April 11, 2014
Innovative business models
Dear reader
Traditional newspapers have been stuck in a long-term crisis for about 10 years. The major internet platforms siphon off classified advertising and paywall models for the papers’ own journalistic content fail regularly. The micropayment solution – where the user pays a small amount for individual texts or images – has always been associated with high transaction costs.
But now Zurich start-up milliPay has developed an algorithm that allows fractions of cents to be settled economically. The young company has received the CTI Start-up Label along with cleantech firm Gr3n and nanotech firm Inofea.
The CTI Start-up Label gives outstanding companies access to investors. Watch manufacturer Slyde, biotech companies PIQUR and ProteoMediX, and second-hand platform verkaufen.ch have already discovered the value of this access. The four companies have completed funding rounds in the last week.
Publishing house Ringier, which is in an intense search for new, lucrative business models, is one of the investors in verkaufen.ch. Ringier Digital will be involved not only as a shareholder, but also as a media and marketing partner of the Zug start-up.
Whether the media-for-equity calculation will add up is still open. What is certain is that this coming Wednesday the next round of venture ideas will take place in the Rolex Learning Center at EPFL, where the winners of the Venture Leaders competition will also present themselves. The 20 founder teams form an unofficial Swiss start-up national team, which this year will travel to Boston or Beijing and Shanghai.
Have a good weekend.
Jost Dubacher
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch
News
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The new Swiss Venture Capital Report was published on 26 January. It analyses 304 financing rounds closed in 2020 and includes further article such as an interview with Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board, and a list of Swiss "soonicorns". 
