Global innovations with tangible benefits

Dear reader

Tomorrow the Tour de France starts in Nice, one of the very few major sporting events to take place this year. ETH spin-off greenTEG will also be involved, since one of the racing teams will use its brand new product that measures the core body temperature of the riders. The system works non-invasively and the wearable can be easily worn on the body – a world first.

This week the fintech scene provided a world first of a completely different kind. Start-up Sygnum, which has a banking license, and Galaxus used Sygnum’s cryptocurrency, which is pegged 1:1 to the Swiss franc, to conduct an e-commerce payment transaction. If the idea catches on, card systems could be replaced and payments in online shops will become easier, safer and cheaper.

Several start-ups that have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalisation completed financing rounds this week. Regtech start-up Travizory received CHF 2 million from Atlantic Labs – the VC founded by Swiss Christophe Maire is considered one of the best seed investors in Europe. The bank challenger neon gained CHF 5 million, and scale-up Olympe received CHF 2.5 million from a French investment company. This week we reported on nine financing rounds – details on our Investment tag.

In addition to the usual start-up success stories, we also published two articles on Switzerland as a technology location. On Thursday, Innosuisse, the ETH board, the Swiss National Science Foundation, swissuniversities and swiss academies of arts and sciences issued a joint statement against the limitation initiative. Their arguments highlighted the great importance of foreign employees to research and innovation, and the risk the initiative poses to Swiss participation in EU research, which is hugely significant to start-ups. Much was heard about a new label that distinguishes Software-as-a-Solution services where the data remains in Switzerland.

I would like to point out that the 10 start-ups have been selected for the venture leaders South Africa programme, with the names announced this week.

Next week, the Swiss Economic Forum takes place in Montreux, and will also include the SEF.Wachstum special event for start-ups and SMEs. We will be there.

The following week, the awards ceremony of the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award will take place – the event will be streamed live. The Swiss Fintech Fair can also be found in the same week in Zurich and digitally too.