On the radar

Dear reader

This week we reported on two acquisitions. German semiconductor company Infineon has acquired 3db Access, a pioneer in ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communications technology that Infineon is now adding to its connectivity range. The Zurich start-up’s existing customers come primarily from the automotive sector, but the technology is also suitable for numerous other areas of application.

MIRO’s products complement Bruker’s spectroscopic gas analysers. Following a majority investment by Bruker, MIRO and Bruker Optics will work together to serve the globally increasing demand for high-precision trace gas analysis. In January of this year, Bruker acquired another Swiss start-up, Biognosys.

Sometimes I hear the assessment that the Swiss start-up scene is not known abroad. But the regular acquisitions by leading technology companies show that this is not generally true, not least due to the quality of local innovations. Bruker, for example, has maintained close relations with Switzerland since the 1960s.

Switzerland is also definitely on the map as far as founders are concerned. Of the 30 start-ups selected for the next Tech4Trust acceleration programme, 12 come from Switzerland and the remaining 18 from nine countries, including France, the UK, the US and Taiwan. The four newly funded start-ups at BaseLaunch are also internationally positioned, even though they are all headquartered in Switzerland. One of these, Onena Medicines, is a spin-out from Stanford University with an R&D centre in San Sebastian, Spain.

International investors already have Swiss start-ups on their radar. The largest funding round this week was closed by live market intelligence and forecasting platform Sparta: the backers of the USD 17.5 million round come from New York and Paris.

As important as this is, it is also encouraging to see more and more Swiss investors becoming active. These include emma Ventures, which is committed to promoting diversity, and buildify.earth, a new investor for sustainable start-ups in the construction industry. Helio is not about sustainable buildings, but about sustainable cloud computing: the start-up secured CHF 4.7 million in a financing round led by QBIT Capital, a young Zurich-based VC.

Four more sustainable start-ups have recently been awarded the Innosuisse Certificate. Discover what they do and what is special about them in our article. Voltiris, another green start-up, secured support from the Biopôle Start-up Fund; two further funded companies come from the medtech sector and HeroSupport, which impressed the jury at Venture Kick, also comes from this sector.

Several important deadlines are imminent. Those who want to apply for the ESA BIC programme should do so immediately. The Swiss Accelerator is accepting applications until 9 October and the deadline for the SEF.WomenAward is 8 October.

Next week the GoodFestival will take place in Lausanne with my colleague Ritah Nyakato as speaker. Swiss Fintech Investor Day will also take place in Zurich next week. Startup Forum St. Gallen including a business speed dating session will follow on 16 October. 

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch