December 16, 2016
Female power
Dear reader
Do you know what proptech is? The new buzzword bundles everything together, which helps the real estate industry to enter the digital age. There is a lot going on in Switzerland: the number of start-ups is growing steadily and a new feature of the market is the Zurich peer-to-peer lending platform Hyposcout.
The founders of MoneyPark have already arrived at the other end of the cycle with a lucrative exit. A few hours ago, it was announced that Helvetia insurance company was willing to spend more than CHF 100 million for a 70% interest in the mortgage broker.
Start-ups also encounter the world of corporates in the Master’s degree courses at IMD. Each year, the Lausanne management school selects a handful of Swiss start-ups to work with candidates over a certain period of time for a full-time or executive MBA. To date, 135 young companies have applied and 26 have been accepted.
A woman forms part of the founding team in only five of these 26 companies. This paltry number is a further indication that women are clearly in the minority in the Swiss innovation ecosystem. A recent study by the business angel association SICTIC points in the same direction, and so startupticker is using this as an opportunity to ask other investor associations what they are doing to attract more female donors.
The woman at the helm of the WA de Vigier Foundation, Regula Buob, has been in office for a year, and in our interview she tells us what she has changed at the most traditional of young entrepreneur awards in Switzerland.
A former winner of the de Vigier prize is Colin Sanctuary. His Lausanne firm QGel announced the completion of a financing round more than $12 million last week.
Thus, QGel will appear in the next Swiss Venture Capital Report. The report is presented in January as part of two brunches in Zurich and Lausanne, to which I cordially invite you in the name of the startupticker team.
Have a good weekend.
Jost Dubacher
Editor, startupticker.ch