"Amazing week" for Swiss Venture Leaders in South Africa
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The Swiss South African Venture Leaders program took place in Cape Town and Johannesburg last week with an intense schedule of networking meetings and events. The program's blend brought amazing impact for the participating startups.
The Swiss team met local experts from Invest South Africa, enjoyed industry visits, and took part in sessions with South African startups to support each other on defining local market entry in their respective markets.
The program started with an intense first day of cross-team business development workshops enabling Swiss and South African entrepreneurs to share experience and tips on preparing for their respective markets. In the evening, the startups competed at the Swiss South African Pitch Battle event, which took place at the Consul General's Residence in Cape Town.
The next day brought the team to the Switzerland Global Enterprise 4IR event, followed with meeting with Invest South Africa workshop. The next stop over took place in Johannesburg, including several company visits, one on one meeting and a pitch event at the Ambassador’s residence.
“We’ve seen a great evolution of the program with this second edition of Swiss Venture Leaders to South Africa diving into the South African innovation ecosystems, both in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This time, special emphasis was placed on facilitating business meetings with important stakeholders. The winners’ feedback was overwhelming both regarding the program’s set-up, as well as the contacts they established during the week,” said Dorina Kühner, Programme Manger SSAJRP – International Office at the University of Basel.
On Thursday, the Swiss South African Alumni Entrepreneur Showcase took place at the Ambassador's Residence in Pretoria, where the audience voted for their favorite startup of the evening.
“It was an absolute delight to host the Swiss Venture Leaders team to South Africa for the second time. We are amazed at how quickly the program allowed them to deepen their understanding of the local cultures and markets. This was done through tailored meetings with key contacts in industry, government and civil society that have set an outlook for joint business ventures,” said Helene Budliger Artieda, Switzerland’s ambassador to South Africa.
On Friday, after a final meeting at Invest South Africa, it was already time for the Swiss team to leave Johannesburg, and fly back to Switzerland. They’ll welcome the winning South African startup team in October this year for the return match in the pitch battle and deepen their knowledge in additional business workshops and market analysis training.
“We had an amazing week in South Africa. It was a great experience to be a part of the Swiss Venture Leaders Team. At the end of the week, we found what we were looking for in South Africa. As Hi-D Imaging, we met key opinion leaders and had fruitful discussions with medical companies and clinicians. We hope that we will be able to help as many patients as possible in South Africa,” said Utku Gülan, CEO and co-founder of Hi-D Imaging AG.
In conclusion, the first stage of this program successfully addressed the business challenges that face entrepreneurs in the fields of science, engineering and technology. It achieved its main two goals: firstly, enabling Switzerland’s innovative scientists to transform their high-level, applied research into marketable applications; and secondly helping familiarise them with the South African way of doing business and how to gain access to promising African markets.
The program is part of the Swiss South African joint research project, directed by the University of Basel, in collaboration with the South African Technology and Innovation Agency. It is mandated by Switzerland's State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI and operated by Venturelab. The South Africa program was organized by the Embassy of Switzerland to South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mauritius and Namibia.
