Partnerships at every level

Dear reader

Despite the hot summer holidays, start-ups have been able to bring investors to the table to conclude funding deals. For RosieReality’s team and its AR robot that teaches kids to program, the first meeting was a success, resulting in the closing of the pre-seed round. Carhelper, the automobile platform developer striving for more transparency in the industry, signed its second deal with AMAG and Bâloise. Scandit, with its platform for mobile barcode scanning and augmented reality, was able to raise USD 30 million to accelerate its expansion, and media platform Tsüri received funds for investment in further projects.

Talking of projects, with their ‘call for innovation’ initiative Swisscom and its partners were looking for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) solutions for Swiss-French and Flemish. The Idiap spin-off Recapp, which specialises in automatic multilingual speech and speaker recognition, was able to deliver, winning itself a partnership with Swisscom. And Sonect, which is on a mission to transform shops into virtual ATMs, attracted a large Swedish partner that will help it to grow.

Partnerships are crucial for development, not only at a start-up and corporate level but also at a national level. Thus, Swiss Federal Minister of Finance Ueli Maurer, SNB president Thomas Jordan and fintech company Lendity travelled to the G20 meeting for finance ministers and central bank governors in Argentina to forge partnerships to strengthen the financial sector of the two economies. The first steps have been initiated, starting with Lendity’s commitment to linking the two countries through its platform.

One could also argue that crowdfunding campaigns bring about a partnership between the start-up and its customers, as the former commits to delivery of a product/service on completion of the campaign. This is what Swiss start-ups B&B PURE and the Ticino-based Ferraris Group are seeking to achieve, since both have raised funds beyond their initial target.

Finally, as you sip on cold drinks this weekend, remember to submit your application to the Climate KIC-Accelerator by 29 July, and for the Swissgames delegation by 30 July. We have also put together a list of other registration deadlines – see Award Deadlines.

Have a sunny weekend

Ritah Ayebare Nyakato
Editor Startupticker.ch