May 2, 2014
Ambitious Swiss start-ups
Dear reader
Switzerland is an attractive location for young companies, which is why founders with international experience choose to establish their start-up here. Among them is the team of biotech company Sompharmaceuticals, which this week announced the completion of a financing round. Another example is Rookmedia; the start-up based in Thalwil this week bought a US company.
Other examples of the ambition of young Swiss companies include Amazee Labs, which has opened an office in the US to serve its international customers over there. And Tengo, a start-up that has developed a multivitamin drink for cats, is already talking about an expansion into the European and American markets in its first press release.
The money to fund such ambitious plans appears to be present. This week Climeworks, CRISPR, Sequana Medical, Tresorit and Sompharmaceuticals all completed financing rounds, with a total of almost CHF 50 million flowing into the four companies.
Against this background, the results of a new study do not surprise. An investigation by the Centre for Policy Studies in the UK concludes that Switzerland has a comparatively large number of particularly successful founders – super-entrepreneurs.
Anyone wanting to know who the super-entrepreneurs of tomorrow might be should come to Zurich on Wednesday, 7 May. CTI Invest’s Swiss Venture Day takes place in the morning, followed by venture 2014 Investor Day – in total, more than 25 promising business ideas will present at the two events. In the evening, the awards ceremony of venture 2014’s business plan competition will take place.
Potential entrepreneurs should also take a look at our events calendar. In the coming weeks, four Startup Weekends are planned in all regions of Switzerland with the first, on 16 May, in Zurich. Anyone still looking for a business idea, on the other hand, should look to the ‘The Future of’ conference for inspiration. The startupticker.ch editorial team has a few free tickets for the occasion; if you are interested, just send an email to news@startupticker.ch.
Registrations for the Swiss Nano Convention 2014 with the CTI Micro/Nano event should be made as soon as possible. The registration period expires on 11 May.
Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch
News
.jpg "Startup-Battle 2014: Erste Finalisten sind ermittelt")
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". 
