UBS announced today that it has partnered with telecommunications company Swisscom to set up the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation, which aims to inject up to 50 billion Swiss francs (51.5 billion euros) into deep tech startups over the next decade.
The foundation's main objective is to stimulate venture capital investment in start-ups, expand business in the deep tech sector and indirectly create up to 100,000 jobs in Switzerland over the next ten years, he added.
Through the foundation, UBS will work to improve the framework conditions for increasing growth capital for Swiss start-ups and attract both Swiss and international investors.
The foundation plans to set up Venture Hub Switzerland with funding and a legal structure that will set it apart from other international hubs and offer “attractive framework conditions for institutional and strategic investors”, the bank added.
The company added that its so-called “unicorn factory” will help young companies in the startup and scale-up stages to position themselves as attractive investment candidates for investors.
UBS added that with these measures, the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland foundation will launch two platforms to bring together stakeholders to “build an even more effective innovation ecosystem and boost existing activities.”
The Foundation will set up a communication channel to inform investors about the Swiss innovation ecosystem.
According to UBS, Switzerland has one of the world's best education systems and research facilities for developing technological solutions, but it lacks the amount of venture capital investment needed for the research-intensive deep tech sector to bring innovations to market.
In Switzerland, just under 3 billion Swiss francs flow into start-ups annually to fund their early and growth stages, compared with at least 5 billion Swiss francs in Sweden and over 10 billion Swiss francs in Israel.
Swisscom has called on institutional investors, including pension funds and asset managers, to fund the Swiss startup ecosystem, and its CEO Christoph Aeschlimann has warned that Swiss startups need capital to compete internationally.
“The Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation is needed to bring more venture capital to turn ideas into successful solutions. We are tackling global challenges by creating a dynamic ecosystem for startups and scaleups focused on social issues,” the CEO said today.
Sabine Keller-Busse, president of UBS Switzerland, added: “It is very important for us to work together with the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation to create better framework conditions to better support the bringing to market of future-oriented technologies that address societal challenges.”
The latest digital edition of IPE magazine is now available
Source link
