Unbridled market expansion

Dear reader

Swiss scale-ups are stepping on the gas when it comes to customer acquisition: Taurus, Swissto12, Haelixa and Insiders have all won important new customers, Ecorobotix has sold its first robotic sprayers in North America and RigiTech will soon deliver its first drones to a new global partner.

The momentum is remarkable given the uncertain economic environment. It also shows how important foreign markets, and thus the opportunity to travel, are for Swiss start-ups. During the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, the Swiss start-up scene, measured in terms of investment, developed more slowly than that of many other countries. One reason – possibly the most important – may have been the travel restrictions that hampered customer acquisition.

The fact that Swiss start-ups are currently in a position to open up new markets gives hope that the supply of capital in Switzerland is more stable than in other countries. Two major financings point in this direction: Teylor, a Swiss fintech and European SME lender, has secured EUR 275 million and GetYourGuide has received a total of USD 194 million – comprising the USD 85 million Series F funding round and a revolving credit facility of USD 109 million.

This financing serves to further accelerate growth in the market. However, what is also striking is that very young companies are working with potential customers. A good example is Synthara, winner of this year’s ZKB Pionierpreis Technopark, which is developing a novel computer chip in which the computing power is embedded in the memory. This results in a 50-fold increase in computing power and efficiency, boosting AI adaptation and ubiquitous computing. The first chips are currently being produced and the start-up is already working with Bosch.

Impossible Materials, which has secured CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick, is developing a sustainable plant-based white pigment as its first product. Numerous potential customers have already knocked on the door of the Fribourg-based company.

HackCapital, a new financing platform for impact start-ups and investors, also focuses on sustainability. Our article explains how the platform wants to make pooled investments easier and faster, and its achievements so far.

The platform comes at the right time, as interest in crowd investing is generally increasing in Switzerland. Currently, two start-ups have raised more than CHF 1 million and other companies have collected six-figure sums. Our article gives an overview.

Next week the 25th Swiss Economic Forum takes place in Interlaken. One of the highlights will be the presentation of the Swiss Economic Awards. To mark the anniversary, the organisers have examined the impact of the 180 finalists and the results are more than impressive: the finalists have created a total of about  15,000 jobs – an average of 80 jobs per company.

You can meet me and my colleague Ritah Nyakato again this year at the SEF and the SEF.Founder Conference. On Tuesday I will also be present at the awards ceremony of Startfeld Diamant in St. Gallen and Ritah will be at the presentation of the SEIF Tech for Impact Awards in Zurich.

Finally, I would like to point out the imminent deadlines for the Luxury Innovation Awards, Swisscom Startup Challenge, Venture Leaders Medtech and Venture Leaders Cleantech.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch