EP #382 - Stefan Kyora & Thomas Heimann: How Did The Swiss Startup Ecosystem Do in 2023?

About Stefan Kyora & Thomas Heimann:

⁠Stefan Kyora⁠ is editor-in-chief at ⁠startupticker.ch⁠, the leading Swiss news portal for startups, supporters, innovators and investors, and holds a PhD in Philosophy and Business Ethics from the University of Konstanz. ⁠Thomas Heimann⁠ is a deputy general secretary at ⁠SECA⁠, the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association, and the Head Risk Management & Equity Analyst at ⁠HBM Partners AG⁠, a Swiss healthcare investor. The two of them co-authored the 2023 Swiss Venture Capital Report, which you can download for free ⁠here⁠.

During their chat with Silvan, they summarized the report’s findings, as well as the conclusions we can draw from them:

• It is still difficult for Swiss companies to raise large rounds from Swiss investors. This isn’t because we don’t have plenty of VC funds, or because those funds don’t invest in Swiss companies — there are many Swiss VC funds with at least 50% of their capital allocated to Swiss startups, but these are small funds investing small amounts.
• The total amount of funds invested in Swiss startups (both foreign and Swiss) went down in 2023 for the first time in a while. After a 10 year boom, this is to be expected, and can easily be explained if we take the unfavorable international conjuncture into account. Comparatively, Switzerland is still doing well, and is quite stable.
• Tradesales are also down in Switzerland, both when it comes to Swiss buyers and to foreign buyers. Thomas Heimann speculates they may increase, since larger, later stage fundraising rounds are becoming more rare.
• Fintech, cleantech and biotech are the most popular and well-funded sectors in Switzerland.

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