Strong technology attracts companies, well-known personalities and the federal government

Dear reader

In Switzerland, takeovers of start-ups came to an almost complete standstill during the lockdown. That seems to be changing now: the German Chiron Group has taken over over the young Valais mechanical engineering company Mecatis – the Swiss location will be retained. And Swedish firm Calliditas Therapeutics will take over Geneva biotech company Genkyotex for about EUR 90 million. In addition, milestone payments will be made if the development of Genkyotex’s lead product continues to be successful.

Swiss start-up Bond Mobility has secured technology and talent from another Swiss start-up. Bond, a shared mobility operator that provides e-bikes with a top speed of 45 kph, has acquired the micromobility data platform of ETH Zurich spin-off Roll2Go. One of Roll2Go’s co-founders joins Bond as head of data analytics.

The outstanding technological solutions of Swiss start-ups not only attract other companies, but also the federal government. This week brought two interesting pieces of news. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health has reserved three million doses of an anti-Covid drug with Zurich biotech company Molecular Partners. And the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport has launched a start-up challenge – it is looking for solutions around the subject of cyber threat intelligence.

The start-ups that completed financing rounds this week also have promising technology. Hemotune is working on a platform for blood purification based on nanotechnology. Scailyte is using artificial intelligence to find new biomarkers, and The Trip Boutique also uses AI to suggest optimal trips to travellers  – and with Samih Sawris as one of the investors, it has a real heavyweight in the travel industry.

Things are a little different with crowdfunding portal Swisspeers, which has arranged a bridging loan of about CHF 500,000 in order to optimise the platform again for growth after the corona crisis.

The F10 online Demo Day will take place next week, on 18 August. X.Days will follow on 19-21 August, and will also take place virtually. Applications are open for the Swiss Technology Award until 21 August. The Venture Leaders China team have been selected, and you can get to know them better at a Venturelab online event on 26 August.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch