Switzerland is a country leading innovation in Europe, boasting excellent conditions for the rapid growth of its startup & VC ecosystem. It also plays a big role in setting trends across the whole continent. So far we have covered the top Swiss VC funds investing in innovative regional companies and today we will look closer at startup incubators and accelerators, developing diverse programs boosting the growth of promising early-stage startups, across all sectors and verticals.
Venture Kick
Venture Kick is an initiative conceived with an ambitious vision to double the number of spin-offs at Swiss universities, accelerate their time-to-market, and raise the attractiveness of these young companies in the eyes of professional investors. Their nine-month program supports entrepreneurs with more than just financing, but also access to a well-developed network of partnering institutions, and corporate and business experts, who share the same vision of supporting the next generation of successful entrepreneurs for the prosperity of Switzerland’s economy and society.
Swiss Startup Factory
The Swiss Startup Factory, a part of the Swiss Ventures Group, is an innovative accelerator program that supports and nurtures the growth of regional startups. Utilizing a sophisticated framework, the program rigorously analyses, selects and tests ideas for new businesses. By leveraging the opportunities for innovation in Switzerland, the Swiss Startup Factory creates value and develops market-leading companies, providing a valuable platform for startups to accelerate their growth and achieve their goals. With a focus on fostering entrepreneurship, the program provides a comprehensive support system, including mentorship, funding, and a vast network of industry experts.
MassChallenge
MassChallenge offers a wide variety of startups across all countries and verticals. They target top founders from around the world and provide access to the tools, resources, mentorship, and opportunities innovators need to make a transformational impact. In 2016 they have opened their Swiss headquarters, supporting early-stage startups and driving innovation in the region. The acceleration program is their flagship initiative, which in the upcoming 2023 edition will be composed of 5 paths: 1 sector-agnostic and 5 specific ones - Sustainable Food, Sustainable Industry, Climate Solutions and HealthTech. In addition to the accelerator, MassChallenge Switzerland runs a Challenge program matching later-stage startups with corporate partners in the food industry: The Sustainable Food Solutions Challenge.
Kickstart Innovation
Kickstart Innovation was first launched in Zurich to build an innovation ecosystem with purpose, fast-forward innovation and contribute to a more sustainable future. They bring together public and private organizations, startups, investors, and experts for a collaborative, open innovation process. This was instrumental in creating a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and innovators. They operate in the following verticals: finance & insurance, food & retail, health & wellbeing, new work & learning, and smart cities.
InnoPeaks
InnoPeaks is a startup accelerator located in the heart of the Swiss Alps that focuses on supporting HealthTech and InsureTech ventures. Their three-month program is designed to empower entrepreneurs to build and scale successful businesses that make a real impact, running a thorough process to evaluate market needs and match them with the solutions provided by the startups. The accelerator helps startups hone in on those solutions, prioritize product development, integrate with tech partners, and accelerate the product’s journey to the market. Moreover, over 30 carefully selected mentors from the Insurtech, Digital Health & Fintech industries provide hands-on support and valuable introductions. The themes that InnoPeaks is looking to explore include Big Data, Digital Therapeutics, Connected Health, Artificial Intelligence, Care, Prevention & Treatment, Optimizing the Value Chain, and Next-gen Insurance.
Fongit
Fongit is a highly esteemed startup accelerator based in Geneva, Switzerland, that specializes in nurturing technological innovation. With over 130 successful startups and projects, Fongit has established itself as the premier innovation hub in the region. The program offers targeted coaching and specialized modules tailored to the unique needs, goals, and situations of each startup. The accelerator also includes comprehensive legal support to ensure startups start right and grow strong, and pitch training to help them captivate audiences. The program also offers three types of financing options to support companies at different stages of their journey - Fongit Grant (CHF 50k), Fongit Seed (CHF 100k) and Fongit Growth (CHF 400k).
DayOne
DayOne is a prominent Swiss accelerator that specializes in digital health and MedTech. The equity-free program provides startups with access to an extensive network of health innovation partners, including major global players. It also has a proven track record of success, launching over 25 ambitious startups each year and boasting a portfolio valued at over CHF 80+ million. The accelerator offers benefits such as non-dilutive funding, individual coaching and personalized mentoring from renowned experts, customized boot camps and educational workshops, as well as opportunities for pitching and startup presentations. DayOne creates a dynamic community that unites academia, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, patients, and governments, all working towards implementing radical change in the healthcare industry.
Bluelion
Bluelion is a non-profit incubator and accelerator based in Zurich, that helps startups create fast-growing and sustainable businesses. It is focused on software solutions from the sector of digital health and seeks patient-centric and digital innovations for the Swiss healthcare system, with a focus on Prevention, Diagnosis, Therapy, and Digitalization in Health. Participation in the program provides startups with numerous benefits, including access to a like-minded community, facilitating collaboration with different stakeholders in the Digital Health community, such as corporates, experts, startups, research, and academia, new business opportunities, partnerships, increased reach, know-how, and visibility.
BaseLaunch
BaseLaunch is an acceleration program dedicated to supporting the next generation of biotech ventures. With a focus on therapeutics, they partner with both scientists and entrepreneurs to help launch and grow exceptional biotech companies that are developing cutting-edge treatments. Their particular interest lies in breakthrough innovations in biopharma platforms and products, across all therapeutic sectors and modalities. Eligible companies should be at a pre-seed or a seed stage, and even projects that have not yet been established can be taken into consideration. Their impressive track record includes a portfolio of companies that have raised over $450M in the financing, with an average Series A raise of $30M per company. The program offers a range of benefits to its startups, including up to $500,000 in financing, access to global biopharma partners and investors, company and team build-out, and access to labs and related infrastructure where needed.
Axelra
Axelra is a Switzerland-based acceleration program that provides comprehensive support to early-stage tech ventures. With a skin-in-the-game approach, Axelra invests up to 50% of the total technology development costs into the ventures as sweat equity, aligning interests with the startups they work with. Axelra delivers everything required to get funding to start building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the first phase, and then jointly funds and sets up the venture. Axelra's support for startups spans three levels. Firstly, they work together to ideate ideas and support startups to get funding to build and launch a revenue-generating MVP. Secondly, they complement startup teams by building and iterating the MVP to earn the first revenues and scale the solution market fit and the startup's valuation to raise new funding to scale the product and market further. Finally, they work together on the business model fit and improve traction to climb the Series X ladder.
Tenity
Tenity is a renowned pre-seed intensive incubation program based in Zurich, Switzerland, that has been running since 2015. With a focus on tech solutions with an application in the financial industry, Tenity has successfully incubated and accelerated more than 250 early-stage and growth-stage startups across all areas of FinTech and InsurTech. They offer a wide variety of benefits, including seed and follow-up investment of CHF50K/SGD70K in exchange for a small equity stake of 2.5%, dedicated support from experts in the Fintech & Insurtech sectors as well as access to diverse and renowned network of mentors and entrepreneurs. In addition to the masterclasses and input sessions, Tenity also provides one-on-one coaching and guidance throughout the entire process of venture building.
Boldbrain
Boldbrain is the only Swiss acceleration program operating in the Ticino region, focusing primarily on regional companies and providing them with numerous opportunities for growth and business development. It is sector-agnostic and targets early-stage startups with innovative ideas, a positive local impact, real market potential, a plausible business model, and a skilful team. The offer they provide includes coaching sessions, workshops, and the possibility to win a total amount of CHF 120’000 in cash prizes.
Swiss Edtech Collider
Swiss Edtech Collider is a not-for-profit association founded in 2017 in the vibrant EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne. It is Switzerland’s first collaborative and membership space dedicated to ambitious entrepreneurs transforming the education sector and fostering a “learning through technology” approach. They offer modern, physical and virtual, co-working spaces for like-minded EdTech startups and entrepreneurs to meet and share expertise, knowledge, and best practices and develop synergies in creating new innovative tools for the support of the digital transformation in education and learning in a variety of industries. Edtech startups can count on lifelong support and access to a wide network of experts from the field, as well as to schools, educational institutions, SMEs, corporations, industry leaders and investors.
CV Labs
CV Labs is a leading accelerator program, based in Zug - Switzerland’s biggest blockchain hub. Its mission is to transform the blockchain landscape and empower blockchain entrepreneurs. It does so by supporting start-ups, corporates, and investors globally to leverage blockchain technology, create better services and evolve new marketplaces. The company provides comprehensive support for its startups, combining co-working spaces, advisory and consulting activities, various events and summits, and an accelerator for early-stage start-ups. The acceleration program offers a range of benefits, including access to a global network of mentors and experts, funding of up to $135k, and online courses with in-person physical bootcamps.
The Circular Economy Incubator
The Circular Economy Incubator Program is a 12-week non-equity program based in Switzerland, designed to accelerate the national transition towards a circular economy. Each year it supports 33 startups from all over Switzerland, split among cohorts in Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Ticino, and Zurich. The program provides selected entrepreneurs with support from advisors, experts, and a network of impact investors to help them develop their minimum viable product and validate their business model. Throughout the incubation, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to connect with corporates, public institutions, entrepreneurs, creatives, and techies, benefiting from 1:1 mentoring sessions and making meaningful connections with peer entrepreneurs and circular economy experts.
Want to discover more accelerators and incubators from other countries? Check out the list below.
Top Accelerators and Incubators from:
- Round-up Of The Best Accelerators In The CEE Region
- Albania
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- France
- Finland
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Türkiye
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Western Balkans.
Related Posts:
Best Startup Accelerators And Incubators In Denmark (by Katarzyna Groszkowska, Editor, Vestbee)
Best Startup Accelerators And Incubators In The Western Balkans (by Katarzyna Groszkowska, Editor, Vestbee)
Best Startup Accelerators And Incubators In Greece (by Katarzyna Groszkowska, Editor, Vestbee)
