Joining forces

Dear reader

A strong start-up ecosystem is characterised by the fact that very different players collaborate with each other. Until now, this has not been widespread In Switzerland and therefore a real disadvantage. But this week has shown that progress has been made in this area.

For example, two heavyweights from the Swiss financial industry, Julius Baer and Baloise, are collaborating with start-up Think Yellow. They have jointly launched a stock portfolio and three certificates that focus on gender equality. Baloise has also developed two new insurance solutions with Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank and insurtech start-up Anivo. Valiant Bank has taken a stake in proptech start-up Agentselly, and Brack.ch has just taken over online food speciality shop Ziano.

But it’s not just about collaborating with corporations; for example, IOT start-up Hivemind has entered into a partnership with Innovation Park Zurich, where it is now able to demonstrate its expertise in the field of smart building.

It is also gratifying that more and more support programmes are bringing start-ups together with existing businesses. This week digitalswitzerland announced two new start-up bootcamps that serve exactly this purpose: we report on both in German and French.

The fact that such programmes are actually useful is shown not only by the Kickstart accelerator initiated by digitalswitzerland, but also by fintech accelerator F10, in which Think Yellow participated and which launched a batch of 15 start-ups from seven countries this week. In order to further strengthen the deal flow from abroad, F10 will also organise events abroad in the future.

Another noteworthy partnership is that of Geneva incubator Fongit and family office Preon Capital. Together they are launching a new early stage fund – Helvetica Smart Capital. The necessary structure is already in place and investment activity is due to start in May. The fund’s target is CHF 100 million.

This week, European Startup Monitor invited participation in a survey of start-ups across Europe for the 2018 edition. Please join in! The survey is a great opportunity to position Switzerland as a start-up country in Europe.

Next week, Start Summit will take place in St. Gallen and the Swiss Fintech Awards will be on the agenda in Zurich. We will be there, reporting live from both events.

The deadlines for some important awards are about to expire: I would like to draw particular attention to venture leaders China and MassChallenge Switzerland.

Have a good early spring weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch