Venturelab with impressive results after the first 20 years

The entrepreneur and passionate sailor Beat Schillig had already set the IFJ Institute for Young Entrepreneurs on course when he was offered the opportunity to set up a Swiss-wide training program for high-tech entrepreneurship for the Swiss Confederation in 2004. His team won the Innosuisse tender for this program of national importance. Schillig was fascinated by Alinghi's success and said to himself: “If we can beat Silicon Valley in sailing, then we can do the same with startups!"

Since its launch 20 years ago, Venturelab has inspired and trained more than 100,000 academics at Swiss universities and research institutes, helping thousands of innovative startups to build successful global high-tech companies. The economic significance of these startups is considerable: Venturelab estimates an investment volume of around CHF 15 billion and 25,000 jobs created. And the Swiss ecosystem has also gained international recognition and respect.

Since 2004 Venturelab launched several impactful initiatives:

Every year since 2006, Venture Leaders teams or ‘Swiss Startup National Teams’ in biotech, cleantech, fintech, medtech, mobile, and technology have traveled to the leading startup hubs around the globe to meet investors and learn.

In 2007, the Venturelab team launched the Venture Kick program on behalf of the Gebert Rüf Foundation and the Ernst Göhner Foundation. Today, founders from Swiss universities can win more than CHF 1 million in startup capital in a competitive process. A total of 1,084 startup projects have been financed so far, creating over 13,000 jobs.

In 2011, Venturelab launched the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award to celebrate the best Swiss startups each year. The TOP 100 magazine is now published in five languages (German, French, English, Chinese, and Japanese) and enjoys a growing global fan base.

Jordi Montserrat, Schillig’s founding partner, sums up Venturelab's recipe for success: "The young must learn from the best!" Accordingly, Venturelab has promoted global dialogue between founders and successful startup companies, investors, and leading industry representatives from the very beginning.

Regarding the future, Co-Managing Director Stefan Steiner from Venturelab, says: "The race is far from over. We feel a strong tailwind, but we still see an incredible amount of potential in new technologies related to AI, quantum computing and our sustainable supply of energy, food and medicine. Our team continues to trim its sails and aims to make up further ground in the global competition."

(Press release / SK)