March 14, 2014
Don’t hide your light under a bushel
Dear reader
The Swiss start-up scene is often viewed with scepticism: companies with a global or even European-wide awareness seem to be missing. But this negative judgment is true only in part and the situation is changing. Today, young Swiss companies are successful in mass markets throughout Europe – for example, Zattoo, the biggest internet TV provider in Europe with about 12 million registered users. Thanks to the winter Olympics, the company set a new record in February.
The commitment of experienced business people to start-ups has improved in recent years. At the last Swiss Venture Day, the majority of young companies that presented to investors had management teams with plenty of experience.
And experienced industry insiders are now also on board as directors of start-ups. This week, everyglobe not only announced the completion of a seed financing round of CHF400,000 but also the recruitment of Jan Sedlacek, former head of marketing at Kuoni Switzerland, as a director.
The result is an increasing quality of start-ups that has been noticed abroad by organisations such as MassChallenge, the largest accelerator in the world. Amir Eldad, who is responsible for international expansion at MassChallenge, travelled from Boston to Bern this week to support the number of Swiss applicants to the competition. The organisers are also thinking about a regional hub in Switzerland.
The increasing quality has also impressed customers. This week, Sherpany announced that its company solution will be used for the first time by Nestlé as part of its AGM this year.
Of course, there is still much to do, especially in the area of financing. At least the Federal Council has now approved the motion from Lucerne councillor Konrad Graber, which suggests the creation of a Future Fund Switzerland, through investment by pension funds in Swiss start-ups, echoing the swissfund proposed by CTI Invest and Seca.
However, for more money to start flowing from pension funds flow into start-ups is likely to take some time. Anyone who wants to support young Swiss companies today can do it in a simple way: four promising start-ups are currently raising money via crowdfunding on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Finally, two notes for the coming weekend: we will be present at the START Summit in St. Gallen today and tomorrow. And applications for the venture 2014 business plan must be filed by Sunday.
Have a sunny weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch