CTI Invest partners with the Swiss Embassy Berlin to evangelise Swiss High Tech Start-ups

The event, organized by CTI Invest, took place at the historical Swiss Embassy, a stone’s throw away from the Reichstag and the German chancellery. It was opened by Tim Guldimann, the Swiss Ambassador.

The 12 Swiss start-ups who presented to 65 guests including a mix of some of Berlin’s most influential and exciting investors, industrial companies and media were:

• ActLight - a fabless semiconductor company.
• Agricircle - an online cloud system. The system connects farmers and their farm data with their professional network.
• Ampard - develops modern and viable energy storage solutions for power from renewable sources.
• BEN Energy - redefining how people experience energy and how utility companies engage their customers.
• Cooala - A marketing platform that helps companies to engage with brand lovers.
• Helmedica - A provider of innovative health care solutions.
• Multineurons - A digital representation of a patient’s brain on a mobile device to aid neuroscience.
• Newscron - The semantic news aggregator.
• Politznetz - An independent online platform providing information about political topics, elections, votes in parliament and referendums.
• Sanovation - providing the world's best pain diary.
• Squirro - the leader in context intelligence.
• Stagend - operates an online marketplace for bands.

All of the companies presented are looking for early stage funding of between CHF500k to CHF2m to enable them to further their next stage of growth.

One Berlin investor who declined to be named highlighted how impressed he was with the fact that without exception all Swiss start-ups concluded their pitch inside their allocation of 6 minutes. “The discipline needed to articulate and deliver your start-up pitch within the given timeframe is something that is sadly ignored by so many start-ups who do not understand the concept that ‘less is more’. Given the Swiss reputation for punctuality I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it really does make such a refreshing change!"

The opening keynote was given by  Jochen Gutbrod, a serial Swiss entrepreneur, now based in Berlin. Gutbrod led Holtzbrinck publishing group into the digital age and is widely credited with the initial investment which secured the future of the e-commerce company Zalando.

A panel discussion including Christian Nagel of Earlybird Ventures, Martin Pfister from the HTGF, Martin Sieber from GetYourGuide and Denis Nordmann from cognita discussed the topic ‘Why Berlin?’. The panel discussed how Berlin has become one of the main hubs for start-ups in Europe, and what opportunities and threats exist for start-ups considering Berlin either as their primary or secondary base.