Swiss
Scale-Up
Report 2026
Executive Overview
A selective read-through of the report’s principal findings, evidence, cases and perspectives, for policymakers, corporate leaders, institutional investors and the wider ecosystem.
Deep Tech Nation Switzerland · September 2026
Contents
Contents
Chapters follow the order of the full report; every entry is clickable. Chapter dividers state each chapter’s central finding. Page numbers refer to this overview; “Go deeper” boxes refer to the printed pages of the full report.
How to read this overview
Who was counted, and how to read this overview
Who qualifies as a scale-up
A Swiss-headquartered company meeting at least one of three criteria: CHF 20 million or more in cumulative equity raised over the past ten years; 30 or more employees worldwide; or CHF 5 million or more in annual revenue growing at least 20% year on year, measured on the latest full fiscal year. The definition is broad on purpose: deep tech companies raise capital before revenue, while software and service companies can pass the startup phase on revenue alone. Deep tech status follows dealroom.co’s classification, applied uniformly.
How to read survey findings. The survey leans younger, more Zurich-based and thin in Basel-Stadt and Geneva, heavier in AI & Software (29% against 15% of the identified population), lighter in Life Sciences (23% against 41%) and less funded (median CHF 21 million against CHF 37 million). It understates the population’s scale rather than overstating it. Findings are associations, not causes; subgroup comparisons are indicative; companies that have already relocated are absent by construction; and cells with fewer than five respondents are suppressed.
About this Executive Overview
This overview presents the report’s principal findings, evidence and perspectives. Selected detail, methodology and additional analysis remain in the full Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026 (81 pages).
It works at two levels. The five Key Findings state what the report concludes. The thirteen chapters then substantiate them with evidence, qualification, cases and expert voices, in the report’s own order.
Each chapter divider states the chapter’s central finding, so the dividers alone can be read as a summary. “Go deeper” boxes point to material left in the full report, by its printed page number. Every chart states its population and source; where a figure is an illustrative extrapolation, a ceiling or an association rather than a cause, the page says so.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Methodology and Definitions, p. 8; Methodology Annex, pp. 78–81.
Key Findings
A new layer of the Swiss economy, born in the lab
265 scale-ups identified · CHF 26.6 billion combined valuation · 43% university spin-offs · 71% keep most jobs in Switzerland
For the first time, Switzerland’s scale-ups are counted company by company, within a national population estimated at 400 to 500. The map shows not a handful of outliers but an emerging group of the economy: most of it founded in the past decade, most of it deep tech, much of it walked out of ETH Zurich, EPFL and the country’s other research institutions. These companies do not offshore. They bring the world’s talent to Switzerland, and their research teams, measured against all private-sector R&D in the country, weigh far more than their number would suggest (Figure 2.3).
Note. Illustrative upper-bound extrapolation of the respondents’ 2,659 R&D FTE (75 companies) to 400–500 companies, assuming respondents are representative. Because the survey leans deep tech and deep tech is research-heavy, this is a ceiling, not a population estimate (performed by startupticker.ch). Benchmark: 58,899 R&D FTE in all private Swiss companies. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026; startupticker.ch; FSO (2025).
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 6 and p. 15; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); startupticker.ch; FSO
Key Findings
Fast growth, patient profit
Half grow faster than 50% a year · 60% run below break-even · deep tech: 23% EBITDA-positive against 63% of the rest
Crossing growth with profitability sorts the cohort into four ways to scale: Rockets growing fast before profit, Compounders growing on their own earnings, companies investing for scale, and a small elite doing both. Every quadrant is populated, which is the healthy sign. The Rockets are the largest group and the one Swiss growth capital must serve. Deep tech sits disproportionately below the profit line because it builds more before it earns; in a venture-backed cohort that is generally consistent with investment ahead of profit rather than distress, though the survey cannot separate the two in every case. Either way, it makes the strongest case for patient money (Figure 3.5).
Note. Survey population disclosing both growth and profitability (n = 58 of 75; 17 not classifiable). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 6 and pp. 19–20; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75)
Key Findings
Swiss science attracts the world’s capital
CHF 13 billion raised since 2012 · Swiss share of later-stage capital: 27% in 2019 to 2022, 13% in 2025 · 7 in 10 plan a round within two years
Foreign investors have financed most of the growth of Switzerland’s scale-ups, and that capital is an asset: it makes large rounds possible and opens markets. The road to it is long, more than five years from founding to a first later-stage round, and Swiss investors kept pace with the market until 2022. Since then foreign capital has recovered faster than domestic capital, and the pipeline is loaded: most respondents already have their next financing in view. The opportunity is for Swiss capital to take a larger share of rounds that are happening anyway (Figure 4.5).
Note. Later-stage capital 2012–2025 by investor origin, identified population (n = 265). Equal-split attribution among named co-investors, so the Swiss share is an upper bound. Source: startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026).
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 6 and pp. 23–25; startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026)
Key Findings
Global by design
76% earn most revenue outside Switzerland · 79% would consider a foreign acquirer, 39% a Swiss one · with at least one third Swiss investors on the cap table, 49% consider a Swiss acquirer, against 13% with less
Swiss scale-ups are international from the start: no company without European revenue has reached CHF 10 million in sales, and exposure rises with scale. Exits follow the customers, and most surveyed founders expect one within five years. The Swiss route stays open where the cap table is Swiss: companies with a Swiss-anchored investor base are far more open to a Swiss buyer or a SIX listing than those without, and the exchange has shown it can absorb focused growth stories as well as large listings. Ownership follows financing, which makes it a choice Switzerland can still make (Figure 7.2).
Note. Survey population (n = 75); multi-select, so shares sum to more than 100%. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 7 and pp. 35–37; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; investor mix n = 59)
Key Findings
Founders ask for execution, not subsidy
73% name easier pension-fund investment · 61% standardized employee equity · 48% faster work permits · 44% stamp-duty abolition
Asked which of the Startup-Agenda’s measures would help them most, founders put domestic growth capital first, and the priority sharpens with need. None of the four asks is new, and none is out of reach. All sit in the Startup-Agenda Switzerland adopted in February 2026; the legal room for institutional money has existed since 2022; Swiss venture funds now return on par with the European benchmark; and the package that secures European research access goes to the vote. Whether Switzerland can create scale-ups is settled. Carrying them to maturity is a decision, and the founders have said what it takes (Reforms overview, Chapter 9).
Note. Survey population (n = 75); companies selecting each reform, multi-select. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026; Startup-Agenda Switzerland (2026).
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 7 and p. 47; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75)
Chapter 01
The Swiss Scale-Up Landscape
265 scale-ups identified by name within an estimated 400 to 500, worth a combined CHF 26.6 billion. Almost half were founded between 2016 and 2020, and 43% are spin-offs of a Swiss university or research institute.
01 The Swiss Scale-Up Landscape
A new layer of the Swiss economy, born in the lab
One feature is dominant among scale-ups: about 60% fall into the deep tech category. This clearly demonstrates where growth opportunities lie in Switzerland, and applies to all sectors and regions. […] The study confirms once again that deep tech is the sweet spot of the Swiss ecosystem.
Guest column, p. 13
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 10–13; startupticker.ch database (July 2026); dealroom.co; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75)
01 The Swiss Scale-Up Landscape
Where they are and what they do
The survey reproduces the ranking, not the proportions.
Zurich provides 48% of respondents against 34% of the population; Basel-Stadt and Geneva are clearly under-represented.
Life Sciences is 23% of the survey against 41% of the population; AI & Software 29% against 15%. Findings with a Basel flavour, life sciences above all, are more visible in the population data than in the survey.
Chapter findings are read against this composition throughout.
Go deeper in the full report
Survey vs identified population, theme by theme (Figures 1.2–1.7) — pp. 11–12
Funding profile: 45% of respondents below CHF 20m raised — p. 12
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 11–12; startupticker.ch database (July 2026); dealroom.co; ETH Zurich; EPFL; European Spinout Report 2025
Chapter 02
Switzerland's Innovation Engine
The 75 surveyed companies carry an estimated 2,659 R&D positions, about 35 per company, and 71% keep most of their workforce in Switzerland. The engine is dense, not large: about 10% exceed 250 employees, against roughly 25% in Germany.
02 Switzerland's Innovation Engine
The corporate core stays at home
71% keep most of their workforce in Switzerland; the anchor loosens only gradually with size.
Even among the 19 companies with 100 or more employees, 13 still employ most of their people here. Sales and local support move closer to customers; the corporate core, and much of the value creation attached to it, tends to stay.
Headcount is where Swiss scale-ups trail peers abroad: 45% employ more than 50 people, but only about 10% exceed 250, against close to 25% in Germany.
Note. Survey population (n = 75). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
A research engine out of proportion to its size. In seven of ten companies more than a quarter of employees work in R&D; in 28% researchers are the majority. Summing the survey bands puts the 75 companies at an estimated 2,659 R&D positions, about 4.5% of the 58,899 R&D FTE the Federal Statistical Office counts across all private Swiss companies. Scaled to the estimated 400 to 500 scale-ups, the segment would carry on the order of 14,000 to 18,000 R&D positions, between a quarter and a third of private-sector research employment (Figure 2.3, Key Finding 1). That extrapolation is an upper bound: the sample leans deep tech, and deep tech is inherently research-heavy. Even read conservatively, a few hundred companies carry a share of the national research effort out of all proportion to their number.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 15; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); FSO (2025 release); Swiss Startup Radar 2025/2026 (headcount benchmark)
02 Switzerland's Innovation Engine
Companies built by scientists
Note. Survey population (n = 73 of 75; 2 preferred not to disclose). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Science becomes protected technology. Nearly nine in ten responding companies employ at least one PhD holder; in nearly one in four, PhDs are more than a quarter of the workforce. 43 of 70 companies (61%) own patents or hold them under exclusive licence, and one in four holds more than ten. Switzerland files seven times more European patents per capita than the EU average. The engine runs on capital: across the 60 surveyed companies with recorded venture funding, money raised and jobs created climb together, and none reached 100 or more employees on less than roughly CHF 15 million of venture funding (Figure 2.6).
Scaling is therefore not simply about making a successful startup larger. It is part of the process through which we learn where new technologies can create economic value. […] Scale-ups are therefore both an outcome of a successful innovation system and an input into its future development. Successful firms can create examples to follow, experienced employees, networks, and knowledge that can benefit subsequent generations of entrepreneurs.
Go deeper in the full report
Patents held, and VC raised against company size (Figures 2.5–2.6) — p. 16
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 16–17; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 73 of 75; patents n = 70; funding n = 60); Swiss Deep Tech Report 2026
Chapter 03
Growth and Performance
Half of the companies disclosing growth expanded revenue by more than 50% in a year, and 84% already generate CHF 1 million or more. Six in ten still run below break-even, deep tech far more often than the rest: 23% EBITDA-positive against 63%.
03 Growth and Performance
Half grow faster than 50% a year
49% grew revenue by more than 50% year on year; 23% more than doubled it.
Real revenue: of the 68 companies disclosing it, 57 (84%) already generate at least CHF 1 million; 21 have reached CHF 10 million, 8 of them CHF 25 million or more. Five are still pre-revenue, all deep tech.
Headcount moves with it: 26 of 75 moved up at least one headcount band in the past twelve months and 3 moved down; reported in bands, this understates the change.
As growth accelerates, the share naming sales among their main challenges falls (Chapter 8).
Note. Survey population (n = 69 of 75; 6 preferred not to disclose growth). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 19; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (growth n = 69 of 75; revenue n = 68)
03 Growth and Performance
Deep tech builds more before it earns
23% of deep tech companies are EBITDA-positive or better, against 63% of the rest.
The road to earnings is also longer: 43% of disclosing deep tech companies expect more than twelve months to break-even, against 15% of the rest.
The central policy fact of the chapter: the companies Switzerland is best at creating are exactly those that need patient growth capital longest. That need concentrates among pre-EBITDA companies, the group the Rockets dominate (Figure 8.4).
Note. Survey population (n = 62 of 75; 13 did not disclose profitability): 35 deep tech, 27 other. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 & dealroom.co (deep tech classification).
What the survey can and cannot say. Across the cohort, 40% are EBITDA-positive or better, including 24% already net profitable; 60% operate below break-even and are spending external capital on growth. In a venture-funded cohort that is usually reinvestment rather than distress, though the survey cannot separate the two. Either way, the availability of follow-on financing, not profitability itself, is the binding constraint. Investor commitment to deep tech has held up across Europe: European tech funding sits 54% below its 2021 peak; deep tech declined just 4% through the same correction.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 19–20; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (profitability n = 62 of 75); European Deep Tech Report 2026 (European benchmark)
03 Growth and Performance
Success story
Scandit: from Swiss startup to global enterprise scale
Founded in Zurich by Samuel Müller, Christof Roduner and Christian Floerkemeier, Scandit developed computer-vision technology that lets smartphones scan barcodes and capture visual data with the speed and reliability of dedicated hardware. Today it employs more than 400 people and serves major enterprises across international markets.
Context: a decade in the making
Growth was not immediate. Christof Roduner described the journey on Swisspreneur as an apparent overnight success more than a decade in the making. Rather than one breakthrough moment, the company kept improving product and execution.
Decision: the Series A and large markets, early
The USD 7.5 million Series A was the inflection point: the company now had to more than double in size and prove it could turn early traction into a scalable organization. At the same time the founders judged that North America required significant effort, but not fundamentally more than building the Swiss market, and the customer base was vastly larger.
Outcome: Walmart and enterprise scale
Walmart became the most visible win. Large enterprise customers validated the technology in demanding real-world environments and created a reference point for further international expansion. As customer complexity grew, the company had to change with it.
What it illustrates
Three elements that repeatedly matter in Swiss scale-ups: a technology that solves a real operational problem, the willingness to pursue large markets early, and the organizational discipline to keep scaling after product-market fit. Switzerland’s small home market need not constrain the size of the company built, but founders have to look beyond it early.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 21 (Success Story: Scandit); Swisspreneur podcast
Chapter 04
Funding the Journey
Swiss investors supplied 27% of attributed later-stage capital in 2019 to 2022 and 13% in 2025. Foreign capital has begun to recover since 2022; Swiss capital has fallen further. Seven in ten respondents plan a round within two years.
04 Funding the Journey
The road to growth capital is long
A median of 5.6 years from founding to a first later-stage round.
Identified scale-ups take a median of 1.7 years from first seed to first early-stage round, and roughly two and a half more to the first later-stage round.
Half of the funding-based scale-ups crossed the CHF 20 million line only at later stage; 46% at early stage, 3% at seed (Figure 4.4).
Note. Medians for the identified population; first round per stage and company. Source: startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026).
More than CHF 13 billion since 2012. The identified population has raised more than CHF 13 billion across 348 later-stage rounds tracked by startupticker.ch since 2012, with later-stage funding stepping up sharply after 2019. The most recent year confirms the direction: Swiss startups raised CHF 2.95 billion across 354 rounds in 2025, up 23.9% and the first annual increase since 2022. Yet the flow remains volatile, concentrated by sector (Biotech alone drew a record CHF 946.4 million in 2025) and increasingly international.
The pinch is at the scaling phase. Supporting context from the Swiss Startup Radar 2025/2026, which counts all Swiss startups with recorded financing: Swiss scale-ups fall behind foreign peers only in the scaling phase, raising comparatively little in Series B rounds and closing Series C later than any comparison country, after 7.7 years on average. Only 48 of 1,073 seed-funded Swiss startups have gone on to raise CHF 20 million or more.
Go deeper in the full report
Later-stage volume by year and by vertical (Figures 4.1–4.2) — p. 23
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 23–24; startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026); Swiss Venture Capital Report 2026; Swiss Startup Radar 2025/2026
04 Funding the Journey
Swiss investors kept pace until 2022. Then the gap opened.
Swiss investors provided 27% of attributed later-stage capital in 2019 to 2022 and 13% in 2025.
Their share was 23% in 2012 to 2018 and 18% in 2023 to 2025. Since 2022 Swiss capital has fallen further than foreign capital, which has begun to recover.
The most active Swiss later-stage investors are specialist funds and bank-affiliated vehicles, led by Verve Ventures and Swisscom Ventures. At USD 100 million and above, foreign investors supply 88% of Swiss deep tech capital, against 75% across Europe (Swiss Deep Tech Report 2026, a broader dataset).
Note. Later-stage capital 2012–2025 by investor origin, identified population (n = 265). Equal-split attribution among named co-investors, so the Swiss share is an upper bound. Source: startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026).
We are lacking large independent growth-stage funds that can lead CHF 50 to 100 million Series B, C and D financing rounds. […] As the report shows, that capital comes without strings, and it is welcome. But it fills a space Swiss investors should also occupy.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 24–26; startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026); Swiss Deep Tech Report 2026
04 Funding the Journey
The pipeline is loaded
More than seven in ten respondents plan a financing round within the next 24 months.
More than half plan one within twelve months (18.6% within six months, 34.3% in six to twelve).
The survey cannot say where those rounds will be raised. Chapter 6 shows access to capital is the second most-cited reason for considering relocation; Chapter 9 shows pension-fund participation is the reform founders rank first.
Note. Survey respondents answering (n = 70 of 75; 5 preferred not to disclose fundraising plans). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Valuations sit where the revenue profile would place them. The median respondent reports revenue in the CHF 3 to 10 million band and a post-money valuation in the CHF 51 to 100 million band; of the 56 respondents disclosing a valuation, 34 fall above CHF 50 million. The link holds company by company: among the 53 disclosing both, 93% of those with CHF 10 million or more in revenue are valued above CHF 50 million, against 44% of those below CHF 3 million (Figure 4.8).
What this means for capital providers. The demand is not hypothetical: 51 of 70 respondents plan a round within 24 months, and only 19 plan none. Whether that demand is met at home or abroad is the policy question the rest of the report keeps returning to. For Swiss institutional investors, corporates and family offices, these are rounds that will happen anyway; the open question is who takes part.
Go deeper in the full report
Most active Swiss and foreign later-stage investors (Figures 4.6–4.7); valuation at last round (Figure 4.8) — p. 25
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 25; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (funding plans n = 70 of 75; valuation n = 56)
Chapter 05
International Business
Three in four earn most of their revenue outside Switzerland, and in more than half of the companies the workforce is majority non-Swiss. They import talent rather than offshore teams: four in five run a foreign entity, almost all for market access.
05 International Business
Born international: 76% earn most revenue abroad
57 of 75 earn the majority of their revenue outside Switzerland. Europe is the workhorse, North America the prize.
68% draw more than a quarter of their revenue from Europe; it ranks first or second in importance for 65%.
North America is prize and frontier at once: more respondents rank it their single most important market than any other (31 of 75), yet 36% generate no North American revenue today.
Note. Survey population (n = 75). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Exposure and scale move together. International exposure is not something companies add once they are large. Of the 12 companies with no European revenue, not one has reached CHF 10 million in revenue, and among companies drawing more than a quarter of revenue from North America, 44% have reached CHF 10 million against 11% of those with none (Figure 5.5). Beyond the Atlantic economies the map goes quiet; Swiss scale-ups are a transatlantic story.
Go deeper in the full report
Markets ranked by importance (Figure 5.2); exposure by revenue band (Figure 5.5) — p. 28
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 28; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; revenue exposure n = 63)
05 International Business
They do not offshore teams. They import talent.
In more than half of the companies, non-Swiss citizens are the majority of employees.
79% operate at least one foreign entity, almost all of them for market access.
No company without European revenue has reached CHF 10 million in sales (Figure 5.5).
Note. Survey population (n = 74 of 75; 1 preferred not to disclose). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Read with Chapter 2. Most scale-ups keep most of their staff physically in Switzerland, yet in more than half of the disclosing companies non-Swiss citizens are the majority of employees. The picture is distinctive: these companies do not offshore their teams, they bring the world’s talent to Switzerland.
Structure follows the customer. Four in five companies operate at least one foreign entity (Figure 5.4). For almost all of them the entity serves market access; only a small minority, too few to show separately, describe it as part of a partial or total relocation. Because the survey covers Swiss-based respondents only, companies that have completed a relocation fall outside the sample, so the true share of relocation-driven entities could be higher than the survey shows.
For corporate leaders. The customers that pull these companies abroad are mostly European and North American enterprises. Swiss corporations are the domestic counterpart: the foreword notes the scale-ups in these pages need customers and domestic capital, and many bring solutions Swiss corporations can and should leverage.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 3, 28; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; non-Swiss employees n = 74; revenue exposure n = 63)
05 International Business
Case study
Flyability: resellers first, then boots on the ground
The EPFL spin-off sells its Elios inspection drones into 68 countries, keeps engineering in Paudex and has turned its largest industrial customers into shareholders. The report uses it as the chapter’s case because it is the survey’s pattern at its most developed: foreign entities opened to reach customers, not to leave Switzerland.
Context: partners before offices
When Flyability opened its first foreign office in Denver in January 2020, it was already selling into over 50 countries through a global reseller network. Co-founder and CEO Patrick Thévoz framed it plainly: give customers everywhere easy access to the technology, and let partners carry adoption. More than 50 resellers now demonstrate, train and maintain Elios drones worldwide.
Decision: offices only where pull was proven
Denver opened for what Thévoz called “already our fastest growing market”, to shorten onsite training and support in the customer’s time zone. Singapore followed in February 2022 as the Asia-Pacific hub, with a training Center of Excellence; the regional manager for APAC now sits in Japan. Engineering stayed firmly anchored in Paudex.
Outcome: the US office paid for itself in investors
Cargill tested the Elios in its grain bins in 2019, documented savings of up to USD 3,500 per bin, then joined the September 2022 second close of the Series C: CHF 15 million led by SBI Investment, on top of CHF 7 million already closed, bringing the round to CHF 22 million. Chevron Technology Ventures extended it in 2023; with Dow on board since 2018, three of America’s largest industrial groups are customers and backers. Customers passed 1,500 by March 2026.
What it illustrates
The survey’s most common challenge is not reaching foreign markets (15%) but selling in them (60%, Figure 8.1). Flyability’s sequence, partners first, offices where the pull is strongest, engineering at home, is one Swiss answer to exactly that problem. It also shows corporate customers as a channel for growth capital, not only revenue.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 29 (Case Study: Flyability’s International Expansion); company announcements cited there
Chapter 06
The Relocation Question
26 of 75 Swiss-based scale-ups have seriously engaged with relocation, from considering it to moving functions abroad. The pull is customers and capital, not tax. The survey cannot count the companies that already left.
06 The Relocation Question
One in three has seriously engaged with relocation
26 of 75 Swiss-headquartered scale-ups have seriously engaged with relocation.
23% considered it and decided to stay; 12% have partially relocated some functions abroad or are in the process of relocating; 65% have never seriously considered it.
In line with Europe: 15% of founders surveyed by Atomico moved their headquarters abroad and another 42% considered it but stayed; the pull is strongest at Series C and beyond.
The pressure concentrates where scaling is hardest to finance and industrialize (Figure 6.4).
Note. Survey population (n = 75). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
What the survey cannot see. Because it reaches companies headquartered in Switzerland, those that completed a relocation are absent from every population in this report by construction. European evidence sizes that blind spot: across 11,000 VC-backed startups in 17 countries, about 6% relocated across borders, those movers carried 17% of total startup value, 85% went to the US, and the median company moved at three years old. The companies a Swiss-based survey cannot see are few, disproportionately valuable, and gone early.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 31; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); Atomico, State of European Tech 2025; Weik et al. (2024)
06 The Relocation Question
The pull is market and money, not tax
Access to customers and market size (50%) and access to capital (47%) lead. Tax and regulation come last, at 15%.
Cost of operations (38%), access to talent (35%) and investor pressure (29%) sit in between; the pattern barely differs by investor mix, though small bases invite caution.
Cross-checks with Chapter 8 show no link with the sales challenge and a tendency, short of statistical significance, toward relocation among companies reporting a capital challenge.
Note. Respondents naming at least one reason (n = 34 of 75): the 26 that have considered or pursued relocation plus 8 answering for a hypothetical move; multi-select. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
External evidence points the same way. Foreign VC investment, particularly from the US, is associated with relocation, on the order of one in ten US investments leading to a move, and more so when local financing conditions are poor; the authors’ conclusion is to improve domestic financing, not restrain foreign capital. UBS reaches the same diagnosis for Switzerland: comparing 16 leading startup ecosystems, it scores Swiss later-stage funding access 1 out of 10 and notes that foreign VC funds frequently encourage startups to move strategic assets such as R&D closer to their investor base.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 31; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (reasons n = 34); Weik et al. (2024); UBS Chief Investment Office
06 The Relocation Question
Case study
Nexthink vs GetYourGuide: when does Switzerland stop being enough?
Both reached global scale from Switzerland. Whether it remains the right place to scale is less a binary choice than a question of what the company needs at each stage.
Vincent Bieri, co-founder
Lausanne through hypergrowth; the US co-HQ came with scale
Founded in Lausanne in 2004 from work originating at EPFL. Through the years of most aggressive scaling the entire executive team was based in Lausanne, alongside a large US sales organization; the product and engineering core stayed in Switzerland. Unicorn in 2021 (USD 180m at USD 1.1bn).
Only later, from unicorn status to the end-2025 exit, did the US evolve from a sales office into a co-headquarters, with executive management shifting there. Vista Equity Partners agreed a majority investment at a valuation of about USD 3 billion in 2025.
The sequence matters: the US co-HQ was a consequence of scale, not a precondition for it.
Tobias Rein, co-founder and CTO
Different economics: Berlin became the logical headquarters
Founded in Zurich in 2009. As the travel marketplace scaled it needed large numbers of international employees across customer service, marketing, product and commercial functions; Berlin offered a deeper international talent pool at lower cost.
Moving the headquarters there ended the operational friction of leadership split across two locations. Berlin was established as headquarters with the USD 484 million Series E in 2019.
A significant engineering hub stayed in Zurich, close to ETH Zurich; Tobias Rein chose to remain in Switzerland. More than 1,000 employees globally in 2025.
What it illustrates
This is not a rule that enterprise B2B stays while consumer marketplaces leave: at Nexthink, the business model did not dictate geography. What mattered was establishing a strong culture and set of values locally at the start, while operating with global ambition from day one. Once that core is built, location becomes an operating decision that follows the company’s stage. A strong local start is a foundation, not a scoreboard.
You can innovate locally and start locally. You never scale locally.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 32–33 (case study and company timelines); Swisspreneur podcast
Chapter 07
Exits and Path Forward
79% would consider a foreign acquirer, 39% a Swiss one. With at least one third Swiss investors on the cap table, openness to a Swiss acquirer rises from 13% to 49%. A financing gap ends up as an ownership question.
07 Exits and Path Forward
Exits: expected soon, and mostly abroad
Note. Survey population (n = 75); multi-select, so shares sum to more than 100%. “No exit currently planned” is the pathway answer (19 companies), a different construct from the horizon answer in Figure 7.1 (9 companies). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Expectations run ahead of the record. Almost two-thirds of respondents (49 of 75) expect an exit within five years, 12 within two; only 9 foresee no exit at all. Founder expectations are not forecasts: of the 106 identified scale-ups founded before 2016, 94 raised a later-stage round and 17 of those (18%) have a recorded exit, a share that understates eventual outcomes because the youngest are only now reaching the median exit age. Exited companies took a median of 9.5 years from founding to exit (mean 10.6, range 6.2 to 17.7). The Swiss Startup Radar, on a broader single-criterion population, puts the cumulative exit rate at 22.4% and rates it low by international standards. Even among companies that reach growth stage, exits remain the exception.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 35; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); startupticker.ch database (July 2026); Swiss Startup Radar 2025/2026
07 Exits and Path Forward
Ownership follows financing
With at least one third Swiss investors on the cap table, 49% consider a Swiss acquirer and 33% a SIX listing. With less, both fall to 13%.
Among companies with 100 or more employees, 11 of 19 keep long-term independence open, against 8 of 56 below (Figure 7.6); the cross-section cannot say whether plans change with growth or the independence-minded stay and scale.
Every scale-up that can finance its growth to maturity in Switzerland keeps the choice of ending, or not ending, at home.
Note. Respondents with recorded investors (n = 59: 43 with at least one third Swiss investors, 16 with less); 16 without recorded investors excluded; multi-select. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 & startupticker.ch database (July 2026).
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 37; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; investor mix n = 59); startupticker.ch database (July 2026)
07 Exits and Path Forward
SIX has proven capacity; listing flow remains the constraint
Capacity is not the problem. Flow is.
Between 2012 and August 2026 SIX welcomed first-day market capitalizations of up to CHF 28 billion; its largest listings, Landis+Gyr, Galderma and Sunrise among them, each had a listing transaction size above CHF 2 billion (Figure 7.4). After its 2024 IPO, EQT fully exited Galderma in 2026 through a CHF 4.9 billion placement.
Yet SIX attracted 63 new listings in 2012 to 2025, around four to five a year, and just 7 in 2023 to 2025 combined.
Note. All new listings with a dated first listing (n = 67: 63 in 2012–2025 plus 4 in 2026 year to date). Source: SIX Swiss Exchange listing data (July 2026).
Not only billion-franc exits. BioVersys, a Basel clinical-stage biotech, listed in February 2025 with an opening market capitalization of around CHF 216 million and a placement of about CHF 80 million; Centiel, a Lugano UPS specialist, came to SIX in 2026 through a reverse merger, placing around CHF 31 million. The editors read SIX as a home exchange suited to companies that can grow into public-market scale, not as a market closed to scale-ups by design.
An IPO on SIX is not the right path for every scale-up, nor should it be. […] Going public does not have to mark the end of a growth journey. It can be the beginning of the next chapter. This matters beyond individual companies. When successful Swiss scale-ups remain connected to Switzerland as they mature, value creation, talent, experience and investor returns can continue to circulate through the ecosystem.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 36, 38; SIX Swiss Exchange listing data (July 2026); transaction size measures the listing transaction, incl. greenshoe, not capital raised by the company
Chapter 08
Operational Challenges
Three in five name sales and customer acquisition among their top challenges; access to growth capital is second, at 37%. Deep tech reports a talent challenge far less often than the rest of the cohort: 16% against 44%.
08 Operational Challenges
Selling first, then the money to grow
Three in five name sales and customer acquisition among their top challenges.
Next come access to growth capital (37%) and competitors with deeper funding (28%); talent retention, domestic exit options and banking access barely register.
Sales pain concentrates where growth is slowest: 83% of companies growing 50% or less report it, 13% of those that more than tripled revenue (Figure 8.2).
It peaks where selling means long B2B cycles: robotics and industrial technology (12 of 13), enterprise software (11 of 15). It is lowest in life sciences and climate technology, where the gate is regulatory or infrastructure.
Note. Survey population (n = 75); up to three challenges each. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 40 (Figures 8.1–8.3); Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; growth split n = 63)
08 Operational Challenges
Before break-even the fight is for money; after it, for people
Deep tech companies report a recruiting challenge far less often: 16% against 44%.
The talent challenge moves the opposite way to capital: 19% before break-even against 40% after.
The European context helps: about 40% of European founders reported that hiring top talent became easier in 2025, up from 15% in 2021.
Note. Respondents disclosing profitability (n = 62 of 75). Capital challenge = growth capital or general fundraising; talent = recruiting in Switzerland or abroad. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Note. Survey population (n = 75) split by dealroom.co deep tech classification (43 deep tech, 32 other). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 & dealroom.co.
Capital: the gap bites where companies still burn cash. Close to half the cohort (34 of 75) report a capital challenge: 57% of companies not yet EBITDA-positive, against 20% of the rest. It fades with traction, from two thirds of companies below CHF 3 million in revenue to 24% above CHF 10 million (Figure 8.5). Capital-challenged companies are far more likely to name capital as a relocation reason (39% against 11%) and to back capital-side reform.
Talent: the counterintuitive result. The companies with the most exacting technical hiring needs struggle least. A plausible reading: ETH Zurich, EPFL and the universities of applied sciences supply exactly the profiles deep tech needs, while the scarcer profiles are commercial, the salespeople and country managers who carry the growth plans.
Go deeper in the full report
Sales challenge by vertical and capital challenge by revenue (Figures 8.3, 8.5) — pp. 40, 42
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 40–44; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; profitability n = 62; revenue n = 68); Atomico
08 Operational Challenges
Three interviews: selling, financing and hiring at scale
Sales challenges, p. 41
Hardware is … hard. Not only do you need to invest years into R&D, prototyping and field trials, but also it requires massive working capital to scale production and commercial channels. […] The more we grow, the higher the working capital needs, which have to be financed by equity as long as bank loans or factoring aren’t available.
Capital challenges, p. 43
The best guideline when funding your business is: customer money is the best money. It is customer money you should always strive for. […] Switzerland is extremely well equipped to innovate, initiate startups and provide Seed & Series A funding. But as soon as you enter into larger scale commercialisation, internationalisation and growth, the amount of funding available domestically is not yet where it should be.
Talent challenges, p. 45
Deep tech has a built-in advantage: people join to learn something. […] Where it stops working is scale. Once you build a global team, not everyone needs to be in Zurich, and competition for the same engineers has gotten harder. At that point Switzerland is no longer the edge. […] Our talent strategy has moved from building out of the local ecosystem to deliberately importing experience as well as talent.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 41, 43, 45 (full interviews)
Chapter 09
Policy Reforms
Four reforms lead: easier pension-fund investment (73%), standardized employee equity (61%), faster work permits (48%) and stamp-duty abolition (44%). Support for each sharpens as companies grow, raise capital and approach a round.
09 Policy Reforms
Pension funds: the missing growth-capital link
73% named easier pension-fund investment in startups and venture funds. No reform scored higher.
Support reaches 93% among the 28 companies naming growth capital as a top challenge, against 62% of the rest; 82% among the 51 planning a round within 24 months, against 54%; and 94% among companies open to an IPO abroad, against 59%. The domestic growth-capital gap and foreign-facing exit plans are closely connected.
The performance objection no longer holds: the Swiss VC Fund Return Study 2025, covering more than 40 funds with CHF 3.5 billion committed, reports a net IRR of 14% and a 1.5x multiple, on par with the European Investment Fund benchmark and ahead of it in recent vintages.
Note. Survey population (n = 75); paired splits: growth-capital challenge (28 vs 47), capital named as relocation reason (16 vs 59), raising within 24 months (51 vs 24). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
A scale-up view of capital supply, not a complaint about pension funds. The survey identifies pension funds as a potential source of domestic growth capital; it does not say whether any individual fund should invest. Since January 2022 occupational-pension regulation has included a dedicated category for unlisted Swiss private debt and private equity, capped at 5% of assets: legal room, not a target. Behind the CHF 1,220.6 billion held by 1,292 institutions are funds with very different structures, liquidity horizons and risk capacity; venture fits some and not others.
Private equity, meanwhile, declined slightly from 1.5% to 1.4% in 2025. However, data from the Swisscanto Pension Fund Study show a clear pattern: pension funds with the highest net returns over the past five years have an above-average allocation to alternative investments […].
Go deeper in the full report
France’s Tibi Initiative; European allocation gap — p. 53
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 52–53; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); Swisscanto Pension Fund Study 2026; FSO; Swiss VC Fund Return Study 2025
09 Policy Reforms
Employee equity: the ask sharpens at scale
84% of scale-ups with 100 or more employees want ESOP reform, against 54% of smaller ones.
Support steps up above CHF 50 million raised: 83% against 52% below (Figure 9.2). Sector makes little difference. What matters is the point at which employee equity becomes compensation infrastructure that must work across recruitment, payroll, departures and several cantons of residence.
Note. Survey population (n = 75): under 100 FTE, 30 of 56; 100 FTE or more, 16 of 19. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
Why it breaks. Employee share and option plans (ESOPs) and phantom plans (PSOPs) let key employees share in a company’s success when it cannot compete on salary alone. In Switzerland, acquiring shares or exercising options can create taxable employment income while the employee still holds something they cannot sell; one canton’s tax ruling is not necessarily binding on another. Tax mechanics, rather than retention, end up shaping how scale-ups design compensation. Index Ventures ranks Switzerland 16th of 25 countries on stock-option frameworks. The Startup-Agenda calls for clear, uniform and startup-friendly rules across Switzerland; the survey adds that these issues grow in importance as companies mature.
Switzerland doesn’t lose because it can’t build great companies. It loses at the exact moment those companies need to scale. One main reason is equity. The UK gives you EMI: tax-advantaged options, capital gains treatment, no tax at exercise. […] In Switzerland, options incur tax at exercise, RSUs are taxed at vesting, cantonal variance on top […].
Go deeper in the full report
Germany’s and the UK’s schemes; Kellerhals Carrard view — pp. 49–50
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 48–50; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; capital split n = 60); Index Ventures; Startup-Agenda Switzerland
09 Policy Reforms
Work permits and stamp duty: the two asks that arrive on a calendar
Work permits · 48%
36 of 75 want a fully digital procedure with a two-week processing target; the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) tells employers to expect six to eight weeks.
Hiring from outside the EU/EFTA runs across two levels of government: the employer applies to the canton, which screens qualifications, labour-market priority, pay and quota; the file goes to SEM for federal approval; the canton then issues the permit. The Federal Council caps 2026 at 4,500 residence (B) and 4,000 short-stay (L) permits. Because competence is split, a two-week target only means something if it runs from complete application to final decision, under the same rules in every canton. Support rises from around 36% where half or less of the workforce is non-Swiss to about 56% where more than half is.
Talent is the single most important factor for successful scaling, and the primary reason Swiss unicorns migrate abroad […]. Switzerland needs a startup talent visa that is fast, predictable, and accessible to start capturing the value that is generated from our universities and startup ecosystem.
Stamp duty · 44%
33 of 75 want the stamp duty on capital abolished: 51% of companies planning a round within 24 months, against 22% of the rest.
Once the cumulative CHF 1 million allowance is exhausted, the federal issuance duty takes 1% of further capital contributions, as growth capital enters the business and before it can finance the plan. Startups typically complete four to five rounds and usually consume the allowance during formation and the first round, so later rounds can face the full charge. The United States, Canada, the UK, Israel and Singapore impose no equivalent tax on new share issues. Voters rejected abolition in February 2022 (62.7% No); issuance duty brought in CHF 229 million in 2024. The Startup-Agenda calls for abolition; raising the allowance would be a practical first step.
CHF 14.3m
Illustrative full-rate ceiling, not tax paid. 1% of the CHF 1.43 billion in disclosed later-stage investment recorded for the identified population in 2025, assuming all of it was taxable primary equity after the allowance. It is a benchmark for what the duty can take from a year of growth capital, not an estimate of duty actually paid.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 50–51, 54–55; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); SEM; Federal Council; Startup-Agenda Switzerland
Chapter 10
Swiss Scale-ups in a European Context
Scale-ups earning at most a quarter of their revenue in Europe have considered relocating almost three times as often as those earning more (63% against 22%): an association, not a cause. 35% want closer European cooperation.
10 Swiss Scale-ups in a European Context
European exposure and the decision to stay
26 of 75 (35%) selected closer European cooperation as a reform that would directly benefit them; support rises with European exposure.
They did so while Switzerland was already associated with Horizon Europe and Digital Europe. The answer concerns whether access stays secure and whether Swiss companies can enter European markets without duplicated regulatory barriers.
An association, not a cause: part of the gap is transatlantic. 6 of 7 companies with a North-America-heavy mix and low European revenue considered relocation, a pattern closer European cooperation cannot address.
Note. Survey population (n = 75). The 63% cited in the text pools the two left-hand bars (0% and 1–25% European revenue: 15 of 24 companies); it does not appear as a bar. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026.
What the bilateral package would secure. Switzerland’s association to Horizon Europe and Digital Europe is applied provisionally and sits within the wider Switzerland–EU package that will go to voters. Approval would give participation a lasting legal basis; without ratification, provisional application ends no later than 31 December 2028 and access to future calls, as beneficiary, coordinator or EIC Accelerator applicant, becomes uncertain again. Medical devices show the cost of an unresolved gap: because the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) was not updated, Swiss manufacturers are treated as third-country suppliers in the EU. The MRA covers 20 product sectors, 76% of Swiss industrial exports to the EU.
As a Swiss medtech company, we experience the cost of regulatory fragmentation every day: since the mutual recognition agreement with the EU stopped being updated, we have had to recertify our products for the European market, with duplicated effort and no gain in safety. Switzerland cannot afford that for the next generation of scale-ups, which is why the bilateral package matters as much to them as anything we decide at home.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 57–58; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); SERI; Federal Council MRA factsheet
10 Swiss Scale-ups in a European Context
First in Europe at producing research, weaker at moving it to market
What cooperation delivers in practice. As an associated country, Switzerland participates in Horizon Europe calls as a beneficiary rather than a third-country partner: Swiss scale-ups can receive European Commission funding directly, coordinate multinational projects and apply to the EIC Accelerator, which combines grants and equity for high-risk innovation; Digital Europe adds projects in artificial intelligence, advanced digital skills and supercomputing. These programs place Swiss companies inside the partnerships where technologies are tested and future customers met. National alternatives matter when full participation is unavailable, but they cannot provide mutual recognition or reproduce a company’s place inside European funding and research networks.
Switzerland is an important and highly successful part of Europe’s research and innovation landscape, as its strong performance in the 2026 European Innovation Scoreboard once again demonstrates. This strength has been built in close connection with European researchers, companies, talent and markets. Preserving that success requires mutual trust, reliable frameworks and a continued commitment to collaboration, because strong innovation ecosystems cannot be taken for granted.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 57, 59; European Commission, European Innovation Scoreboard 2026; SERI
Chapter 11
The Swiss Scale-Up Ecosystem
One of the densest startup-support systems in the world, and one of the thinnest at scale-up stage: rich in coaching, networks and visibility, still short on domestic growth capital and on operators who have scaled before.
11 The Swiss Scale-Up Ecosystem
What matters once a company passes Series A
Support after Series A is coaching-rich. The public instruments sized for scale-ups are European.
Switzerland’s re-association to Horizon Europe in 2025 reopened the EIC instruments: the EIC Accelerator (grants up to EUR 2.5 million plus equity of EUR 0.5–10 million) and EIC STEP Scale Up (equity tickets of EUR 10–30 million for strategic-technology scale-ups).
A domestic scale-up layer is forming: Project Switzerland, Operator Circle (CHF 250K–1M tickets in Series B+ deep tech rounds) and the AWI Deep Tech Fund, in setup.
Scale-up-specific programs; each listed once, in its primary category. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 61.
Switzerland is still largely a country of first-time founders. Experienced operators who have scaled companies before remain scarce, and there is no single playbook for scaling: every company, market and growth journey is different. […] Switzerland’s future prosperity will depend not only on our ability to innovate, but on our ability to scale.
Go deeper in the full report
European funding, growth-capital structures, internationalization and platforms (full tables) — pp. 61–62
Read the full report →Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 61–63
Chapter 12
Advice from the Frontlines
Asked for one tip for younger companies aiming at scale-up stage, 38 founders answered, and the report reproduces every answer verbatim. Six themes: go global from day one, prove product-market fit, sell, choose capital deliberately, build deliberately, keep going.
12 Advice from the Frontlines
Six things the scale-ups keep saying
The primary audience of this overview is not founders. The advice matters anyway: it describes the operating reality that policy, corporate partnerships and capital are meant to serve.
Go global from day one
“Think as globally as possible since day one, there is no additional expense or cost in being very, very ambitious.”
“You need to capture the US market to scale, start early on that.”
Prove product-market fit before you scale
“Get the PMF right first, then scale with confidence.”
“Before scaling, double and triple-verify your product-market fit, sales engine efficiency, and margins.”
Sell, sell, sell
“Focus on scaling revenue - this is the best funding your startup can get!”
“Focus very early on Sales and GTM Strategy and Execution and bold to go outside of Switzerland (Including DACH region)”
Choose your capital, and your structure, deliberately
“Build an investor network early on”
“Tips: try to get foreign investor (at least one) which opens the door to contacts abroad.”
Build the company deliberately
“Everything takes way more time than you anticipate in your BC [business case].”
“Think about becoming big when you are small. Invest in scalable processes from the start.”
Keep going
“Keep going. It doesn’t necessarily get easier, but it does get worth it, and you’ll get much better at managing it”
“find mentors you can rely on and trust throughout your journey. There might be more than just one ;-)”
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 65–67; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026, open question (38 responses, reproduced verbatim in the full report; two per theme shown here)
Chapter 13
Outlook
Almost every chapter arrives at the same place: Switzerland builds the companies but does not yet foster their growth. Five contributors say what has to change: growth capital, exits, employee equity and investors who can read a scientific roadmap as a business plan.
13 Outlook
What has to change: five views
The report’s concluding thesis. The scale-ups in this report come out of laboratories at a rate few countries match, hire from everywhere, sell worldwide, and keep their headquarters here. Then the pattern turns: three quarters of the capital that carries them into later stage comes from abroad, the buyer most founders picture is foreign, and the equity that keeps their engineers committed can become a tax bill before it becomes cash. None of this drives companies out: two thirds of surveyed founders have never seriously considered leaving, and actual departures are rare. What it does is more subtle; it moves the returns on Swiss science elsewhere, one round or one exit at a time.
The next generation of Swiss scale-ups will be born in the lab and raised in the market. […] They will follow the market, recruit globally, and raise capital wherever they are truly understood. Switzerland’s urgent task is to cultivate that understanding at home—by backing investors who can read a scientific roadmap as a business plan, and building universities that treat ambition as a core deliverable.
We took our first round eight years later […]. Since then we have taken more strategic capital, become a 5x unicorn and changed CEO. We are still headquartered in Geneva. The report shows we are not alone: among scale-ups with 100 or more employees, more than half keep long-term independence open. The next generation deserves that choice.
To help more innovative ideas become internationally growing scaleups, we need greater participation from domestic institutional investors in funding rounds above CHF 20 million, more exits to return capital to investors for reinvestment and complementary financing instruments such as non-dilutive growth credits.
Large exits are extremely important for a startup ecosystem. They create liquidity for founders, employees, investors and LPs, who can then reinvest those gains back into the ecosystem. […] Even though 79% of our founders would consider a foreign buyer, compared with only 39% who would consider a Swiss one, where Swiss teams and Swiss investors have a substantial seat at the table, Swiss exits can work too.
For scale-ups, employee equity is not a perk; it is how we compete for talent against larger companies with much deeper pockets. Yet today, tax timing, cantonal differences and administrative uncertainty can turn ownership into a liability before an employee has received any cash. That is backwards. Switzerland needs one clear, predictable and internationally competitive framework for ESOPs and PSOPs, with tax due when value is actually realised.
Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 69–71 (Outlook; full contributions there)
Whether Switzerland carries its scale-ups to maturity is a decision, not a diagnosis.
The founders have said what it takes. The four reforms they rank first all sit in the Startup-Agenda Switzerland; the legal room for pension funds has existed since 2022; the performance record Swiss venture was said to lack now exists; and the bilateral package that secures European research access will go to the vote. What remains is execution.
The roles are shared. Policymakers hold the four reforms, ranked by the companies they are meant to serve. Corporate leaders are the customers, strategic partners and adopters these companies need, and a source of domestic capital. Institutional investors hold the growth-capital link the founders rank first. The organizations behind this report will contribute their part.
Read the full report →Full report, data tables and methodology: deeptechnation.ch/resources/swiss-scale-up-report-2026 · Reproduction of charts and data excerpts is permitted with attribution: “Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026”