Record venture capital received by startups

In 2018, funds, corporations and private investors backed Swiss startups with investment of around 1.2 million francs – a new record. When compared with the previous year, venture capital investment has therefore increased by 32 percent. These figures are derived from the Swiss Venture Capital Report, which was published on Tuesday. This report is compiled by the news portal startupticker.ch and the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association (SECA).

The strongest growth of more than 120 percent was recorded for investment in companies working in information and communications technology (ICT). Last year, 131 Swiss ICT startups conducted financing rounds. They collected 685 million francs, meaning that for the first time more money was invested in this sector rather than the life sciences sectors of biotech (253 million francs), medtech (123 million francs) and digital health (45 million francs).

The canton of Zurich was able to raise the most capital. Vaud has consequently lost its leading position in the cantonal distribution of investment. In 2018, 99 startups from Zurich received a total of 515 million francs in venture capital. “Thus, the agglomeration of Zurich was one of the ten most dynamic locations in Europe in 2018,” startupticker.ch reported in a press release.

The largest investment last year went to SEBA Crypto from Zug, a bank being built to offer cryptocurrency services, which raised 100 million francs. Nexthink from the canton of Vaud ranked second, with 84.2 million francs, followed by Zurich startup WayRay in third place with 77 million francs. In addition, the four tech companies Sensirion, Medartis, Polyphor and A Small World took the bold step of going public. About 20 startup teams also sold their business to a major corporation.

The report shows that about 60 percent of total investment was accounted for by just 20 startups. Ever more companies are receiving sufficient funds for expansion financing, this in turn makes them very attractive to the investment arms of well-known companies, such as Google and Alibaba, startupticker.ch explained.