The Swiss bank would love to plow millions into fintech firms. That's proving more difficult than Credit Suisse thought, Swiss corporate and investment bank head Didier Denat concedes.

Zurich-based Credit Suisse has been operating a venture capital fund for small- and mid-sized firms in Switzerland for the last eight years. Last year, the Swiss bank added 30 million Swiss francs ($30 million) to the vehicle, dedicated to fintech investments.

The search for them is anything but easy. One year after earmarking the funds, Credit Suisse has made just two investments: Tradeplus24 and Assetmax. The bank plowed roughly 600,000 francs into the first, a start-up that offers a cheaper solution for small- and mid-sized firms to insure their account receivables against default and raise a secured credit line.

Swiss vs Asia

Assetmax won just north of 1 million francs, Didier Denat told finews.ch on Wednesday. He is the head of Credit Suisse's corporate and investment bank in Switzerland as well as chairman of the fund, which is managed by bankers at Credit Suisse's domestic arm. The slim pickings contrast with Asia, where Credit Suisse has had more luck, including with a major stake in fintech firm Canopy.

The Swiss banker said that Credit Suisse is offered about 80 percent of deals being shopped around in the fintech space – the vehicle, which recently rebranded itself into Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital from SVC Ltd, had looked at more than 3,000 of them in all, Denat said at a media briefing.

Hype Hinders Efforts

The industry is beset with «a little bit of a hype», Denat (pictured below) noted. This encumbers Credit Suisse's efforts to invest at attractive terms, he added. 

Didier Denat

Nevertheless, Credit Suisse reaps benefits from its sniffing around as a potential investor: the bank needs to keep a watchful eye on what its digital competition is doing, and is reliant on fintech firms to stay competitive. The bank's venture activities enable a deeper dive into the industry, Denat said.

Credit Suisse is currently evaluating whether it will work together with Bexio, a Swiss cloud provider, and Klara, a digital back office. The bank is currently in «proof of concept» review with both, Denat said. 

Too Late to the Show?

The two start-ups underscore Credit Suisse's difficulty in parsing the market: an investment in Klara is likely sensible and lucrative for the bank – but the fintech isn't wanting for money at the moment.

With Bexio, Credit Suisse has missed the boat if it had wanted to take a minority stake: the Swiss start-up was snapped up by Swiss cooperative insurer Mobiliar last year.