March 24, 2017
Evidence of great potential
Dear reader
Symetis is no longer a start-up in the narrow sense. The medtech company generated sales of CHF38 million last year and has more than 100 employees. Now it intends to go for further growth with an IPO of more than €50 million on Euronext Paris. The start-up phase dates back even longer at fintech company Avaloq; however, as we reported this week, the company has been valued at more than CHF1 billion in a private equity transaction.
Avaloq and Symetis show the potential of Swiss start-ups. And there was no lack this week in young companies that have the skills to emulate them; for example, Beekeeper. The start-up has developed an app that allows employees who are not working on a PC to be integrated into the communication within a company. The solution is already used in 130 countries, and customers include Heathrow airport and the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Doha. This week, Beekeeper concluded a financing round of more than CHF8 million.
The Ticino artificial intelligence start-up Nnaissance also has great potential. It was founded by employees of the AI research institute IDSIA – a very promising backdrop since IDSIA played an important role in the technology development of London AI start-up Deepmind, which was taken over by Google in 2014 for $500 million. Nnaissance has now completed a financing round.
Several more IT companies have also reported important successes: fintech company Tradeplus24 secured a credit line of more than CHF 100 million, B2B fish trading platform ProcSea completed a financing round, and the art platform Artiazza has had a good start.
Christian Walter of swiss made software confirms the high momentum of software start-ups in Switzerland. In our interview, he talks about the rush to the swiss made software label and explains how young IT companies can benefit in particular from Switzerland’s reputation.
Applications open today for the Swisscom Startup Challenge – five start-ups win a tailor-made business acceleration programme in Silicon Valley comprising several meetings a day with potential business partners and investors throughout the week. From this, an assessment is made of a potential business collaboration with Swisscom and an investment by Swisscom Ventures.
Applications are also open until 28 March for MassChallenge in Boston, Israel and Switzerland. All relevant start-up awards can be found in our awards list, and you can also subscribe to a customised award alert.
Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Editorin Chief, startupticker.ch