Switzerland is a start-up hub

Dear reader

I am often asked which Swiss city has the edge in terms of start-ups. My answer is always the same: Switzerland has no start-up hub; it is a start-up hub. Promising and successful start-ups exist throughout Switzerland; for example, the four new holders of the CTI Startup Label not only come from Lausanne and Zurich, but also from the Aargau town of Villigen.

Envoy, a young software company that develops a solution with companies that enables them to make better use of the networks of their employees and business partners, is domiciled in Schaffhausen. The start-up has concluded a financing round of CHF5 million.

In Basel-Riehen, CBD Solution works on products from CBD, one of the active ingredients of the hemp plant. Its successful launch was thanks in part to the support of a business angel.

While Envoy and CBD are still at an early stage, Baden-based Dectris has grown into a rapidly growing SME with currently more than 100 employees. The company was awarded the Prix SVC Nordschweiz yesterday.

In Yverdon, Juliana Pantet, the new head of Y-Parc, has told us that she wants to make Yverdon a centre for cyber-security, robotics and medtech.

And in Ticino, Swiss Venture Day Ticino and the awards ceremony of StartCup Ticino will be held next week. The 10 semi-finalists are now known.

Clever minds are everywhere in Switzerland and if they are promoted properly, astonishing results are possible. This was revealed this week on the 10th anniversary of Venture Kick: 5,000 jobs have been created by the start-ups supported by the initiative. And the Venture Kick team has ambitious goals: a total of 1,000 start-ups promoted, 15,000 jobs created and almost CHF3 billion in sales by 2027.

The chances of achieving these ambitious goals are intact, as the signs in the Swiss start-up scene are focused on growth. Start-ups such as Ava – its first product is already a worldwide success – are working on expanding their product range. And the interest in IPOs is also increasing, as shown at the first Swiss IPO Day. There, growth companies met stock market representatives and investment bankers from several European countries. The latter are obviously interested in Swiss start-ups, as no fewer than 12 pitched.

I would like to point out two events in Zurich next week: on 6 December, an information event on the transformation of the CTI into Innosuisse takes place at ETH, and a day later the demo day of accelerator F10 will be held.

Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch