International investors meet Swiss startup founders at the TOP 100 Swiss Investor Summit 2020

For the fourth time, Swiss and international investors and founders of some of the best Swiss startups met for the TOP 100 Swiss Investor Summit. The event was held in person and online so that international investors did not have to worry about travel restrictions to discover the great potential of Swiss deeptech startups. The invitation-only event included a spirited exchange of ideas, intense pitching sessions, and socially distanced networking.

Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab, welcomed the guests and kicked off the Investor Summit 2020 before Karim Maizar, Head of Startup Desk and Partner at Kellerhals Carrard, provided an overview of the Swiss startup market and discussed some of the effects of COVID-19 on investments. 



Fifteen of the best Swiss startups—both early-stage and growth-stage and covering a range of industries, including medtech, biotech, ICT, and engineering—pitched in front of investors from 15 countries and showed off the breadth of Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem.  



Panel discussion: Strong innovations that need more courage to grow
After the networking lunch, the investors and founders gathered for a panel discussion that was led by Jordi Montserrat, managing partner Venturelab and included panelists Patrick Griss (Executive Partner Zühlke Ventures), Ulrich Geilinger (Senior Partner HBM Partner), and Nicolas Brand (Partner Lakestar). With the audience wearing masks and observing social distancing, the effects of COVID-19 on investments and fundraising was the ideal starting point for the discussion. After more than half year into the new normal, it has become clear that despite the pandemic—and its winners, losers, and opportunities to accelerate innovation—business will ultimately move forward. The panelists made the point that the pandemic illustrates the importance of not only technology and innovation but also purpose, as investors are more and more interested in supporting companies with a clear vision. They also emphasized that even though there are still are many challenges to address, the progress over the past 10 years is very impressive, and the crisis shows the resilience of the funding scene.

This resulting optimistic outlook laid the foundation for a more detailed analysis of the startup ecosystem: Swiss startups and investors are strong when it comes to seed and early investments, but there is still a critical mass of “risk-taking investors” at the first level of growth investments missing. The speed of development, including the challenges of finding the right talent with the necessary experience to scale operations faster and more internationally, remains a challenge. The panel also encouraged startups to think more long term when building relationships with investors: Raising funds is about building long-term relations; it is not a transactional event, happening from time to time. Investors, on the other hand, should take some of the courage and enthusiasm from the seed rounds into growth rounds so that Switzerland can achieve its full innovative potential.



Leading the way are TOP 100 startups that continue to prove that they have the expertise and network to raise large growth rounds: Earlier this month, Climeworks raised CHF 100 million—making it the largest ever investment into direct air capture, and in May, Scandit raised USD 80 million.  

Watch Venturelab founder Beat Schillig's interview with SRF Börse: 




Watch what investors have to say about the TOP 100 Swiss Investor Summit 2020: 






The TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award 2020's Investor Summit was supported by presenting partners—Credit Suisse, SVC, Swiss Prime Site, SECA, and digitalswitzerland—and the investor summit event partners Kellerhals Carrard, Zühlke, SinoSwiss Holding, and Amazon Web Services (AWS).