10 VCs in Switzerland to Watch in 2024
Traditionally, venture capital has not been Switzerland’s strong suite.
In a country better known for wealth management than wealth creation, the inherent risk-taking of startups and new ventures runs against the general Swiss attitude.
However, over the last two decades, Switzerland has produced a handful of forward-thinking investment firms. The best have big wins to their name. Others are aiming high.
After a sharp downturn in venture funding magnified by a covid-induced high, these are the names in Swiss venture capital to keep an eye on in 2024.
Swisscom Ventures
Founded in 2007, Swisscom Ventures is the venture capital arm of Swisscom AG, Switzerland’s original telecom giant. With such a dominant market position - at least historically - the firm has plenty of capital to deploy (nearly $500 million across 3 funds) and has built a diverse portfolio over 140 investments with 46 exits under its belt. Its latest exit was Avrios in 2023. Swisscom Ventures is lead by Dominique Mégret.
Founderful
Formerly known as Wingman Ventures, Founderful has focused on becoming one of the most founder-friendly early-stage VC in Switzerland since its founding in 2018. The firm was founded by Pascal Mathis, Alex Stöckli and Lukas Weder, all of whom remain active in the company today.
Founderful has made 58 investments according to Crunchbase, taking the lead in almost 30 of them. With its rebranding in February 2024, Founderful aims to raise a second fund with a target of $120 million.
Redalpine
Founded in 2007, Redalpine is unique among these top Swiss VCs for the number of funds in its firm - six. The company invests from seed up to Series C based on its track record - and has over 170 investments under its belt - with more than 50 of them as a lead investor.
Exits include its latest - Lunaphore - as well as Enway, Versantis, LemonOne, and Finiata, all in 2022. Its most recent investments are Dropz, InfiniteRoots and LegalFly. Redalpine was founded by Peter Niederhauser and Michael Sidler.
Lakestar founder Klaus Hommels
Lakestar
Founded by Klaus Hommels in 2012, Lakestar is truly one of Switzerland and Europe’s leading venture capital firms. With over a billion in capital deployed across its diverse portfolio of more than 200 investments, Lakestar has made a strong name for itself. Its most recent exits include Cadre, Welcome and CrossLend.
Its latest investments include Colossyan and Blockchain.com - the later of which gave partner Nicolas Brand a seat on its board of directors. The Lakestar advisory board includes such prominent names as Matteo Renzi, former prime minister of Italy and Thomas Burbel, CEO of AXA.
Who else should you know in Switzerland?
Get “behind-the-scenes” insights on Swiss business - with profiles, news and analysis on The Swiss Insider.
FiveT Fintech
Founded in 2006 FiveT Group encompasses multiple verticals, of which venture capital is one. The FiveT Fintech fund - formerly known as Avaoloq Ventures - has made more than 20 investments, including two recent exits (Metaco to Ripple and assetmax to Infront.)
Other recent investments include RULEMATCH, Numarics and yeekatee. The fund has been backed by Avaloq founder Francisco Fernandez and is led by Alexadner Christen (CEO) and Daniel Curiger (Managing Partner).
btventure founder Florian Schweitzer
b2venture (formerly btov partners)
With a history dating back to 2000 when it was founded as an angel network, b2venture is one of Europe's leading venture capital firms. Its focus is pre-seed and seed stage investments some of which include Raisin, DeepL, Sumup, Ledgy and more.
The St Gallen-based company has a track record that is backed up by the numbers it has accumulated: 361 investments, 129 exits. The company is lead by founding partner Florian Schweitzer, CFO Sven Eppert and partners Jochen Gutbrod, Christian Schütz among others.
Steffen Wagner and Lukas Weber of Verve Ventures
Verve Ventures
Since 2010, Verve Ventures (previously known as Investiere) has become a key player in the Swiss VC landscape with over 270 investments and more than 3 dozen exits. The firm’s broad portfolio focused on tech, health and bio, climate/energy and industrial tech includes Wefox, Transmutex, Tozero and Groover.
Verve Ventures was founded by Lukas Weber and Steffan Wagner. Its board includes former Zürcher Kantonalbank CEO Martin Scholl as well as Ralph Zurkinden and Heinz Kunz.
Novartis Venture Fund
The Novartis Venture Fund has been a leader among corporate venture capital firms in Switzerland since its founding in 1996. With more than 250 investments spread across 3 funds and rangning from seed to later rounds, the Novartis Venture Fund has pumped $750 million into the life sciences and bio/pharma industry over its lifetime.
It currently had 40 portfolio companies and its latest investments include Enterprise Therapeutics (Series B), Avarax (Series B) and AstrauTx (Series A). Anja König manages the fund from a global perspective.
Roche Venture Fund
The Roche Venture Fund is pharma giant Roche's investment arm and deploys $750 million in its evergreen fund. The fund has made over 100 investments in pharma, biotech and healthcare startups. Some of its notable exits include: 23andMe, Aileron and Xenon, all via IPO.
The Roche Venture Fund has a relatively small team of 6 investment professionals led by Carole Nuechterlein.
TX Ventures
TX Ventures, the venture capital arm of TX Group, was launched in 2018 and focuses on investments from seed to series A with a focus on fintech, proptech, digital assets and insurtech.
The fund deploys $100 million in capital and has made 18 investments so far with its sole exit being MoneyPark. Other portfolio companies include CLST, Everon, Neon and PriceHubble. TX Ventures is led by Jens Schleuniger and Krzysztof Bialkowski.
What to expect in 2024?
Venture capital funding around the world took a hit in 2022 and 2023. Switzerland and the wider DACH region was no exception.
But according to the Swiss Venture Capital Report 2023, there were a few bright spots.
The canton of Zug set a new record in amount of venture dollars raised - over $450 million. Cleantech - a relatively new vertical for investors saw strong growth (up 36%).
Meanwhile, a weakness in the venture funding chain has emerged - with a 10% drop in rounds between $10-20 million.
Read more in the Swiss Venture Capital Report 2023.
Outlook
While ICT companies saw the steepest drop-off in funding in 2023, the AI boom is likely to reverse this trend. The deep-tech chops of Swiss companies, with top-notch universities like ETH Zurich and EPFL churning out semi-geniuses by the thousands, will help provide plenty of opportunities to leverage the best brain power that Switzerland has to offer.
These venture capital firms - with their strong track record - will be well-positioned to take advantage in the coming months and years.