In the global spotlight

Dear reader

Almost everything was as usual at the presentation of the Top 100 Swiss Startups Awards. The atmosphere was good, the start-ups excellent, the networking intense and a new, outstanding start-up – Cutiss – in first place. Due to the coronavirus, there were fewer visitors on site, but a live stream compensated, which also meant that foreign audiences could watch the show. The Top 100 Swiss Investor Summit, which took place in the the morning before the award ceremony, showed how great the interest is, with investors from more than a dozen countries participating.

Swiss start-ups not only attract investors from abroad: Largo, one of the start-ups on the Top 100 list, is currently testing its box-office success forecast system with 20 European film producers. And Basel biotech company NBE Therapeutics, a top 100 alumni, has entered into a partnership with a Californian pharmaceutical company that has brought it a USD 25 million upfront payment.

Aeris belongs to the group of what are known as Born Globals. The company, which manufactures air purification equipment, employs 20 people on three continents. In addition to the head office, the assembly and final production are also located in Switzerland. Aeris has now won two top global celebrities as investors: Tencent co-founder Vic Lee and Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen.

We reported on a total of seven investments this week, including turicode, which received CHF 2.2 million in seed capital, and SmartHelio, which generated CHF 250,000 and with Alternative Bank Switzerland as one of the investors. Young building materials platform Habitects won the Valais-based Bringhen Group as an investor and strategic partner, the first time that a traditional building materials dealer has been involved in a direct sales platform.

In addition to the success stories, we published two special articles this week. Lausanne start-up Monito has intervened in the voting campaign for the limitation initiative. In a statement, co-founder Pascal Briod explains why the start-up considers the initiative to be wrong and harmful. I talked to Mateusz Mierzwinski, founder and CEO of LocalBini, about how a travel start-up is navigating the corona crisis.

The Prix Strategis awards ceremony will take place next week in Lausanne and the Digital Festival opens in Zurich from Thursday. Applications are still open for the Swiss Pavilion and the swisstech Pitchinar at the virtual CEATEC Japan and until Friday.

Swiss Startup DAYS will take place on 5 and 6 October: tickets for attendance at the Kursaal Bern and for online participation are still available.

Have a relaxing weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch