Despite startup capital being harder to come by, the Swiss venture market grew in 2022, enabling both the fintech and cleantech sectors to stand out.

Swiss startups attracted 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.3 billion) in 2022, representing a 30 percent increase in invested capital over the previous year, according to the Swiss Venture Capital Report presented at a media event by startupticker.ch and the investor association SECA, in cooperation with startup.ch. 

Two billion francs of that went to technology-based companies in the information and communication technology (ICT) and cleantech sectors, including Zurich-based Climeworks which raised 600 million francs in its last fundraising round.

Geneva-based SonarSource, a platform for clean code which raised over 400 million francs last year and German-Swiss Wefox, were also among the top three companies to raise capital.

Conversely, local biotechs suffered from the global downward trend in the industry after 2020 had been a boom year for the sector.

Growth Path

The number of financing rounds in Switzerland increased by 7.9 percent compared with 2021. There was also a record number of 55 funds open to institutional investors with some aiming to collect up to 200 million francs, while the majority of funds sat in the bracket capped at 50 million francs. 

Investor Base

Family offices and high-net-worth individuals are still the biggest contributors to these funds. Pension funds were still underrepresented due to regulatory restrictions, the authors of the report said. 

By contrast, Swedish pension funds invested heavily in their own startups, helping support the country’s booming startup scene, they said. Sweden’s startups received $1.4 billion more in investment capital last year than Switzerland’s.

Outlook

Investments came down in the final two quarters of last year with this trend expected to continue in 2023. However, the pipeline is well filled with seed investments booming, according to the report.

Included in the report are companies headquartered in Switzerland, providing investors with equity capital rather than tokens.