June 7, 2013
Reasons to be optimistic
Dear reader
It was an optimistic speech by William Burns, member of the board at Roche, that set the tone at the annual event from Basel Inkubator, BioBAC and EVA last week in Basel. Burns’ optimism was based not only on demographics but also on scientific and technical progress. He cited, for example, m-health, which links healthcare with mobile devices, and provides many opportunities.
Swiss start-ups – and not only medtech companies – have already discovered this trend. Zurich Instruments is involved in a highly supported research project, the goal of which is to develop mobile health technologies to rapidly test and track infectious diseases.
VirtaMed has worked at the interface of medtech and IT for several years, as it develops and manufactures surgical simulators. Founder Stefan Tuchschmid is delighted to have won the Swiss Economic Award. He received the award today for what the start-up has already achieved, but the potential of the Zurich company probably played a part too. A new technology platform should accelerate growth even further.
According to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, which examines entrepreneurial activities and conditions for start-ups in 99 countries worldwide, Tuchschmid is a typical Swiss founder. Swiss founders are innovative and aim for an international market from the beginning; however, they need a few years to get to a phase of rapid growth, but then they have great potential. No wonder GEM gave Switzerland a good report: it lies seventh in GEM’s rankings of the most entrepreneurial countries.
Switzerland’s attractive location also offers investors plenty of opportunities. On Tuesday, no less than 10 promising start-ups will present at Swiss Venture Day in Zurich. The event will be preceded by an interactive workshop – an Angel Day – on valuation.
Have a relaxing weekend.
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". 
