Venture Leaders Technology: Swiss Deep Tech Startups Impress Silicon Valley Investors
scroll south
The Venture Leaders - the members of the Swiss National Startup Team - have a clear-cut goal. They envision themselves as global players and want to take the next step towards international expansion. The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow 2019 brought ten selected startups to Silicon Valley, so the Swiss startups could benefit from an accelerated learning curve and strengthen their entrepreneurial network through exchanges with their peers in the team, as well as market exposure, pitch sessions with investors and experts, and hands-on business development.
For the past 18 years, Swiss National Startup Teams have traveled to Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, China and Barcelona diving into the exciting, entrepreneurial scenes at each thriving startup-hub, and helped more than 360 founders achieve their visions for internationalization. The list includes many of Switzerland’s best startups in business today, such as Bestmile, Flyability, GetYourGuide, and L.E.S.S.
Alumni-successes also caught the eye of global players, triggering the acquisitions of Lemoptix and Composyt Light Labs, Faceshift, HouseTrip, Kooaba, Dacuda and last year’s participant Fashwell.
The ten deep tech startups who made the cut this year were chosen from more than 130 applicants, by a jury of professional investors and experts. The companies covered a broad spectrum of technology, ranging from agtech and contech, to quantum technologies and the internet of things.
.png)
Swiss deep tech impresses Silicon Valley investors
The week-long roadshow in and around San Francisco included pitch sessions with some of the Valley’s most-established firms and famous names: VCs such as New Enterprise Associates (who just raised a $3.6 billion fund), Bessemer Venture Partners (the 108-year old firm with over $5 billion in assets under management) and Rothschild Global Advisory.
The Swiss National Startup Team 2019 impressed investors with their deep tech solutions. After this roadshow Mathieu Munsch from Qnami is convinced about the potential to build a truly global quantum startup from Switzerland “While startups and venture capital in the U.S. have a long-standing history of setting-up world-class businesses, there is no reason not to do it from Switzerland. Deep tech in Switzerland is strong and can be backed locally with excellent return on investment.”
Fueled by Silicon Valley’s drive to understand the changes affecting the world around us, the roadshow created roadmaps and visions to shape the future.
"The key lessons from the Venture Leaders Technology tour were how to present our business case to U.S.-investors, as well as the main points to address at your first meetings. I also got extremely useful feedback on how to strengthen our business case and valuable advice on business development from the supporter team," says AgroSustain co-founder and CEO Olga Dubey. Agnes Petit from construction startup Mobbot summarized the feedback gained as "talk to customers as early as possible, sell first products fast and have a bold, long-term vision."
The Swiss National Startup Team pitched before an audience of 120 Bay Area guests at swissnex San Francisco. The Swiss Startup Night, showcasing Switzerland as a deep tech nation, was judged by Lea von Bidder, co-founder of Ava Women (a startup that participated in Venture Leaders USA and Venture Leaders China) and investor Philipp Stauffer from Fyrfly.
And the winner of the #VLeadersTech #SwissStartups Night Pitch Battle is... @9TLabs! Congratulations ???? pic.twitter.com/AeTziLjVX0
— swissnex San Francisco (@swissnexSF) March 28, 2019
Beat Schillig, founder and President of Venturelab summarized the roadshow as follow "Switzerland can be proud of the Swiss National Startup Team. The Venture Leaders 2019 nailed it in the Valley!"
"I thoroughly enjoyed the positive vibes in the Valley, and the determination of our amazing Swiss National Startup Team," said Alessandro Ofner of Microcaps. "I've finished the roadshow with many great connections to VCs, private investors, and potential clients."
The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow 2019 to Silicon Valley was supported by Rothschild & Co Bank, Kellerhals Carrard, DPD, Swisscom, Canton de Vaud, EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich.
.jpg)
"I thoroughly enjoyed the positive vibes in the Valley, and the determination of our amazing Swiss National Startup Team," said Alessandro Ofner of Microcaps. "I've finished the roadshow with many great connections to VCs, private investors, and potential clients."
The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow 2019 to Silicon Valley was supported by Rothschild & Co Bank, Kellerhals Carrard, DPD, Swisscom, Canton de Vaud, EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich.
