Swiss Healthtech Ecosystem Map

Executive Summary

Investors are the largest group of players, with a variety of funding options available across all startup phases. We identified 126 funding rounds (excl. grants) in Switzerland in the healthtech space in 2022, with over CHF 935 million invested in 102 reported rounds. Additionally, we found that 65 Swiss startups had an exit over the past three years. Our analysis also revealed a surprisingly strong presence of venture studios, with 26 identified in Switzerland and 16 with activities in the healthtech sector. However, only 5 would be considered a venture studio in a more traditional definition. The map illustrates that most players have a commercial interest and financial impact. Incubators and grants cover the social aspects of supporting new companies. We hope to see more operational support for founders in the future. The venture studio model is gaining popularity with more and more players, and it proves its efficacy with impressive success rates. A common believe is that this is due to the professional execution, which reduces operational risks and increase success chances. However, most venture studios remain closed communities, unlike KAPSLY Ventures and its partners, which are also on the map. We also found a large number of service providers, incubators/accelerators, and communities that are highly valuable to the sector, as well as 11 grants relevant for the health vertical. However, it's worth noting that our research only included providers that have a direct affiliation with the healthtech sector or provide additional value for startups, and we didn't include general options and state-funded possibilities.

Investors and Acquirers

Investors are by far the largest group of players in Switzerland. A positive sign is that we identified investors across all startup phases, from early-stage, over growth funding to private equity and buyout funds. We found that most Investors specialise on financing only, whereas we found 22 to be fit the category of acquirers. In 2022 Crunchbase recorded 199 funding rounds in Switzerland in the healthtech space (incl. Pre-Seed to Series E, Grants, Convertible Loans, Venture Debt). In 161 reported funding rounds over CHF 980 million has been invested. In the pre-seed and seed phase only 53 funding rounds have been recorded. Over the past three years (2020-2022), we identified 65 Swiss startups that had an exit. Out of these, 14 acquisitions happened within Switzerland, 9 startups have been sold to German companies and 23 have been sold to U.S.-based companies. Swiss companies acquired 84 healthtech companies (incl. pharma, 56 without pharmaceuticals), which is a large amount compared to 378 total acquisitions by Swiss companies. This could imply that Switzerland is an attractive exit market and has room for more healthtech acquisitions within the country. Swiss companies acquired 9 German companies and 37 U.S.-based companies. Hence there seems to be an equilibrium between bought and sold companies to other countries.

Venture Studios

We encountered 16 venture studios in Switzerland, of which we identified 16 to fit the category healthtech Venture Studio. We further came to understand this category as the most fluent of all in a business sense, as their focus, services and expertise vary greatly, creating various overlaps into other fields.

Service Providers

Out of the hundreds of specialists in the health tech sector, we found 26 to have a special knack for startups in particular. Generally, the healthtech sector, specialists up to large corporations, are openminded towards assisting healthtech innovation, even if they do not specifically specialise in supporting startups. We found this to be a very positive sentiment in the market overall.

Incubators/Accelerators

Out of the growing incubator and accelerator ecosystem in Switzerland that are predominantly agnostic regarding their vertical, we found 14 to offer specific knowledge in the health tech sector. Therefore, general options as well as state funded possibilities such as Innosuisse were not included.

Communities

Among the many founder-focused networks, we identified 15 communities that are highly valuable to the sector, with several groups and platforms offering a variety of services. We did not include Newsletter / Telegram / Facebook / Twitter groups, and also excluded University affiliated groups such as alumni chapters and science related interest groups.

Grants

We found 11 grants that we considered worth mentioning for the health vertical so far. There are a variety of vertical agnostic grants, which are open for innovation in health as well. However, having no in depth knowledge about medical technologies and industry processes, we excluded the majority of founder oriented grants.

Download the map here.