More unicorns than expected

Dear reader

Sometimes we are asked how many Swiss unicorns there are. Frankly, we don’t know. But it’s likely to be more than mentioned on the pertinent lists. This has been confirmed by NBE Therapeutics, as yesterday Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it would take over the Basel biotech company for EUR 1.2 billion. NBE has raised more than USD 60 million in investor money since it was founded in 2012, and reached a major milestone with the start of clinical trials this autumn. Switzerland has a few biotech start-ups with similar characteristics and there’s sure to be at least one unicorn among them.

However, Swiss founders do not like to use the word, as their primary goal is to build a sustainably successful company. This kind of founder includes Samuel Müller, who started Scandit in 2009 together with Christian Floerkemeier and Christof Roduner. Scandit now employs 250 people, has first-class investors on board and has had very strong growth this year. Read about the success factors and its further plans in our background article.

HeiQ also grew very strongly this year, in particular due to its latest textile innovation called HeiQ Viroblock. The antimicrobial technology helps in the fight against enveloped viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, and is already being used by more than 150 major brands, including Burberry. The spin-off from ETH Zurich went public in London on Monday, after it had generated more than CHF 70 million as part of its IPO.

Plenty of money was washing around in the early phases this week. Urban Connect, a start-up on which platform customers such as Google, Roche and Zürich Versicherung offer their employees environmentally friendly commuting options, received CHF 2.5 million, CHF 5.6 million went to medtech start-up Rheon Medical, EUR 5.1 million to traveltech company Nezasa and Valais IOT start-up Infrasens concluded a round of more than CHF 0.5 million.

XRNanotech, the spin-off from the Paul Scherrer Institute, was successful at Venture Kick and received CHF 150,000. Swiss start-ups SurgeonsLab and Bloom Biorenewables won the final pitch battle at the swissnex India Academia Industry Training Camp. In two further background articles, you can find out what makes Gondola and Urbio unique and the milestones they have recently reached.

Finally, a piece of news of our own. Startupticker collaborates with Startup Campus, ZHAW and Impact Hub Zurich on a joint project called Startup Media House: how this project helps start-ups gain more visibility is described in a new page on startupticker.

Have a relaxing weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch