Building an ecosystem

Dear reader

This week Pureos Bioventures closed its first fund for investment in biotech start-ups at CHF 170 million. A considerable sum for the first fund of a new venture capital firm, and explained by the fact that behind Pureos stands Bellevue Asset Management, which has been active for more than 25 years, and an experienced team. Of Pureos’ managing partners, Dominik Escher, former founder and CEO of ESBATech, is best known in the start-up scene.

The Swiss biotech ecosystem also attracts players from abroad, including Versant Ventures. The venture fund, headquartered in San Francisco, operates a kind of internal incubator in Basel and Monte Rosa Therapeutics is one of the start-ups to emerge from it. Now the young biotech company with operations in Basel and the US has closed a financing round of more than USD 96 million, with Swiss firm HBM Healthcare Investments one of the investors.

Other start-ups have also attracted Swiss investors, including Luckabox – with serial entrepreneur Bettina Hein – Voliro and CareerFairy.

The efficiency and attractiveness of a start-up scene depends ultimately on a functioning ecosystem and experienced players – start-ups, universities, investors, supporters, suppliers and service providers – that are used to working together.

The winners of this year’s Swiss Medtech Award are a further example: Rheon Medical has developed a system for the simple regulation of intraocular pressure, and the associated implant uses coating technology from Coat-X, another young deep-tech company.

Similarly, reCIRCLE and Smood are working together: the two start-ups have started a joint pilot test in Lausanne that aims to put an end to single-use packaging in food delivery services.

Given the global orientation of the Swiss economy, it is not surprising that partners are also found on other continents. Neo Medical has entered into a partnership with Texan medtech group Orthofix Medical, which will invest USD 10 million in the Swiss start-up. And Daedalean is collaborating with Australian avionics pioneer Avidyne to bring its aircraft collision avoidance technology to market.

Looking ahead, applications are open for the ZKB Pionierpreis Technopark until 28 September. Several deadlines expire on 30 September: the Startup Battle at Digital Days, two scale-up bootcamps (Digital Health and Food & Retail Tech), Cyber Defense Campus’s Startup Challenge and the Future.preneurship program.

The Startup Champions Seed Night will take place next week on Monday (online from Lausanne). Startup DAYS will take place a week later, on 5 and 6 October: registration is still open for on-site or virtual participation.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch