Relying on their own initiative

Dear reader

Mario Vögeli is one of the co-founders of Arktis Radiation Detectors; he left the company in 2018 and is now at the helm of a new start-up, Axino. It wants to fight food waste with IoT technology and artificial intelligence, and has now completed an initial financing round.

Cristina Riesen is also no stranger to the Swiss start-up scene. She was a top manager at Evernote, has supported universities and is founder of the Educreators Foundation. Now, as co-CEO of Taskbase, she will drive the start-up’s global growth.

At Insurtech Helvengo, the founders themselves have the relevant experience. They worked for wefox and now want to digitise SME insurance through their own start-up. They too concluded a financing round this week with well-known investors.

In the case of AgroSustain, financial and market expertise comes from a single source. The agritech start-up has brought Giovanelli, a leading Swiss importer of fruit and vegetables, on board as an investor and strategic partner.

Nine European smart grid start-ups, including four from Switzerland, are relying on their own initiative when it comes to market access. They have founded the Digital Grid Initiative to better overcome the hurdles when working with electricity suppliers.

Sometimes one hears that Swiss start-ups are overprotected due to the many support offers, but these examples show that founders do not choose a support service haphazardly, but rather secure the support they need in a targeted manner. And that support often comes from investors, new employees or other start-ups.

In addition, in Switzerland only those support offers with a proven track record will survive. ESA BIC Switzerland provides a good example: the initiative has comprehensively supported 40 start-ups over the past five years, investing more than EUR 6 million in the process. Due to its success, the offer will be extended by five years.

The University of Basel’s record of start-ups is also good: 10 new companies were founded last year and a grant programme for scientists with start-up ideas was also launched. An incubator launched this week in canton Baselland is brand new in the Basel area, and in Lausanne, at the Biopôle, Superlab Suisse will launch in the second quarter in order to offer labs-as-a-service to life sciences start-ups.

A number of interesting events are coming up next week. On 8 March, Venturelab will kick off a series of panel discussions focusing on women in tech start-ups with an event on start-up financing. On 10 March, the Swiss Healthcare Startups initiative gives an insight into its database of 400 healthcare start-ups, and Swiss Cyber Security Days will also take place on 10 and 11 March.

The current deadlines for awards can be found in our awards directory. I would like to point out the next Startup Invest Virtual Venture Day, which is open to applications until Wednesday. And in our article about the Start Summit you can learn what awaits you at the event which will take place virtually from 22 to 27 March. 

Have a relaxing weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor on Chief, Startupticker.ch