Impressive final sprint

Dear reader

Over the past 14 days, we have reported on around 20 financing rounds. This week, the main focus was on deep-tech start-ups, with CHF 20 million going to biotech company Cellestia, CHF 8 million to medtech company Aleva, more than CHF 4 million to VR / AR company CREAL, a good CHF 3 million to drone supplier Fixposition and the same to diagnostics start-up Resistell. It is also noteworthy that almost all these start-ups announced the amount of the financing round, thus ensuring transparency. This also applied to the smaller financing rounds of Nagi Bioscience (CHF 1.8 million), Sterilux (CHF 1.8 million) and GenLots (CHF 1 million).

There was also very good news from investors: the Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund announced its second closing with a total of CHF 250 million now available; CHF 90 million is to be invested directly in growth companies, with CHF 160 million going to existing funds.

More money will also be available in future for the other end of the entrepreneurial lifecycle. The fintech incubator and accelerator F10 has launched a pre-seed fund.

The companies selected for the IMD Startup Competition show that more and more promising start-ups are emerging. No fewer than 42 companies have been included in the programme this year, significantly more than before.

Venture Kick also announced two more winners this week: medtech start-up Kove and ICT company RoomPriceGenie each received CHF 150,000.

Speaking of prizes, several tenders are currently open – our awards list provides an overview. The application deadlines for the WA de Vigier Foundation award, Venture Leaders in Technology, which will travel to Silicon Valley, and the Global Student Entrepreneur Award expire at the beginning of January.

A start-up exchange programme with Israel will take place for the first time next year. It is a joint initiative by Innosuisse, Swissnex and organisations from Israel and the US. Start-ups from the fields of life sciences and digital health can apply from today until the end of January.

Also new is the Smarter Healthcare Booster Program from Swiss Healthcare Startups, which enables two companies to explore Silicon Valley. Applications are open only until 31 December.

Over the next two weeks, startupticker’s editorial team will enjoy the festive season and take things a little easier. The next newsletter will be published on 10 January. In the meantime, we will as usual provide you with news about the Swiss start-up scene on our website and social media.

Have a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch