One big innovation park

Dear reader

I am regularly asked if the hype around the Swiss start-up scene is exaggerated. Today, I can give you a clear answer – no. For the general population, the founding of a company is still not an attractive career option, even though the general conditions for start-ups are considered to be good and compared internationally many people basically have confidence in a company foundation. These are the results of the recently published Swiss National Report from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. we published articles in German and French about the results.

How can this be changed? One way is to make the fascination of entrepreneurship experienceable across sectors and in many places. The prerequisites for this are good; meanwhile, there are start-ups with potential in all regions of Switzerland. This is shown by the four financing rounds this week. In Freiburg, Bcomp completed a Series A round of more than CHF3 million and is now approaching the automotive market with more thrust. Investors were also impressed by Basel proptech company Allthings, Lambda Health System from Yverdon with its therapy robots, and the young biotech company LeadxPro from Villigen, Aargau.

And the four new bearers of the CTI Startup Label come from all over Switzerland: Batmaid, guruu, Kapanu and Onefusion.

Thus, the initial outlook is good that Federal Councillor Johann Schneider Ammann’s vision will be fulfilled. “I would like Switzerland to be a major innovation park,” he said at the award ceremony of venture competition, which took place on Monday. By this he meant that not only is innovation required all over the country, but also that all should pull together. In this respect, venture itself is a sign of the times: the next prize giving will be held for the first time in the history of the 20-year competition at EPFL.

This year, three medtech projects won at venture. In addition to the awards for the best business plan to Lumigbo and for the best business idea to ReflectUS, an Audience Award was also awarded for the first time, which Twiice won.

Apropos pulling together, this week, Swiss Startup Invest officially became part of digitalswitzerland and will in future operate independently under the umbrella of digitalswitzerland.

Researchers with business plans can apply for the AIT Camps in India and Brazil until Sunday. The registration deadline for the Ticino StartCup also runs until Sunday, and registration for the Social Entrepreneurship Awards of SEIF is open until 30 June.

Have an enjoyable weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch