Focus Sectors | Verticals
Technical Enterprise Software
Technical Enterprise Software is the digital backbone of the modern economy, encompassing the deep innovations in algorithms, infrastructure, data analysis, and cybersecurity that enable global industries to operate. Unlike typical SaaS, these are foundational technologies born from complex academic research, often from institutions like CERN, offering powerful, defensible solutions for the most demanding enterprise challenges.
Switzerland provides an ideal environment for building and scaling global software leaders. The ecosystem is defined by a “strong culture of engineering excellence” and is supported by pragmatic advantages, including “Europe’s most entrepreneurship-friendly employment laws”. A unique advantage for startups is the prevalence of “tech-forward Swiss corporates” that actively collaborate with spin-offs, serving as crucial design partners to help bring cutting-edge technologies to market.
On this page, we explore the companies that have built a combined enterprise value of over $13.7 billion. Discover the established unicorns like Proton, Scandit, and Nexthink, the next wave of “companies to watch”, and the key statistics that make Switzerland a global hub for technical enterprise software.
Notable Companies
Key Stats*
65+
VC-Backed startups
$1.4B
VC funding since 2019
$13.7B
Combined Enterprise Value
Tob Hubs in Zurich (ETH), Geneva (CERN), Lausanne (EPFL) and Zug (crypto).
* All data is taken from the Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025.
Companies to watch
Next-gen network observability platform.
Distributed and sustainable cloud computing and storage.
Complex data analysis platform.
AI security audits for code review.
Sustainable and democratized high-performance computing.
Data-driven climate risk analytics.
New database system for large-scale and heterogeneous data.
Federated data platform for healthcare.
AI-powered sourcing engine for industrial procurement strategies.
«When I look at Switzerland as a software entrepreneur, the key reasons I decided to build Proton from here, besides our roots at CERN in Geneva, are the country’s high talent density and its ability to attract top talent from around the world with its international working environment. Additionally, unknown to many, Switzerland has Europe’s most entrepreneurship-friendly employment laws, and a lot of private capital readily available across funding stages, which enable the risk-taking necessary to innovate.»
Andy Yen
Founder & CEO
Proton
«Switzerland is quickly establishing itself as a global hub for technical enterprise software startups. Zurich in particular has become a truly cosmopolitan city over the past years and a global talent magnet known for a strong culture of engineering excellence, leading to an ideal environment for building Deep Tech companies. What’s especially compelling is how tech-forward Swiss corporates are stepping up and actively collaborating with spin-offs from world class institutions such as ETH and EPFL, serving as design partners, and helping bring cutting-edge technologies to market.»
Andrei Brasoveanu
Partner
Accel
Who’s Who in Technical Enterprise Software
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AGIRE FOUNDATION
Lugano
We are the Innovation Agency of southern Switzerland and we provide support to start-ups and innovative SMEs on their path to growth.
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FONGIT
Geneva
We support entrepreneurs with the expertise, resources and financing they need in transforming innovative ideas into sustainable companies.
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Founderful
Zurich
Founderful is Switzerland’s leading pre-seed fund. First, fast & founder-friendly, backing Switzerland’s best tech entrepreneurs to become global market leaders.
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QBIT Capital
Zurich
QBIT Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Zurich, Villigen and Los Angeles. We invest exclusively in Switzerland.
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SEF.Growth
Bern
SEF.Growth supports Swiss start-ups & SMEs overcome growth challenges via expert feedback, coaching, & the High Potential Label to accelerate market success/network access.
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Spicehaus
Zug, Zurich
Spicehaus fuels the rise of Swiss B2B technology companies that are set to become international leaders
Most Active Swiss VCs in Technical Enterprise Software
Success Stories
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Read more: European Spinouts Report 2025: Switzerland Confirmed as Europe’s Deep Tech PowerhouseThe most critical metric in innovation is not volume but efficiency. While larger economies naturally produce higher absolute numbers of companies, the true measure of…
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Read more: Why Deep Tech Pioneers and Private Equity are a MatchThis autumn saw notable activity from private equity investors in Switzerland, including a USD 500 million exit in addition to investments. Their preference for innovative…
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Read more: Samuel Müller: FounderScandit has never advertised itself by referring to its Swiss origins. “We had a global vision from the beginning,” explains Samuel Müller, CEO and co-founder…
Technical Enterprise Software
News
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Albatross raises CHF 9.7 million to reinvent product discovery for the web
Former Amazon AI leaders raise CHF 9.7 m to deploy AI that understands user intent in real time, transforming how they discover products and content…
startupticker.ch
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DeepJudge closes $41.2M Series A round
With revenues growing over 500% year-over-year, DeepJudge continues to establish itself as the go-to AI platform for legal professionals worldwide. Alongside new customers, the startup…
startupticker.ch
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CUE Labs exits stealth after $10 million capital increase
Zug-based CUE Labs has emerged out of stealth, introducing the widely adopted CUE open-source configuration language. Its Configuration Control Plane is a central system that…
startupticker.ch
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Vista Equity Partners acquires majority in Nexthink in $3 billion deal
The transaction reinforces Nexthink’s standing as one of the most successful and innovative enterprise software companies in the world, serving more than 1,500 enterprise customers…
startupticker.ch
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Knorr-Bremse acquires Swiss industrial computing company duagon for EUR500 million
Duagon has established itself as a leading supplier of hardware and software solutions for safety-related applications primarily in the railway industry. Following the investment by…
startupticker.ch
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Veezoo raises $6 million to scale its Agentic Analytics platform globally
Veezoo, the mature Agentic Analytics platform, built to help employees across an organization turn questions into trusted insights and better decisions, closed a $6 million…
startupticker.ch
FAQ on Swiss Enterprise Software
1. What defines ‘Technical Enterprise Software’ in the Swiss ecosystem?
It refers to software born from deep innovation in algorithms and academic research. This includes global leaders in privacy (Proton), data analytics (Nexthink), and computer vision (Scandit).
2. Which Swiss unicorns are in the enterprise software sector?
The sector has a strong track record of building billion-dollar companies, including Proton, Scandit, Nexthink, Sonar, and DFINITY.
3. Why are Switzerland’s employment laws attractive for startups?
As noted by Proton CEO Andy Yen, Switzerland has “Europe’s most entrepreneurship-friendly employment laws”, which, combined with high talent density, enables the risk-taking necessary to innovate.
4. How do Swiss corporations support deep tech software startups?
“Tech-forward Swiss corporates” actively collaborate with spin-offs from institutions like ETH Zurich and EPFL, serving as design partners to help bring cutting-edge technologies to market.
5. What are the main investment opportunities in Swiss enterprise software?
The most compelling opportunities are in spin-offs commercializing research from ETH Zurich, EPFL, and CERN in areas like next-gen data platforms (Polypheny), HPC (DeepSquare), and AI-powered code security (Haicker).
