Learning, optimising, growing

Dear reader

AC Immune is recognised worldwide as a catalyst in the search for drugs to fight Alzheimer’s. After a setback, the Swiss biotech company has developed a roadmap that is an example in how to set a strategy in this area. We spoke to Andrea Pfeifer, founder and CEO of AC Immune, not only about how to deal with setbacks and the broad pipeline of the company, but also the advantages of experienced founders and Switzerland as a start-up location.

The fact that the start-up location is generally in good shape is reflected in the rapidly increasing number of start-ups applying to the coaching programme at Innosuisse: there were 341 applications in 2018, a number that is likely to be exceeded this year. Dominique Gruhl-Bégin, head of start-ups and next generation innovators division, explains in our interview how changes in the Innosuisse coaching programme has affected this. She also reports on specific experiences with the changes and gives some early information on the planned scale-up coaching.

And in terms of collaborations with start-ups, large companies have also done a lot recently. Real estate company Swiss Prime Site works with a broad spectrum of very different start-ups, ranging from proptech, mobility, AR/VR, big data and IoT/smart building to cleantech and healthtech. We report on how such partnerships work and the success factors.

With all these activities, Switzerland seems to be on the right track. In any case, according to the latest edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard, Switzerland is once again the most innovative country in Europe, and performance compared with the European average has even grown over recent years.

Start-ups may be contributing to this in that they are learning how to persuade investors and customers alike. This week, we reported on financing rounds from GuestReady, UrbanAlps and Xatena, and all three start-ups also announced market milestones.

Applications are now open for the Climate-KIC Accelerator programme; cleantech start-ups can win up to EUR 85,000, plus coaching and access to an international network. The deadline for applications for Startlab at Biopôle is imminent: life sciences start-ups have until 30 June to apply.

Next week, the Crypto Valley Conference will take place in Zug; on Friday, the SEIF Awards Tech for Impact take place in Zurich; and on 1 July, the winners of >> venture >> will be honoured at ETH Zurich, including the winner of the Audience Award – you can cast your vote now.

Have a good weekend
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch