Startup accelerator Venture Kick accelerates growth
The philanthropic initiative Venture Kick not only accelerates the growth of the funded start-ups, but also its own. In 2024, 97 new startup projects from Swiss universities received seed capital from Venture Kick. This figure is set to double to 200 new start-ups per year by 2027. By 2033, investors should have invested CHF 50 billion in a portfolio of 3,000 highly innovative start-ups and 100,000 jobs should have been created.
Venture Kick was launched in 2007 with the idea of doubling the number of spin-off companies at Swiss universities. The aim was to help talented researchers to kick their sometimes ground-breaking innovations out of the laboratory and onto the market. The first step is to hone the business ideas and focus them on attractive customer segments and develop profitable market opportunities. Then it's about getting investors excited about these business opportunities and securing financing.
Over 1,000 start-ups supported since 2007
As an initiative of the non-profit Kick Foundation, Venture Kick was able to finance one of three applicant projects in the first few years (2007 - 2012). The success was resounding: 68% of the companies founded during this period still exist today, have received an average of 33 million from investors and employ 44 people. By the end of 2024, the number of financed start-ups had increased to 1,121, which were selected from 7,800 applicant projects.
The number of applications has grown by more than 10 percent per year and there are now 80 applicants per month requesting start-up capital from . In addition to 150,000 francs in start-up capital from Venture Kick, the winners also receive 850,000 francs from the Kickfund and 150,000 francs from Innobooster.
100,000 jobs by 2033
"The main reason for Venture Kick's growth is the increasing demand from highly qualified researchers who want to bring their innovations out of their labs and solve real problems of our generation," explain Beat Schillig and Jordi Montserrat, Co-Managing Directors of Venture Kick. "We used to fund one project out of three applications - now it's just one out of ten. In order to support more promising start-ups from Swiss universities, Venture Kick needs more partners."
"We are delighted to have gained two new members for our partnership consortium, the Lichtsteiner Foundation and the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation," explains Pascale Vonmont, President of the Venture Kick Strategy Board. "With Venture Kick, we are creating the conditions to globalize promising business ideas and contribute to the development of Switzerland. However, in order to achieve the planned growth of Venture Kick and the goal of 100,000 jobs by 2033, we urgently need more partners."
Source: www.venturekick.ch
