Venture Kick celebrates 10 years of awe-inspiring results
01.12.2017
On weds 29th Nov. in Schlieren, Zurich, hundreds of people from the worlds of business, startups, investors, angels and the media attended an exclusive event to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Venture Kick.
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On wednesday night in Schlieren, Zurich, hundreds of people from the worlds of business, startups, investors, angels and the media attended an exclusive event to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Venture Kick.
The evening kicked off with 12 of our most promising supported startups demonstrating their products at the “Venture Kick expo”, with visitors able to meet the founders and learn about products as diverse as carbon neutral power plants, exoskeletons, and a tortilla dough-capsule machine. Those that were not able to attend the startup exhibition still got to see one of the startups in action afterwards, when the Aerotain drone placed sparklers on the cake.
Opening the ceremony, the Venture Kick strategy board recalled how the initiative’s story began. Board member Igor Fisch also announced that he will be joining the circle of Venture Kick donors!
Exploring the numbers
After 10 years, 310 jury sessions, and 21 million invested, co-managing director Jordi Montserrat shared some of his enthusiasm and the results that this energy has produced, with 522 startups supported, leading to 392 incorporated companies creating 4,748 new jobs. ”With a leverage of CHF 83 for every CHF 1 given by Venture Kick, and seeing what our startups have brought to the world, it’s easy to share in the excitement!” added Jordi Montserrat.
Of the founding teams, 53% contain a mix of nationalities, reflecting the international nature of the universities that the research comes out of and an overwhelming 93% have founding teams of two or more people. Currently 25% of founding teams include women which, although above average for technology startups, shows that there is still a lot of room for progress.
Beyond the numbers
Guests heard from board member Igor Fisch on his story, and how taking part in the predecessor program of Venture Kick, NETS, helped him to build his company and made him decide to give back once he was in the position to do so. Then some of the people who have been through the Venture Kick experience as founders, jury members or donors gave their thoughts on the program: BioVersys CEO Marc Gitzinger and stage 3 winner, 2008, said “BioVersys would probably not exist without Venture Kick”, while jury member Philip Bodmer, Business Angel and President Volkswirtschaftsstiftung, who mentioned being “Contaminated with the Venture Kick virus” stated that ”We have raised the bar of expectations for all startups in Switzerland” and supporter Nanja Strecker, European Space Agency- Business Incubation Center (ESA BIC) Switzerland, gave her greetings from “Space” calling Venture Kick “the most respected program – by startups, corporates and investors.” We also got to meet some of the Global Shapers, startups with the power to change the world, as voted for by the general public, who will be announced over the Venture Kick website and social media channels over the next month.
After co-managing director, Beat Schillig formally closed the event with the plan for 2027, saying “The recipe is pretty simple and straight forward: We just need to KICK MORE! and KICK BETTER!”, the party section of the evening was kicked off in style by a concert from Relish Swiss premium guitars and a fashion show from Selfnation, the online platform for perfectly fitting clothes.
Venture Kick would like to thank those who came along to celebrate on Wednesday. The team look forward to preparing for our 20 year anniversary with even more kicks given and companies founded!
The evening kicked off with 12 of our most promising supported startups demonstrating their products at the “Venture Kick expo”, with visitors able to meet the founders and learn about products as diverse as carbon neutral power plants, exoskeletons, and a tortilla dough-capsule machine. Those that were not able to attend the startup exhibition still got to see one of the startups in action afterwards, when the Aerotain drone placed sparklers on the cake.
Opening the ceremony, the Venture Kick strategy board recalled how the initiative’s story began. Board member Igor Fisch also announced that he will be joining the circle of Venture Kick donors!
Exploring the numbers
After 10 years, 310 jury sessions, and 21 million invested, co-managing director Jordi Montserrat shared some of his enthusiasm and the results that this energy has produced, with 522 startups supported, leading to 392 incorporated companies creating 4,748 new jobs. ”With a leverage of CHF 83 for every CHF 1 given by Venture Kick, and seeing what our startups have brought to the world, it’s easy to share in the excitement!” added Jordi Montserrat.
Of the founding teams, 53% contain a mix of nationalities, reflecting the international nature of the universities that the research comes out of and an overwhelming 93% have founding teams of two or more people. Currently 25% of founding teams include women which, although above average for technology startups, shows that there is still a lot of room for progress.
Beyond the numbers
Guests heard from board member Igor Fisch on his story, and how taking part in the predecessor program of Venture Kick, NETS, helped him to build his company and made him decide to give back once he was in the position to do so. Then some of the people who have been through the Venture Kick experience as founders, jury members or donors gave their thoughts on the program: BioVersys CEO Marc Gitzinger and stage 3 winner, 2008, said “BioVersys would probably not exist without Venture Kick”, while jury member Philip Bodmer, Business Angel and President Volkswirtschaftsstiftung, who mentioned being “Contaminated with the Venture Kick virus” stated that ”We have raised the bar of expectations for all startups in Switzerland” and supporter Nanja Strecker, European Space Agency- Business Incubation Center (ESA BIC) Switzerland, gave her greetings from “Space” calling Venture Kick “the most respected program – by startups, corporates and investors.” We also got to meet some of the Global Shapers, startups with the power to change the world, as voted for by the general public, who will be announced over the Venture Kick website and social media channels over the next month.
After co-managing director, Beat Schillig formally closed the event with the plan for 2027, saying “The recipe is pretty simple and straight forward: We just need to KICK MORE! and KICK BETTER!”, the party section of the evening was kicked off in style by a concert from Relish Swiss premium guitars and a fashion show from Selfnation, the online platform for perfectly fitting clothes.
Venture Kick would like to thank those who came along to celebrate on Wednesday. The team look forward to preparing for our 20 year anniversary with even more kicks given and companies founded!