Rationality is an advantage

Dear reader

The list of milestones of Swiss scale-ups is impressive: sporting goods manufacturer On announced its IPO and published figures for the first time. It has increased sales by 85% every year since it was founded in 2010, and this year will exceed the threshold of CHF 0.5 billion. Astrocast is already on the stock exchange: the space tech start-up made a brilliant market start on Wednesday and announced at the same time that Palantir had invested more than CHF 45 million in the latest financing round.

Ticino cleantech company Energy Vault has completed its second financing round of CHF 100 million. And Climeworks and Swiss Re signed the world’s first long-term purchase agreement for direct air capture and storage of carbon dioxide, worth USD 10 million over 10 years.

The Swiss start-up scene now operates at a level that few probably thought possible some years ago. One of the Swiss strengths is that despite such successes, a rational look at the situation shows how much further performance can be improved. A report by the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) contains a number of suggestions that the Federal Council is now examining, particularly in the area of financing, such as the establishment of a Swiss innovation fund and closer cooperation with the European Investment Fund.

There is no question, in my opinion, that such measures would fall on fertile ground. On the one hand, there is the high number of start-ups: a new map from the Bern University of Applied Sciences shows about 130 companies active in the supply chain alone. In addition, leaders are able to select the right support from a multitude of options, as was evident in further financing this week. At beqom, a customer is providing growth capital; at Typewise, users are participating in the company through crowdfunding; and the owners of MySign have sold 80% of their shares to a German company in order to fund further growth.

You can meet me next week at the SEF.Growth event and at the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken. In addition, the Roche Startup Day, organised by Startup Invest, will take place on Tuesday. The award night of the Top 100 Swiss Startup Awards takes place on 8 September – the event can be followed via livestream.

Don’t miss the deadline for the next Tech4Trust programme on 5 September and the Circular Economy Incubator on 10 September. Applications can be made to Venture Kick at any time; this week, the initiative again supported a start-up with CHF 150,000 – life sciences company ArcoScreen.

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch