CUTISS: A Swiss Techbio Champion Ready to Lead the Global Health Revolution

Switzerland is home to world-class techbio, biotech and medtech science, precision engineering, and global pharmaceutical giants. It is a nation whose ecosystem consistently ranks among the most innovative in the world. Yet even in this powerhouse environment, a critical opportunity remains largely untapped: scaling late-stage techbio to global dominance through targeted growth-stage investment

CUTISS is a perfect example of what Switzerland can achieve. A Zurich-based techbio company, CUTISS is reshaping the future of skin surgery with denovoSkin™, a revolutionary personalized tissue therapy poised to become the new gold standard for acute cases such as burns as well as for elective plastic and reconstructive surgery. Having reached an advanced clinical stage, with Phase III trials ongoing in Europe and a fully built-out scale-up plan, CUTISS stands ready to industrialize and commercialize its innovation at a global scale. The company is a textbook case of how Swiss ingenuity can change the world, and it shines a spotlight on why Switzerland must reinforce its growth-stage capital capabilities if it wants to remain a global leader.

A Techbio Breakthrough Born and Built in Switzerland

CUTISS is not a typical biotech. It sits at the pure intersection of biology and engineering, embodying the very definition of techbio. Its flagship innovation, denovoSkin™, is engineered from a small biopsy of the patient’s own skin to create large amounts of functional, scar-free skin tissue. It represents a complete replacement for autografting, a procedure that involves painful harvesting and transplanting of patients’ healthy skin on to wounded areas, which often results in donor site complications, scarring, and significant patient trauma.

Far from being a concept, CUTISS, technology has already proven that it can change lives safely and durably, as is shown in this study which analyzes outcomes five years after the use of denovoSkin™.

denovoSkin™ shows to be functional, smooth, elastic, soft, not contracting and cosmetically superior to standard autografting and accessible thanks to our proprietary tech platform, a win for all.
– Daniela Marino, CEO, CUTISS

The Growth-Stage Gap: Switzerland’s Missed Opportunity

Despite its remarkable achievements, CUTISS illustrates a critical gap in Switzerland’s innovation landscape. The issue is not scientific excellence or entrepreneurial resilience. It is a structural shortfall in growth-stage capital that prevents techbio companies among many others from completing the journey from national champion to global leader.

According to the 2025 Swiss Venture Capital Report, Switzerland remains highly competitive at the early stage. Locally-led later-stage funding rounds, however, remain limited both in size and number. Only one deal in 2024 surpassed CHF 100 million, and just 31 rounds exceeded CHF 20 million. For clinical-stage companies building industrial platforms like CUTISS, this funding environment for national capital is not sufficient to support global scale-up ambitions.

The systemic nature of this challenge is confirmed by the 2025 European Deep Tech Report, which shows that more than 50 percent of all European growth-stage deep tech funding comes from outside Europe. Techbio companies like CUTISS require substantial capital to build IP-protected, manufacturing-intensive operations, which do not follow the lighter investment paths of software scale-ups.

For early-stage Swiss investors, we are too late. For growth-stage ones, we are too early. Or not the right fit. But the companies are ready.
– Daniela Marino, CEO, CUTISS

The ecosystem has demonstrated its ability to nurture and support high-potential ventures through the early stages. The next challenge is completing the journey.

The Investment Gap Is Real and Quantifiable

Switzerland’s biotech & techbio sector attracted CHF 739.2 million in 2024, a 50% increase over the previous year, making it the country’s best-performing tech vertical . But quantity does not equal quality when it comes to stage distribution. The median later-stage round was just CHF 12 million, too small to move the needle for companies building complex industrial and therapeutic platforms.

Across Europe, the 2025 European Deep Tech Report confirms the trend: while early-stage capital is abundant, 50% of all growth-stage funding comes from outside Europe. Deep Tech companies require more capital to scale, particularly due to CapEx-intensive models that build IP and manufacturing moats rather than buying market share.

International Capital Sees the Potential in Swiss Techbio

While Switzerland has yet to fully capitalize on this opportunity, international investors have taken notice in the outsized statistics coming from the country. The current CUTISS C round is attracting strong interest from investors in the United States, Europe, and other leading innovation hubs. They are drawn not only by the unique technology, but by the attractive stage of development, the built-out industrial plan, and the reduced risk profile that accompanies a late clinical-stage company.

What brought them in is the uniqueness of the tech, its impact, and the less risky stage. This is not about science fiction, it is about clinical reality.
– Daniela Marino, CEO, CUTISS

A Global Category Creator From Switzerland

CUTISS is not only attracting attention. It is setting the stage for a new global category in techbio: regenerative medicine. With CHF 94 million in funding secured thus far, CUTISS is continuing to demonstrate its ability to deliver value across patients, healthcare providers, and industrial partners. While CUTISS will benefit from being the first-comers. the future of similar endeavours is not a question of technical feasibility; it is a question of mobilizing the right capital to fuel the final stage of growth.

We are one of the most advanced tissue therapy programs in the world.
– Daniela Marino, CEO, CUTISS

The global momentum for advanced therapies is accelerating. Engineered blood vessels have already been approved in the United States. Engineered corneas are now a reality in Europe. CUTISS stands among the leaders of this new wave, with a product ready to transform the treatment of burns and reconstructive surgery worldwide. Switzerland has the chance to secure a leadership position in this emerging field by ensuring that techbio companies like CUTISS can remain anchored and scale from Swiss soil.

The question is whether the ecosystem can match companies’ readiness with equally ambitious growth-stage support.

The Global Hub for Wealth Needs to Step up Sovereign Investments

Switzerland has many seed-stage accelerators. It has multiple early-stage grants. What it needs more of is a capital structure capable of sustaining and scaling late-stage champions:

• Pension funds must be incentivized to participate in long-horizon deep tech venture funds.
• Co-investment platforms must be established to align Swiss institutional money with international growth investors.
• Strategic coordination across public and private sectors must de-risk scale-up projects.

AWI’s Deep Tech Fund is an important step in the right direction. However, a single fund cannot bridge the entire systemic gap. Building a resilient, scalable growth-stage investment framework must now become a national priority.

The Swiss biotech ecosystem is already generating some of the most interesting exits the country has seen in the last decade; investing in the field is first and foremost a strategic move rather than a means to accelerate growth in the field.

Without growth, there is no bright future. We have got to show the world what this country can do.
– Daniela Marino, CEO, CUTISS

It’s no exaggeration to say that every month of delay has a measurable impact. Companies spend more time raising funds instead of building. Patients wait longer for transformational therapies. Economic benefits are postponed or lost entirely. The urgency is real.

From Opportunity Gap to Global Advantage

The Swiss innovation ecosystem has proven it can create excellence. Now it must prove that it can scale excellence to global leadership. The companies are ready. The opportunity is immediate. The competitive advantage is within reach.

If we start something, and we see it’s good, we take it to completion. I would like that to be written on the walls of our cities.
– Daniela Marino, CEO, CUTISS

CUTISS is not an exception. It is a sign of the caliber of companies emerging from Switzerland’s deep tech ecosystem. With the right capital structures, Switzerland can maintain sovereignty over its most promising innovations while projecting leadership on the global stage.

The time to act is now. Switzerland’s future as a deep tech powerhouse depends on finishing the journey it has already so brilliantly begun.