Timing and innovation

Dear reader

Every technology, every business model has its time. But in an increasingly global and digitalised world, the time windows are certainly not widening. If a start-up wants to be commercially successful with its innovation, it has to reach potential customers as quickly as possible. That is why Innosuisse launched the ‘pick your fair’ programme, designed to enable start-ups to participate in  basically all trade fairs around the world..

Indo-Swiss Healthtech Week, organised by swissnex India, builds bridges to an emerging market. It starts next Monday and gives five Swiss start-ups the opportunity to present their cutting-edge technology at BioAsia 2020, the largest life sciences conference in India.

It’s never too early to go abroad. Zurich-based start-up Way Ahead Technologies, founded in October 2019, took part in Startup Autobahn, Europe’s largest innovation platform, and won a pilot project with Porsche.

The time factor also plays an important role in the transfer of knowledge and innovation from universities. For many years, students and employees at the University of Basel showed little interest in their own company. But the support offered by its Innovation Office has finally borne fruit with nine spin-offs launched in Basel in 2019.

To financial transactions: software company Smeetz from western Switzerland raised CHF 700,000 in a pre-Series A round, and Zug proptech start-up AgentSelly concluded a partial exit with Bank Valiant.

A quiet financing front gives an opportunity to focus on a sector that is often neglected, even in this newsletter ­– not least because it thinks not in weeks or months, but in years and decades. We’re talking about the biotech sector: this week, Swiss start-ups Aurealis Therapeutics and Oculis announced steps forward in the fight against the effects of the lifestyle disease diabetes.

Finally, a note about an event next Wednesday: Zurich AI expert Sophie Hundertmark will show visitors to her workshop how a chatbot can be built in just three hours.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Jost Dubacher
Editor, startupticker.ch