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SAAM recap of year 2022
After a very interesting year 2022 there are a lot more activities planned in 2023.
What’s planned for the year 2023:
1. EU project Ultimo:
SAAM is participating in one of the biggest EU-projects called Ultimo (more information here). Ultimo will focus on scaling deployments in three locations across Europe (Geneva, Munich, Olslo), with 15 vehicles per location. The aim is to operate without a safety driver on board, in fully automated mode (SAE Level 4).
2. AV-friendly road law texts will be finalized with SAAM's support:
With the support of our president Hans Wicki and our board member Thomas Probst, we have become an important partner in the process of adapting the law. Astra recognizes SAAM as a center of excellence in the context of automated driving (more Information here).
3. Innosuisse Flagship program:
14 organizations from SAAM are preparing a pre-proposal to be submitted by the end of January.
Stay tuned, as 2023 will reveal more exciting autonomous mobility advancements!
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The KAPSLY Healthtech Ecosystem Map shows the most relevant and active players in the Swiss Healthtech market. The four corners indicate the commercial or social interests of the players and the operational or financial impact they have on the startups. All players have a location in Switzerland and contribute to a better startup ecosystem. Initiatives by Universities are not listed.
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.
News
Zurich/Basel – Bell Food Group has invested in vertical farming start-up Yasai. Bell Food CEO Lorenz Wyss will also become a member of the Board of Directors, as will the second new investor Theo Stolze. He is a former shareholder of the Stolze Group, which specializes in technical solutions for greenhouse systems.
The Basel-based Bell Food Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Yasai's convertible bond through its subsidiary Eisberg. Eisberg is already its nationwide distributor, according to a media release from Yasai . The capital is intended to support the Zurich-based start-up, which was founded in 2020, in its growth goals.
Yasai also announced that the food company's CEO, Lorenz Wyss, has joined its board of directors as part of this investment. "With Mr. Wyss as an industry expert and Bell Food Group as a new investor, YASAI's position in the market will be further strengthened," the statement said.
The second new member of the Board of Directors, Theo Stolze, brings specialist expertise in new agricultural technologies. Stolze has also reportedly invested in the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He was a shareholder of the Dutch Stolze Group for 30 years and led the company, which specializes in technical solutions for greenhouse systems, to success as export director.
In the coming years, Yasai reportedly plans to increase its production capacity tenfold. The construction of two more industrial farms is already planned, he said. In addition, one of the largest vertical farming projects in Switzerland is to be built in the new Lymhof development in Schlieren ZH from 2026. Then Yasai wants to supply the local population not only with herbs grown without pesticides, but also, together with its partners, with leaf lettuce and other fresh vegetables. mm, Café Europe
Voices
Dr Niowi Näf is Head of Corporate Development & Innovation at Hirslanden and an expert in strategic business processes. In the video, Niowi explains how important collaborations with start-ups and research groups are for Hirslanden, what is behind the new Compassana healthcare ecosystem and how Zurich is performing in the field of digital health.
Voices
We asked Thomas Gemperle from Scewo, Mike Niekerk from Benchling and Angela Beckenbauer from ZHAW how they can benefit from Innovation Zurich.
Voices
Erik Wilhelm is Head of Research at KYBURZ Switzerland and part of the company network Autonomous Systems with Ground Contact. This company network aims to bring innovative companies from the Canton of Zurich and surrounding cantons closer together and provide opportunities for cross-company learning.
News
Web3/Web 3.0 projects are booming. The third generation of web technologies relies heavily on decentralized applications and makes extensive use of blockchain-based technologies.
Many of these projects could also be carried out with proven standard technologies (e.g., with conventional databases) and do not create any significant added value beyond that. This is one of the reasons for the current crypto winter, which separates the wheat from the chaff. Our event on February 1, 2023 will therefore deal with the actual possibilities of Web3: Do they generate progress? Are they changing the value chains of the future?
An event by Digital-Shift in collaboration with the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) at ZHdK.
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GLUG23 is a two-day event consisting of a mix of marketplace, forum, and networking event for exhibitors and visitors. A highlight is the Brewers Challenge with tasting.
GLUG23 is THE event for producers, distributors and service providers along the entire value chain of Swiss beer and beverage production:
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The main activity of the SAOG group is organising the annual SAOG Meeting – a one day symposium covering newest developments in the field of surface, interface and nanoscale sciences.
Distinguished invited speakers (with four nobelists so far) and contributed oral and poster presentations by young representatives from the field characterize the SAOG meeting.
Beyond oral presentations, the exhibition by manufacturers of technical equipment and the poster session during lunch and coffee breaks are special highlights of our meeting.
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We are happy to inform you that the Swiss FinTech Awards 2023 just launched and startups can apply again for the most important award in the industry. Your start-up benefits of the awards’ power to boost your team and business to the next level with the help of our strong fintech, finance and innovation ecosystem. Startups will meet great people and potential clients, get valuable exposure and one of them will even win a sweet prize money on top! All of that completely for free. So what are you waiting for? Apply today.
Startups will experience a great awards program and they will grow in the process. We put ROI first:
Startup applications are reviewed by 20 potential investors, clients, business partners and thought leaders of our renowned jury.
Top 10 start-ups benefit from one-to-one workshops with experts in legal, marketing, scaling, business models and more.
The top 10 gets exclusive networking opportunities with fintech leaders, influencers, journalists and decision makers at closed-door-events.
The top 10 receives media exposure in publications like “Finanz und Wirtschaft”, “FinTech News”, “Startupticker” etc.
Finalists can pitch at the most influential fintech conference of Switzerland hosted by the newspaper “Finanz und Wirtschaft”.
Early stage start-ups can win a sweet five-figure prize money.
All fintech start-ups with a Swiss connection are eligible. This can include, for example Swiss founders (active in Switzerland and/or abroad) or start-ups with a Swiss head office. We group the applicants in early stage and growth stage start-ups so that young as well as more mature start-ups have a fair chance at winning the important award in their category. The awards are open to a broad range of fintech categories (all sorts of B2B offerings for banks and insurances, B2C finance / fintech products and also crypto, DeFi and other financial blockchain applications, etc.).
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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 first step to their global expansion. The Venture Leaders’ startup development program is specifically structured to help them achieve these goals. This intense journey offers 10 selected entrepreneurs an accelerated learning curve and a solid network through their exchanges with their peers in the team, as well as market exposure, feedback from investors and experts, and hands-on business development.
Do you belong to the top software startups (AI, ML, computer vision, cloud and security solutions) in Switzerland and want to boost your future? Then apply to be one of the 10 members of the Swiss National Startup Team the Venture Leaders Technology 2023 for a rocking week in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley refers to both a geographic region, but also on the most dynamic entrepreneurship ecosystems in the US. Don’t miss the opportunity!
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Launch an initiative to boost radical innovation.
With your Innovation Booster, you will run a thematic open innovation initiative whose activities support knowledge transfer and collaboration to generate new, radical ideas. Instead of just trying to improve existing innovations incrementally, you will help your participants gain a deeper understanding of problems and find radical innovation ideas that try to solve a user problem in a novel way.
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With a gross value added of CHF 29.9 billion and 97,300 full-time jobs, the Zurich financial center is a major pillar of the Zurich economy and the largest financial center in Switzerland. Sustainable business practices are becoming increasingly important for companies in all sectors. Drivers for this are international sustainability goals, but also changing customer needs. Due to its importance for the Swiss financial center, the Zurich financial center has a key role to play in this development. Every second financial company also sees sustainable finance as an opportunity to strengthen its reputation and to win and retain customers. This is shown in the new study “Financial Center Zurich 2023/2024” by the Cantonal Division of Business and Economic Development and Zurich Urban Development.
The financial sector, which includes banks, insurance companies and other financial services, is one of the most important industry aggregates in the Zurich region. One in ten jobs and one in six value-added francs would be attributable to the financial sector in 2021. The real gross value added of the financial sector developed more dynamically overall than that of the economy as a whole between 2011 and 2021, especially also in the pandemic years 2020 and 2021. This is shown in the new study "Financial Center Zurich 2023/2024" by the Division of Business and Economic Development of the Canton Zurich and the Urban Development Department of the City of Zurich. Despite the currently very challenging geopolitical and economic environment, the overall growth outlook for the financial sector is positive.
Sustainable management is increasingly becoming the focus of companies. Drivers of this development include the Paris climate targets, the UN sustainability goals, legal framework conditions, but also changing customer needs. Sustainable financial products and services are increasingly in demand. The Federal Council has recognized the importance and potential of sustainable finance and in December defined several measures with the aim of further expanding the position of the Swiss financial center as one of the world's leading locations for sustainable financial services. The Zurich financial center plays a key role due to its importance for the Swiss financial center. This study examined how progressive the Zurich financial center is in terms of sustainability. The results of the survey show that numerous companies already offer products and services with innovative sustainable approaches. These include investment products with specific sustainability objectives, ESG-compliant activities, sustainable bonds or sustainable loans, insurance or services.
However, companies also face challenges, according to the survey. This includes the increasingly complex political and regulatory framework imposed by the federal government and the EU. The increasingly required transparency of climate risks and sustainability measures is also seen as challenging by 40 percent of companies. The survey participants see the greatest potential for improvement in networking with science and other companies, as well as in legal and regulatory issues.
The consistent focus on sustainability is an opportunity for the Zurich financial center and the entire Zurich business location. This is also in the interest of the companies surveyed: Every second company sees sustainable finance as an opportunity to strengthen its reputation and win and retain customers. However, the great development potential of sustainable finance must be exploited to an even greater extent. This includes, for example, the systematic disclosure of relevant and comparable climate information from companies and for investments in such companies.
The Canton and City of Zurich are committed to promoting Sustainable Finance in the Zurich financial center, anchoring it more firmly and enabling an attractive environment. The Canton of Zurich and the City of Zurich will continue to pursue this topic with the aim of deepening the dialog between the financial industry, business and academia. This is done, for example, by networking and making visible the players from the financial industry and the cleantech industry on the Innovation Zurich platform of the cantonal location promotion, but also through a regular exchange within the framework of workshops and conferences as well as further data collection.
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Zurich ranked as one of the best global hubs on the Science Clusters rank! Zurich ranks as the 9th Science Cluster globally, and 5th in Europe in Dealroom.co’s startup ecosystem benchmarking.
The coming years will be dominated by radical innovation and a need for tech ecosystems that can bring together entrepreneurship, patient capital, deep R&D, and science. A new report has uncovered the next generation of startup cities in the world, according to startup intelligence platform Dealroom.co. “The next generation of tech ecosystems” report is a data-driven analysis using novel methodology for ecosystem benchmarking. Rather than measuring a status quo, this set of actionable benchmarks is meant as a tool to help ecosystems understand and measure their maturity and preparedness for the future.
There are now 168 cities worldwide that have produced at least one unicorn - a startup valued at over $1 billion. In 2010 this number was just 12. In addition to the 168, the analysis also includes 33 cities that have had at least $100M in funding and a minimum 50 startup investment rounds since 2017, creating a full picture of both historically leading, and newly emerging tech ecosystems.
The report is the conclusion of a data-driven analysis with a one of a kind transparent framework to benchmark and measure ecosystems globally. Each of the hubs are benchmarked against three lenses: Trailblazers, Science Hubs, Rising Stars. The benchmarking of 201 global cities incorporates factors such as prior startup success rates, venture capital investment raised by a city’s startups at different stages of their growth journey, the entrepreneurial output of universities, and patent filings - the first time these datasets have been combined.
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In the current energy discussion, electric vehicles are also increasingly becoming the focus of public attention. But what about the knowledge of the Swiss people about this topic? What is clear is that the demand for plug-in vehicles continues to grow. But a study by the ZHAW School of Management and Law shows that despite this demand, there is still a great need for education on the subject of electromobility.
Electromobility is currently one of the central pacesetters in the automotive industry. All the relevant brands are working flat out to electrify their product ranges, and by the end of 2035 a large proportion of them want to dispense entirely with vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. On the customer side, electromobility is also steadily gaining momentum: At the end of October 2022, plug-in vehicles (electric vehicles and plug-in vehicles) already accounted for 24.4 percent of all new registrations.
One of the central challenges in the field of electromobility is the (still) insufficient know-how on the part of consumers. This is a challenge not only for importers and garages, but also for consumers who need to build up the necessary knowledge. In order to gain a clear picture from the consumer's perspective of their knowledge regarding electromobility and the relevant purchase decision criteria, the Institute of Information Systems at the School of Management and Law conducted a survey in Switzerland. Under the direction of Dr. Andreas Block in cooperation with AGVS, a total of 383 people were surveyed in writing in July 2022.
The respondents began by assessing their own level of knowledge of electromobility: 26.6 percent rated their knowledge as "high" or "rather high," another 39.7 percent as "average" and 33.7 percent as "rather low" or "low. It is interesting to note that men rated their knowledge significantly higher than women: 37.8 percent rate their knowledge as "high" or "rather high," while the corresponding figure for women is 16.2 percent.
The study also looks at what the decisive criteria are for buying an electric vehicle. Dr. Andreas Block says: "What is striking here is that the rational aspects tend to be weighted higher. The three most important decision criteria are the life expectancy of the battery, the service life of the vehicle and the vehicle quality. The emotional criteria such as, brand characteristics and prestige contribute far less than thought to the purchase decision of an electric vehicle.
Car manufacturers are called upon to anchor the actual price level of the vehicle range in the minds of consumers through targeted communication. In addition to the pure product information, clear example calculations on charging costs and times help. For comprehensive advice in the garage, the sales staff necessarily need the necessary knowledge themselves first. The AGVS can provide support in building up knowledge, e.g. by offering additional courses on electromobility for employees of garages or related service providers. "The state should also proactively provide more consistent information about the public charging infrastructure and its utilization rates through a wide variety of communication channels," concludes Dr. Andreas Block.