Greetings from Silicon Valley

Dear reader

The US, and in particular Silicon Valley, is the centre par excellence of the start-up culture. The region around San Francisco is the most important location for technical innovations: companies such as Apple, Intel, Google, Yahoo and Amazon come from the southern San Francisco Bay Area, and Google, Facebook, Uber, Tesla and WhatsApp have grown up Silicon Valley. And there, where thousands of technology companies are based, venture capital firms are also buzzing.

A good reason for Swisscom to visit the world-famous start-up ecosystem with the founders of the best tech start-ups in Switzerland and to be inspired. The five winners were selected through the Swisscom StartUp Challenge, for which more than 200 young entrepreneurs applied. And this week the trip to the US is taking place. Stefan Kyora, the editor-in-chief of startupticker, is also involved and has recorded the most important tips, experiences and insights in his report  ‘Behind the scenes’.

The Swisscom Challenge is by no means the only Swiss accelerator programme in the US; for example, Swiss creative designers are completing a three-month programme in the development lab Dart17 in San Francisco – see our interview with Emilie Joly, CEO of VR production company Apelab.

However, pulsating innovation factories exist not only in Silicon Valley. Here at home, the best technical innovations are being researched and developed at an ever faster pace. The technology group Bühler from Uzwil, which is currently building an innovation campus for CHF 50 million, is also involved in this effort.

That this is possible in Switzerland was demonstrated this week by start-up Tailored Fits. The customised winter sports equipment and shoe specialist will bring series-produced ski boots to the market for this winter season.

The start-up MindMaze, which specialises in virtual reality, is hotly coveted and is now valued at more than $1 billion. Even Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in the EPFL spin-off.

Approaching deadlines: Swiss Fintech Investor Day takes place in mid-November: fintech start-ups seeking capital can submit their applications until 15 October. The application period for the 24-hour Climate-Hackathon runs until 15 October, and game developers must register by 20 October for the Ludicious Business Accelerator programme in Zurich in January 2018.

Have a good weekend.

Claus Niedermann
startupticker.ch