February 1, 2016
Swiss start-ups gain 50% more risk capital
Dear reader
This week, the fourth Swiss Venture Capital Report was published, again in conjunction with the investors association SECA. The report lists and analyses 120 financing rounds that were completed in 2015: a total of CHF676 million was invested, an increase of 48% over the previous year. More encouraging findings:
• Since 2012, investment in Swiss start-ups has more than doubled
• After two years of slight decline, the ICT sector had a significant turnaround, rising by 50% to CHF129.3 million
• In addition to the cantons of Zurich and Vaud, a lot of money also flowed into Geneva and Basel-Stadt
The 48-page magazine also contains many other interesting evaluations, including a list of the 20 largest financing rounds, a summary of the main exits of the past year and an analysis of sectors, investment stages and cantons. Other editorial content includes an interview with Henri B. Meier, former CFO at Roche, investor and the guiding spirit of the Future Fund Switzerland. The magazine, which is published in a print run of 13,000, can be downloaded as a PDF on our website. We have also summarised the main results in German and French.
For the first time we presented the new Swiss Venture Capital Report at our two brunches in Zurich and Lausanne. Again, we were able to welcome up to 200 visitors and impressions of both events can be found on our Facebook page.
This week, not all the pleasing investment news is confined to the past year: IT company Netcetera announced that it will participate in start-ups in future, and up to five investments are already planned for 2016.
Other sources of financing were successful this week too: Comfylight, which has developed a smart bulb that ensures greater safety in the home, achieved its first funding goal in a few hours in its crowdfunding campaign.
There was much activity again in terms of fintech: the finalists of the Swiss Fintech Award were announced, and Monetas launched its new Android app. Incidentally, an evaluation of fintech investment in 2015 can be found in the Swiss Venture Capital Report.
Have an interesting read.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch
News
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". 
