Deals and funding amounts in the Swiss startup scene jumped again in the first half of the year but young companies won’t be spared from the economic slowdown.
Swiss startups got off to a flying start in 2022, receiving a total of 2.6 billion Swiss francs in venture capital in the first six months, according to a report by the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association (SECA) and Startupticker, published Thursday.
This amount is almost 50 percent higher than for the same period last year and nearly six times higher than in the first half of 2018.
New Unicorns
Compared to the first half of 2021, financing rounds increased by a good 30 percent to 163 deals by the end of June 2022. Of these, 13 investments raised more than 50 million francs each. Moreover, three new startups - SonarSource, Climeworks and Scandit - reached valuations of at least $1 billion, becoming «unicorns».
However, the windfall is likely to end soon, as cheap money dries up. Findings in the report already show that the number of acquisitions dropped noticeably towards the middle of the year.
This shift is giving investors the upper hand, especially in the case of early-stage financing, meaning they can acquire more shares in the startups for the same investment amount, the report said.
Money Tap
A survey of 80 Swiss venture capital investors conducted by SECA showed that the majority of investors expect 25 percent of invested capital to dry up over the next 12 months.
Especially in the later-stage segment, less money will flow according to the investors surveyed. The respondents also said they expected less takeovers and IPOs to take place.
According to the survey, two-thirds of the investors want to invest at least 20 million francs in Swiss startups over the next three years, while one-third is looking to invest more than 50 francs million.
