Speed U Up

Speed U Up relies on technology competence in the Greater Zurich Area: The pioneering digital agency from Tyrol (Austria) founded a joint venture with the Swiss media company Somedia in October 2020 to drive digitization in Alpine tourism. The company will create a technology hub with 75 new jobs in Chur in the canton of Grisons over the next three to four years.

Speed U Up focuses on digitalization and tourism and brings together competencies from various technology fields to develop pioneering solutions for alpine tourism. This ranges from innovative marketing solutions in the field of artificial intelligence, speech recognition and augmented reality to performance or social media campaigns.

Greater Zurich becomes Speed U Up's technology hub

In the Greater Zurich Area, Speed U Up wants to further develop competencies in the fields of speech recognition, artificial intelligence and augmented reality in particular and is setting up a technology hub in Chur for this purpose. The company will create 75 new jobs in Grisons  over the next three to four years. Sven Thoenes, member of the Board of Directors of Speed U Up Suisse Ltd, explains the choice of location: "In the Greater Zurich Area, we find talent in abundance to advance our technologies."

Switzerland's small size, short distances, and generally high quality of life are also key advantages for Speed U Up. "The location in Chur, the alpine capital, which is just an hour from Zurich, is perfect. And the mixture between international city, lakes and Alps in such a small area is unique," says Thoenes. Accordingly, talent acquisition is also very easy, he says: "Tech specialists from all over Greater Zurich are interested in our positions and are willing to work in Chur."

Greater Zurich was a strategic choice of location

Expanding into Switzerland was the next logical strategic step for a company with the goal of serving the top 100 alpine destinations, he added. Speed U Up found strategic partners and support in the Greater Zurich Area. As a result, the company has already been able to grow its Swiss customer base. These include Graubünden Ferien, SkiArena Andermatt-Sedrun and Zermatt Tourism. For the latter destination, Speed U Up developed a virtual guest information system, for instance. Using a voice assistant, guests can request information before their trip from the comfort of their own homes or outside business hours.

Speed U Up was supported in its expansion project by the Office of Economy and Tourism of the canton of Grisons, the Economic and Location Promotion of the City of Chur and GZA. "The cooperation worked wonderfully hand in hand," concludes Thoenes.

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