October 30, 2016
Digitalisation: Swiss startups are seizing the day
Dear reader
Digitalisation is revolutionising all industries. That is why people are now talking not only about FinTech, but also about PropTech in the real estate industry, EdTech (digitalisation of training and continuing education) or AdTech in the advertising field. Swiss startups have been able to achieve success in all of these industries.
The young company Coorpacademy in Lausanne reported having concluded a financing round for over 10 million francs. It is one of the largest financing rounds in the EdTech field in Europe.
The AdTech startup Screen24 was able to convince its first cooperation partner abroad and is now delivering its mobile phone charging system with advertising surfaces to Austria as well. The PropTech company Hypoguide started a cooperation with the real estate agency RE/MAX.
Large business are often looking for opportunities to cooperate with startups. This includes the corporate members of the FinTech Incubator F10, among them the SIX group, Julius Bär and PwC. F10 incorporated ten new startups this week, several of them from Switzerland.
Federal Councillor Johann Schneider Ammann also has respect for these dynamics. He participated in this year’s Swiss Startup Day, where he addressed the founders of over 350 Swiss startups. His speech was only one of the highlights of the event in Bern. You can find out about other exceptional things that happened in our article.
What is impressive at every Swiss Startup Day is both the large number of startups active in Switzerland and their high level of quality. This applies not only to the young companies that address digitalisation but also to the life sciences companies. Thus, it is not surprising that two more life sciences startups were able to conclude financing rounds this week: KB Medical and Inositec.
In addition to the announcements about the startups, we have published two personal matters this week: Nicolas Bührer assumed management of digitalswitzerland in the middle of October. In our interview, you can find out what spurred him to take on this task and what his next plans are.
The second announcement concerns the startup ticker: on 1 November, yours truly will be taking up chief editorship of the startupticker. I will be replacing Claus Niedermann, who will shift his focus to special projects such as the Swiss Venture Capital Report.
And to wrap things up, here is some information on opportunities you should not miss: until 31 October, startups can sign up for the Prix Strategis. And the CTI has extended the submission deadline for projects that benefit from the special measures until 14 November.
You also should not miss the registration deadline on 1 November for the second Lean Day with Ash Maurya and the Female Founders Summit in Zurich on 2 November.
I wish you an inspiring weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch