Coronavirus survey: 70% of Swiss startups do not benefit from bridging loans

31.03.2020 08:01, Stefan Steiner

The Federal Council acted quickly in the corona crisis and provided liquidity assistance totaling CHF 20 billion for Swiss SMEs. This is definitely worthy of praise. Unfortunately, this package of measures has forgotten about Swiss startups. The majority of Swiss high-tech startups do not yet have any relevant turnover or, in the case of research-intensive life-sciences startups, none at all and are therefore not eligible for COVID-19 bank loans for SMEs. Spin-offs from ETH Zurich or EPF Lausanne, where about two-thirds of the best Swiss start-ups come from, spend several years researching their future-oriented technologies in the fields of engineering, medical technology or biotechnology before they can even bring a product to market.

A survey of 660 Swiss startups conducted by Venturelab last week shows that 70% of the startups with the current measure of turnover cannot benefit from the aid package. A dramatic loss of innovation built up and promoted over the last few years and thus the next generation of successful Swiss companies and future-oriented jobs is imminent. The surveyed startups alone represent around 5,710 jobs. 


We call for an amendment to the Solidarity Guarantee Ordinance: Article 7 should be amended to the extent that innovative companies with no or very low turnover should also be included. The aim is not an extra train for startups, but a solution in line with the federal government's measures for all other Swiss SMEs. The same implementation as the standard loan for healthy SMEs. Affected companies should quickly and easily receive loan amounts of up to 10% of turnover, in addition to the amounts previously invested in the startup (prize money from startup competitions, Innosuisse projects, support contributions from foundations, convertible loans, investor money) or a maximum of CHF 20 million.


With this small addition, the enormous investments made by the entire startup ecosystem (founders, universities, Innosuisse, foundations, funding organisations, investors) over the last 10 years can be protected and we can ensure that Switzerland remains the world champion in innovation and that we can play in the High-Tech Champions League.

Further information:

• Discover the detailed coronavirus survey
• Proposal to include startups to bank loans
• Coronavirus landing page with more recommendations

Spread the news:
Many founders have asked how they could help us. Please show your support in liking our posts and add your inputs and experiences as comments. The more visibility we get the more power we will have to support the Swiss startup ecosystem in this crisis:

• Linkedin
• Twitter