Positive surprises

Dear Reader

This week, a Swiss start-up won a young entrepreneur competition in Madrid. Lionstep, which supports companies with a blend of artificial intelligence and human communication skills, has been able to attract Spanish telecoms company Telefonica.

Surprises are also provided by the three new bearers of the CTI label: Cutiss with its technology for the treatment of burn wounds, Dolfinos with an innovation in the traditional field of instrument making, and Orbiwise with its global market success.

The sale of Qumram to the US company Dynatrace was probably a surprise to many. Qumram CEO Patrick Barnert explains in our interview why it was the right time and the opportunities it brings.

The many surprises within a few days show the high level of dynamism in the Swiss start-up scene. This will continue to increase, not least because of corporations such as SIX. The company is launching a new CHF50 million venture fund.

There is no shortage of groundbreaking technology start-ups that can be considered for such a fund. A good example is Embotech: the ETH spin-off develops software that enables autonomous systems to  make decisions. Embotech has received CHF1 million from investors and wants to push into the automobile industry.

Promising offspring include medtech company Lumigbo and Motionpilot, a start-up that has developed a novel drone control system. Both have won CHF130,000 each at Venture Kick. In addition, 10 Swiss companies are now supported by the SME instrument of the European research programme Horizon2020.

Swiss start-ups have not been heard of in relation to IPOs for some time. But that is changing now, as an IPO has again become a serious alternative to an exit. And the first Swiss IPO Day take places on 28 November – we talked to Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier about the event.

Swiss Fintech Day takes place next week on 15 November. A day later, the Swiss Innovation Forum will take place in Basel, where not only speakers from all over the world but also numerous successful Swiss startups will be present. the Global Entrepreneurship Week starts next week on 13 November with events all over Switzerland.

Have a weekend full of surprises.
Stefan Kyora

Editor-in-Chief Startupticker.ch