Dear reader
There was little news this week in terms of financing, but the news that there was was all the more spectacular. Robotics start-up Swiss-Mile received USD 22 million from an illustrious group of investors, including lead investor Jeff Bezos through Bezos Expeditions and from Switzerland Armada Ventures.
The second piece of news came from Redalpine: the Zurich-based VC closed its oversubscribed seventh fund at USD 200 million. The fund will invest in 15 to 20 European early stage start-ups. Redalpine now has more than USD 1 billion in assets under management.
AirConsole also received a lot of attention, with Volkswagen making use of the platform to enable in-car gaming. In Switzerland, people often wonder how the ecosystem emerged on to the global radar. There is certainly still room for improvement when it comes to the local start-up scene’s international appeal and awareness, but it has already reached a certain level.
This is reflected not only in the response to the most important news of the week, but also, for example, in the number of applicants for Swiss support programmes open to start-ups worldwide. DayOne Health 4.0, the six-month hybrid accelerator programme for health tech start-ups at the interface with pharma in the Basel area, received 170 applications for the current edition, of which almost twice as many came from the US as from Switzerland. Find out which Swiss start-ups have now been selected in our article.
The Future of Health Grant (FoHG), a digital health innovation accelerator programme from CSS and EPFL Innovation Park, has also announced its new selection of start-ups. Almost half the applications came from abroad.
Other health tech start-ups can be found among the seven companies that have recently been awarded the Innosuisse Certificate. Overall, however, the award-winning start-ups are diverse, ranging from companies that develop technology for industrial applications to fintech and cleantech start-ups.
Last but not least, Oxyprem shows that healthtech companies can also be successful in crowdfunding. More than EUR 1.4 million has already been pledged in its current campaign.
Next week, the Top 100 Swiss Startup Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday and registration is still open for the livestream. On Thursday, Zurich Startup Day will take place in Winterthur with day and evening events.
The deadlines for BaseLaunch and Venture Leaders Fintech, where the winners will go to London for an investor and business development roadshow, are just around the corner. I would also like to draw your attention to the Tech for Impact Awards and the Boost My Startup Challenge from UBS Growth Advisory and leading engineering consultancy WSP.
Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch