Lucrative investment in Swiss start-ups

Dear reader

Much is currently being talked about new funds for financing Swiss start-ups. Redalpine was has been able to do the job properly and set up a third fund. The investors’ commitment depended on Redalpine being able to demonstrate a very good performance on a sustainable basis. This shows that with such VC funds sustainable money can be earned, which in turn is promising for other fund projects.

At the same time, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are developing rapidly. Start-ups raise capital by selling tokens that represent a function or value, which can later be traded on decentralised secondary markets. In our interview, André Wolke explains the trend and gives tips for start-ups searching for money.

Three Swiss start-ups generated capital in a very conventional way this week: Picstars, a platform for influencer marketing, received money from Tamedia, ZKB and investiere. Biotech start-up Tolremo received CHF2.4 million francs as part of a seed financing. Apiax closed a seed round of $1.5 million led by industry veteran Peter Kurer.

That Switzerland is an attractive location for life science start-ups is also shown by the candidate field for Baselaunch’s new accelerator programme. It was so good that Baselaunch decided to take in more start-ups than originally planned. Several Swiss companies are among the young companies from all over the world.

Two of the three new companies with the CTI Startup Label are also active in the field of digital health: Piaviata and Vigilitech. In addition, Neocoat is a microtechnology company that is already well on the way to becoming an SME. The Swiss finalists of the Imagine IF! competition were also made known this week – an interesting selection of very young start-ups and start-up projects

Next week I will travel to Silicon Valley with the five winners of the Swisscom Startup Challenge and report live from there. One of the selected start-ups – OneSky – made headlines before the trip this week. Its technology for the avoidance of collisions between drones and aircraft is being tested at Payerne airport.

Last but not least, a note on important deadlines: you can apply for Swiss Startup Invest’s Elevator Pitches for qualification for the Startup Battle at Swiss Startup Days until 25 September. The application period for the ZKB Pionierpreis also expires on 25 September. And you can submit applications for the Ludicious Awards and the SDGA Game Award until 1 October.

Finally, a message on our behalf. At the last board meeting, Sandra Tobler was elected to the Board of the Startupticker Foundation. With her, the foundation now has an active start-up entrepreneur with an excellent international network. We look forward to working together.

Have a good Indian summer weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief Startupticker.ch