Swiss investors discover their home country

Dear reader

The difficult economic conditions will not, in my opinion, affect the financing of start-ups as quickly as some fear. Investors’ coffers are still well filled and activity remains high. This week we reported again on nine investments. In Switzerland, an effect first observed in the first year of the pandemic is at work: Swiss investors of all kinds are becoming more involved.

Biotech company Araris completed the largest financing round with USD 24 million; backers included Swiss VC Pureos Bioventures and family office Wille AG as well as several existing Swiss investors. Cleantech start-up Exnaton attracted Zurich-based Übermorgen Ventures in addition to an investor from Silicon Valley.

Numerous strategic investors have also become involved. Zurich electricity company EKZ invests in Neuron and together they want to further develop and scale offers and technology for data transmission via the power grid. In addition to Swiss VC Skyviews Life Science, Clinique La Prairie has become an investor in medtech company Volumina Medical. And investors from the construction sector played an important role in Big Sack’s first financing round.

Bucherer, the very traditional Lucerne watch company, has taken a majority stake in Adresta, which develops blockchain-based digital certificates for watches. Bucherer wants to use and further develop these to make trading in used watches more secure and to refresh the shopping experience for all customers through digital services.

A range of well-known Swiss corporations also support the Switzerland Innovation Tech4Impact initiative: Six start-ups have now been selected for the third edition of the programme and each receive will CHF 85,000 to advance their solutions. Tech4Impact focuses on sustainability, with Tech4Trust focusing on cybersecurity. The 26 start-ups comprising the fourth Tech4Trust batch were announced yesterday, of which 12 come from Switzerland. The focus of the i4Challenge, on the other hand, is on Industry 4.0. This Basel Area initiative has also announced the winners of the current edition; growth companies are awarded the SEF.Growth High Potential Label. Read our article on the 11 companies that received it in the first three quarters.

Various programmes establish contact between start-ups and established companies. Registration is open until Sunday for two scale-up bootcamps on the topics of cleantech and smart city/mobility.

Applications are now open for the next edition of the Circular Economy Transition Incubator. During the 12-week incubation programme, the selected entrepreneurs will work on validating their business model and developing their minimum viable product. As always, you can find all current calls for applications in our Awards Directory.

Finally, a reminder that ‘Launch’, a major event organised by the ETH Entrepreneur Club, takes place next Friday. On Monday, 17 October, the St. Gallen Startup Forum will take place at the OLMA.

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora 

Editor in Chief Startupticker.ch