Swiss startups defy crisis and create thousands of jobs

Venture Kick looks back on another noteworthy year: The philanthropic initiative received 712 applications and supported 89 new projects from universities across Switzerland with a total of CHF 6.11 million and the Venture Kick alumni raised over CHF 1.6 billion from investors around the globe. Despite the unstable economic backdrop, the startups continued to impress by raising large financing rounds, forming institutional partnerships, setting world records, and earning awards. Moreover, 52 Venture Kick alumni rank among the TOP 100 Swiss Startups of 2022.

“It's quite amazing to see that the Venture Kick startups keep raising record amounts from investors, growing their businesses, and adding qualified jobs – despite the difficult times we are facing around the globe,” comments Beat Schillig, co-managing director of Venture Kick.

Venture Kick celebrated 15 years of “kicking” startups to success

Since its launch, Venture Kick has received almost 6,000 applications. For every CHF 1 of seed money awarded by Venture Kick, other investors followed on with CHF 150 on average. Startups supported by Venture Kick have an incredible survival rate of 86%. Startups that won Venture Kick’s third stage and were awarded the maximum amount of funding have raised CHF 3.5 billion of follow-up funding in total, raising CHF 17.46 million on average. This contribution to the continued growth of Swiss innovation was celebrated with a special anniversary event in November as well as the publication of an anniversary publication.

Looking ahead with ambition

For 2023, Venture Kick increased the budget to CHF 6.3 million with the plan to support more than 90 new spin-off projects from Swiss universities. Pascale Vonmont, Delegate of the Venture Kick Strategy Board, shares a strong vision for the future: “In 2027, we want to celebrate 20 years together with 1,000 active Venture Kick startups – among them several unicorns and global leaders in their markets – counting 20,000 employees.”