The TOP 100 Investor Summit 2021 connects international investors with promising startups

The fifth TOP 100 Investor Summit was the place to be for entrepreneurs and investors: Selected TOP 100 startups pitched their innovations to Swiss and international investors who were looking for innovations with big potential. The invitation-only event included a spirited exchange of ideas, inspiring presentations, and in-person networking. The TOP 100 Investor Summit 2021 was supported by presenting partners Credit Suisse and the Swiss Venture Club (SVC) and the event partners Kellerhals Carrard and Zühlke.

In 2019 and 2020, just over CHF 2 billion were invested in Swiss startups on an annual basis for the first time. Despite the coronavirus crisis, Swiss startups raised this amount by July 2021 and are heading for an impressive record high. Significantly more than half of this investment volume is attributable to alumni of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups—including wefox’s USD 650 million fundraising round or SOPHiA GENETICS’ IPO on Nasdaq. The annual TOP 100 Investor Summit continues to lay the foundation for many of these success stories. “The TOP 100 Investor Summit is the best fundraising event of the year in Switzerland. It’s an excellent opportunity to strengthen the relations with existing investors and meet new ones. Most of our investors are always there, and every year, we meet someone we haven’t known before. It’s an event not to be missed,” summarized Dr. Danuta Cichocka, co-founder and CEO of TOP 100 Startup Resistell. 



Selected TOP 100 Startups impress an exclusive group of investors 
Handpicked investors with more than CHF 22 billion in venture capital came to the TOP 100 Investor Summit 2021 to listen to startup pitches, meet entrepreneurs, and connect with fellow investors. The goal? Identify the best gems that have what it takes to join Switzerland’s highflying TOP 100 Alumni, such as Climeworks, GetYourGuide, or NBE-Therapeutics. Swiss and international super angels, venture capitalists, corporate investors, and family office representatives from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States participated in the invitation-only Investor Summit 2021. “The TOP 100 Investor Summit was for us, with Credit Suisse being a Presenting Partner of the TOP 100, a great preparation and opportunity to see interesting startups, to meet with investors, and to prepare for the award show in the evening. It is a great setting with interesting content, interesting opportunities to catch up with colleagues, and interesting opportunities to also see potential new investment opportunities showing the great landscape that Switzerland provides in terms of startups,” said Jan Huesler, CEO at Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital. 

A packed schedule to discover the Swiss startup gems 
The quality of the innovations and the expectations of the investors were high, when Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab, welcomed the guests and kicked off the Investor Summit 2021. Nicolas Mosimann, a partner at Kellerhals Carrard, then provided an overview of the Swiss venture capital market and explained framework conditions for startups in Switzerland, including threats and opportunities.
Throughout the morning, 19 TOP 100 Swiss Startup—both early-stage and growth-stage and covering a range of industries, including medtech, biotech, ICT, and engineering—pitched in front of national and international investors and demonstrated the quality and potential of Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem.
Exclusive one-on-one meetings in the afternoon gave entrepreneurs and investors the chance to connect and lay the foundation for fundraising success stories: The co-founders of Planted Foods, this year’s TOP 100 Swiss Startup, met two of their investors at the Investor Summit.“The network at the TOP 100 Investor Summit is next to none in Switzerland, and it has helped us attract great investors for our plant-based revolution—twice,” said Pascal Bieri, co-founder and CEO of Planted Foods.



Getting to the top: What's next for the Swiss startup ecosystem?
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, joined via Zoom), Fabien Jordan (founder and CEO of Astrocast), and Mika Salmi (managing partner Lakestar).



The Swiss startup ecosystem continues to make headlines with growth funding, large rounds, and several IPOs, including Astrocast's listing on Euronext Nordics. For many entrepreneurs and investors in Switzerland, the COVID pandemic was more of a bump in the road than an actual roadblock. The same can be said about startups in Europe, where we have seen an explosion in late-stage funding. Switzerland is not generally known for its late-stage funding successes, so the TOP 100 Investor Summit panel discussion centered around the critical question of whether the Swiss startup ecosystem is competitive enough for the next level: the growth stage. We collected some quotes from the TOP 100 Investor Panel and edited them for length and clarity. 

On the status and pace of Switzerland’s startup funding 
Mika (Lakestar): “We are just getting started. In the past, when people had an idea, they moved to where the capital or the talent was. This is changing fast. There is an ecosystem in Europe now, and there have been 200 unicorns from 55 different European cities. The countries have developed local talent and capital pools in the last three to five years. The international VCs are coming, and the playing field is more leveled. This is a start, but it will take time.” 

Patrick (Zühlke): “I am optimistic. If you look at the number of new funds coming out of Switzerland, it’s tremendous! It’s a literal wave of new capital, and yes, we are just getting started. I observe general decentralization of teams and funding across geographies. As a small country, we have to be internationally minded.”

Fabien (Astrocast): “I have a very specific perspective because Astrocast is the first space company based in Switzerland. It has been hard since the beginning. Nobody would support our crazy idea, and our main support came from private investors, even in later rounds. We were surprised not to receive more support from big VCs. However, we took it step by step and million by million. Once the tech was complete and in orbit, it got easier to get leads, but it was still hard to get money from Swiss entities.” 

On Switzerland’s weaknesses and opportunities 
Mika: “We lack home-grown growth capital. We have angel investors and Seed and early-stage funds, but there is little growth capital. At the same time, a lot of companies in Europe are reaching the growth phase, and growth found have become bigger—rounds that were EUR 50 million a few years ago have doubled. So, the US has been filling this gap; there is a big opportunity for growth investors in Europe.”

Patrick: “Historically, we saw some risk aversion here in Switzerland, but now, if you do not take risks, you will miss out. The competition for investors is high: There are multiple term sheets, for example. Companies see who fits best and brings know-how and capital.” 



Find out what investors have to say about the TOP 100 Swiss Investor Summit 2021:

The TOP 100 Investor Summit 2021 was supported by presenting partners Credit Suisse and the Swiss Venture Club (SVC) and the investor summit event partners Kellerhals Carrard and Zühlke.