Venture Kick wins Swiss Biotech Success Stories Award
24.09.2020
Each year, the Swiss Biotech Association awards companies or individuals with the Swiss Biotech Success Stories Awards to recognize outstanding achievements. Venture Kick received the award in 2020—alongside Venturelab, >>venture>>, Actelion, Debiopharm, Helsinn, and Nobel Prize winner Professor Werner Arber.
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Since its launch in 2007, the philanthropic initiative Venture Kick has pursued its vision doubling the number of spin-offs at Swiss universities, accelerating the time to market, and increasing the attractiveness of these young companies to professional investors. In 2020, Venture Kick introduced Venture Kick Life Science for biotech and medtech startups. This new track strengthens Switzerland’s position as Europe’s life sciences hub and leverages the support, network, and visibility for life sciences projects.
“The Venture Kick team is very honored to receive this prestigious award. After thirteen years, we still feel that even the most talented researchers of Switzerland appreciate our kicking when it comes to commercializing their innovations and attracting investors. This is also reflected in the strong growth of quality applications that we are counting every year. And it confirms that Switzerland’s cluster of life sciences startups continues to rank among the global elite,” said Beat Schillig, co-managing director of Venture Kick.
The multi-faceted support offered by Venture Kick has a demonstrable impact and generates huge leverage. Since 2007, Venture Kick has supported 91 startups in the biotech sector with CHF 4,470,000 of funding. These early-stage projects converted into 60 biotech companies that raised more than CHF 1.1 billion from investors and created 600 jobs.
“Venture Kick is an incredibly rich experience when starting your own business. Most science startups originate in laboratories, and the founders have little exposure to the business world. The team at Venture Kick helped us to develop a solid business case around our technology, and we were taught the initial set of tools to first approach investors and customers while avoiding common early mistakes. We believe that startups that go through this program will be a few steps ahead of those who decide not to try Venture Kick,” explains Dr. Benedikt Wanner, CEO and co-founder of Synple Chem AG, an ETH spin-off and Venture Kick winner in 2016.
How Venture Kicks supports early-stage startups
In 2020, Venture Kick will pay out CHF 5 million to idea-stage startup projects to bring Swiss science to global markets. With its nine-month kick-start process, Venture Kick supports young entrepreneurs with high-potential business ideas on their journey from science to market. The Venture Kick Foundation identifies, structures, and promotes promising businesses with a unique approach, including a three-stage pitch process where Swiss startups can win up to CHF 150,000 in seed funding, get direct feedback, and gain access to an international network of successful entrepreneurs and investors. The focus on business development and the tightly structured program enable the entrepreneurs to thrive and develop.
The program’s combination of financial support, training, and networking has led to the creation of 519 companies and 7,000 jobs. Venture Kick alumni companies have attracted a total of CHF 3.5 billion of funds. In 2020, more than half of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups were Venture Kick winners.
The Venture Kick Foundation is supported by 11 private partners, foundations, private individuals and corporations that all share the same vision of supporting the next generation of successful entrepreneurs for the prosperity of Switzerland’s economy and society: Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Hauser-Stiftung, André Hoffmann, Hansjörg Wyss, Martin Haefner, Igor Fisch, Fondation Pro Techno, ESA BIC Switzerland, Engagement Migros and Swisscom.
“The Venture Kick team is very honored to receive this prestigious award. After thirteen years, we still feel that even the most talented researchers of Switzerland appreciate our kicking when it comes to commercializing their innovations and attracting investors. This is also reflected in the strong growth of quality applications that we are counting every year. And it confirms that Switzerland’s cluster of life sciences startups continues to rank among the global elite,” said Beat Schillig, co-managing director of Venture Kick.
The multi-faceted support offered by Venture Kick has a demonstrable impact and generates huge leverage. Since 2007, Venture Kick has supported 91 startups in the biotech sector with CHF 4,470,000 of funding. These early-stage projects converted into 60 biotech companies that raised more than CHF 1.1 billion from investors and created 600 jobs.
“Venture Kick is an incredibly rich experience when starting your own business. Most science startups originate in laboratories, and the founders have little exposure to the business world. The team at Venture Kick helped us to develop a solid business case around our technology, and we were taught the initial set of tools to first approach investors and customers while avoiding common early mistakes. We believe that startups that go through this program will be a few steps ahead of those who decide not to try Venture Kick,” explains Dr. Benedikt Wanner, CEO and co-founder of Synple Chem AG, an ETH spin-off and Venture Kick winner in 2016.
How Venture Kicks supports early-stage startups
In 2020, Venture Kick will pay out CHF 5 million to idea-stage startup projects to bring Swiss science to global markets. With its nine-month kick-start process, Venture Kick supports young entrepreneurs with high-potential business ideas on their journey from science to market. The Venture Kick Foundation identifies, structures, and promotes promising businesses with a unique approach, including a three-stage pitch process where Swiss startups can win up to CHF 150,000 in seed funding, get direct feedback, and gain access to an international network of successful entrepreneurs and investors. The focus on business development and the tightly structured program enable the entrepreneurs to thrive and develop.
The program’s combination of financial support, training, and networking has led to the creation of 519 companies and 7,000 jobs. Venture Kick alumni companies have attracted a total of CHF 3.5 billion of funds. In 2020, more than half of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups were Venture Kick winners.
The Venture Kick Foundation is supported by 11 private partners, foundations, private individuals and corporations that all share the same vision of supporting the next generation of successful entrepreneurs for the prosperity of Switzerland’s economy and society: Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Hauser-Stiftung, André Hoffmann, Hansjörg Wyss, Martin Haefner, Igor Fisch, Fondation Pro Techno, ESA BIC Switzerland, Engagement Migros and Swisscom.