August 23, 2013
Profitable investment in Swiss start-ups
Dear reader
US medical technology company St. Jude Medical will pay up to CHF 309 million for the Geneva start-up Endosense; CHF 159 million has already been paid and the rest of the money will flow as certain milestones are reached.
And early August saw another exit: the well-known German company Merz took over Neocutis, a dermatology specialist spin-off from the medical faculty of the University Hospital of Lausanne.
Such acquisitions are extremely important for the Swiss start-up scene; they show that investment in young companies is worthwhile and they can help to improve the supply of venture capital.
At least this week a financing round had the participation of Swiss institutional investors. DistalMotion – like Endosense and Neocutis, a life science start-up from western Switzerland – managed to get Zühlke Ventures and Blue Ocean Ventures on board.
In addition, the shareholders of New Value have decided that the company will invest once again in young companies in the future. This seems to be an obvious course of action: one of New Value’s flagship investments is a young company – the former 3S, now part of the Meyer Burger Group.
The interest in Swiss start-ups is also reflected in the applications for the 10th CEO Day, which takes place on 23 October in Bern. Since registration for the event opened on Monday, 200 people have already signed up, including several dozen investors. The event offers not only start-ups a chance to showcase themselves with the Dragon’s Den competition, but investors too: ‘Investors on Stage’ gives them the opportunity to present themselves to founders.
And two other important events are coming up for start-ups and investors: the third Swiss Mobicamp in October and the first Startupfair, which takes place on 17 September in Zurich. Initiator and organiser Gert Christen explains the background of the new event in an interview on startupticker.ch.
Young companies have until 10 September to sign up for Startupfair’s Startup Battle. Application deadlines for other start-up awards finish even earlier – an overview can be found at startupticker.ch
Have a nice weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch
News
.png "„Startup Battle: Bühne für Jungunternehmen“")
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". 
