25,000 users and is aiming for annual sales growth of 25%-30%. However, the objective this year is to break even.

Proximity to the market is a hallmark of Swiss start-ups – and it allows them to attract investor money. This week, drone start-up Tinamu Labs, team development platform Moodtalk and Akselos, which specialises in digital twins of highly complex mechanical assets, secured investments. In addition, ETH Zurich spin-off Seervision was sold to Canadian company Q-SYS.

Next week you can meet me at the WA de Vigier Foundation awards. The event, including the keynote speech by Federal Councillor Viola Amherd, will also be streamed live. My colleague Ritah Nyakato will attend the Tenity Demo Day in Zurich on Thursday.

The awards ceremony for >>venture>> competition will be held the following week in Lausanne, and the vote for the winner of the audience award has started. Speaking of public voting, polling is open for your favourite start-up at the Top 100 Swiss Startup Award until 23 July.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora 

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch