AWI Deep Tech Fund
Mobilizing Swiss capital for Swiss deep tech
The AWI Deep Tech Fund is a flagship investment vehicle structured to channel Swiss institutional capital — pension funds, insurances, family offices — into the country’s deep tech venture market. Today, 96% of late-stage venture capital in Switzerland comes from abroad. The fund exists to close that gap, keeping value creation, jobs, and technological sovereignty inside Switzerland.
Why Switzerland needs this fund
Switzerland produces world-class deep tech. It also exports the upside. Without a meaningful pool of domestic late-stage capital, the country’s most ambitious companies raise from abroad, scale abroad, and increasingly anchor abroad, taking patents, talent, and tax base with them.
Today, Swiss pension funds invest less than 1% of their portfolio into venture capital. The reasons are manifold: lack of knowledge, lack of resources, and most importantly, the absence of a suitable, regulation-conform vehicle to invest in.
The AWI Deep Tech Fund changes the math. By giving Swiss institutional investors a credible, professionally managed entry point into deep tech venture, it builds the local capital base the ecosystem has been missing and gives Swiss founders a real reason to stay.
Vehicle and structure
The AWI Deep Tech Fund is being structured as a direct investment fund with a target size of CHF 500 million, designed to deploy growth-stage capital into Swiss deep tech companies with global ambition. It is built to institutional standards, with governance, reporting, and risk frameworks aligned with the requirements of pension funds and insurances.
Returns, diversification, and Swiss alignment
The fund offers Swiss institutions exposure to an asset class that has historically delivered strong long-term returns and meaningful portfolio diversification, built and managed to the standards Swiss LPs expect.
- Access to a curated pipeline of Swiss deep tech growth opportunities, sourced through the country’s leading research institutions and ecosystem partners.
- Risk-adjusted return profile benchmarked against the Swiss VC Fund Return Study, which provides annual transparency on fund-level performance.
- Direct alignment with Swiss innovation strength, keeping value creation, jobs, and technological capability anchored in Switzerland.
Where we stand
The fund is in active structuring, with the asset manager already selected. Anchor conversations with prospective Swiss institutional LPs are ongoing, supported by the Foundation’s institutional investor education program.
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