The money is where the knowledge is

Dear reader

This week, Swiss start-ups secured more than CHF 100 million. What is striking is that most of the money has come from investors with in-depth knowledge of the respective markets and technologies. H55 is working on electric propulsion aviation technologies and secured CHF 45 million from, among others, RTX Ventures, the investment arm of defence and aviation group RTX. The company has 180,000 employees and is valued at more than USD 100 billion.

TOLREMO therapeutics closed a Series A financing round for a good CHF 35 million. The lead investor is the experienced Basel biotech VC Biomed Partners and Pierre Fabre Invest, the investment arm of the second largest private French pharmaceutical group, has become a new investor. Pierre Fabre recently signed a second deal with the acquisition of Vertical Bio, a spin-off from Versant Ventures’ Basel incubator.

Holcim is investing a significant sum in neustark. The building materials giant will not only provide money, but also install hundreds of neustark systems at Holcim locations around the world. The system mineralises CO₂ in demolition concrete and thus removes it permanently from the atmosphere.

These investments do not come along by chance. The leading companies invest with a long-term perspective and are less influenced by the current mood. The deals also show the innovative strength of Swiss start-ups, so it’s not surprising that they are able to prevail even in extremely competitive programmes. A consortium initiated by Swisspod will be supported with EUR 3.5 million as part of the EIC Pathfinder programme.

The Swisscom Startup Challenge jury also has in-depth knowledge of the start-ups’ fields of activity. Yesterday it awarded the three winners: Irmos Technologies, Swistor and Synthara. The founders of MUVON Therapeutics, a deeptech start-up in the healthcare sector, were honoured as Female Innovators of the Year. Find out what happened at the Female Innovation Forum in our article. Cleantech start-up qCella has secured CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick.

Next Monday the Future of Health Kickoff Event and Demo Day will take place in Lausanne. Digital Health Day follows in Zurich on Wednesday.

I would like to point out three imminent deadlines. Applications are open for the Swiss Fintech Investor Day until Sunday, the deadline for the ZKB Technopark Pioneer Prize is on Monday and registration for the Innosuisse Scaleup programme is open until Friday. And the application window for the Boost My Startup Challenge closes on 1 October.

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch