Significantly more money for Swiss start-ups

The global political situation is unstable, economic growth is sluggish and export-oriented industries are suffering from uncertain prospects. The environment in 2025 was anything but favourable. Nevertheless, for the first time since 2022 the amount of money going into Swiss start-ups increased. Venture capital funds from Switzerland and abroad invested nearly CHF 3 billion in knowledge-based start-ups across 354 financing rounds. The cautious optimism of investors was also reflected in the distribution of funds: investment in young and very young companies rose from CHF 864 million in 2024 to more than CHF 1.4 billion.

A breakdown by sector shows that financing inflows increased significantly in the ICT and biotech sectors. Investment in medtech, hardware and fintech remained stable. Cleantech start-ups attracted less funding; however, a third of the total CHF 386 million raised went to Climeworks. The ETH Zurich spin-off raised CHF 128 million in the second largest funding round of the year.

Zurich leads the way again

Zurich topped the cantonal ranking in both the number of financing rounds and capital invested. Vaud followed in second place, with Basel-Stadt in third in terms of capital invested. Of the CHF 572 million invested in the half-canton, 95% went to biotech companies.

After a year without any IPOs, two Swiss start-ups, Bioversys and MindMaze, ventured on to the market in 2025. The number of start-ups sold to large corporations or financial investors remained stable. Company valuations developed positively: two acquisitions had a transaction volume exceeding CHF 1 billion and seven had a volume of more than CHF 100 million.

Investors focus on growth

Swiss Venture Capital Report conducts an annual survey of venture capital investors domiciled in Switzerland on their business performance and outlook. The key finding was that raising capital remains challenging. Nevertheless, the total amount of assets under management increased slightly, and the majority of funds plan to increase their investments in the coming months and years.

Figures in detail

Swiss Venture Capital Report 2026 is available as a PDF at
https://www.startupticker.ch/en/swiss-venture-capital-report

(Press release)