Swiss Deep Tech
Report 2026
- 63% of all Swiss VC flows to deep tech, the highest share of any country.
- At $1,470 per capita, Switzerland leads Europe and ranks top three globally.
- AI/ML is now one in four new startups; robotics is scaling even faster.
- ETH Zurich and EPFL are Europe’s top universities for new deep tech spinouts.
- Swiss deep tech funding has grown roughly fivefold since 2015 to a record $2.6B.
This is no longer a startup story. The world’s most valuable companies build chips, data centers, AI and robotics. The biggest gains for humanity will come from therapeutics, techbio and energy. Switzerland is one of the few places on earth where both move from world-class research to global companies.
The momentum is recent, and it is accelerating.top founders, operators and investors have relocated here. Global AI labs and major tech corporations are opening research centers at a pace we have never seen. The companies that will define the coming decades are being built in Switzerland right now. Read the findings, then come build and invest. There is plenty of room at the frontier.
«Switzerland has developed deep comparative advantages over decades and, with the rise of artificial intelligence, has found its stride.»
George Robson
Partner
Sequoia Capital
Key Takeaways
The world’s most deep tech focused economy
Switzerland directs 63% of all venture capital to deep tech, the highest share of any country in the world, ahead of China at 56% and the United States at 54%. At $1,470 invested per capita, it also leads Europe and ranks among the top three nations globally, alongside Israel and the US.
Funding has grown 5x in ten years to a record $2.6 billion in 2025, with ETH Zurich and EPFL producing more new venture-backed spinouts than any university in Europe.
Global capital has already arrived
Foreign investors supply 88% of funding for Swiss deep tech rounds above $100M, with US investors alone providing more than half of late-stage capital. Swiss investors back over a third of early-stage rounds, but their share falls to 12% at late stage.
The world’s leading funds are already underwriting Swiss deep tech at scale. The remaining opportunity is domestic: larger Swiss tickets at late stage would keep more of the value created at home.
Founders are building the technologies reshaping the global economy
The fastest-growing segments for new Swiss startups are AI/ML, Robotics and Future of Compute, the technologies now dominating global venture funding. AI/ML accounts for one in four companies founded since 2022, and Robotics has nearly doubled its share. BioTech remains the ecosystem’s largest base of VC-backed startups.
The shift adds to Switzerland’s BioTech base rather than replacing it. BioTech still counts the most VC-backed startups in the ecosystem and the largest share of enterprise value created to date.
«For the first time, the companies spinning out of ETH and EPFL are staying, scaling and attracting serious capital.
Jean-Philippe Fricker
Co-Founder and Chief System Architect
Cerebras Systems
The Swiss ecosystem sits at the core of the Alpine Tech Cluster
The Alpine Tech Cluster is one of Europe’s two super clusters that can compete globally in the age of Deep Tech.
«At EPFL we see it every day: the discoveries made in our laboratories become the deep tech companies of tomorrow.»
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral
President
EPFL
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About the Swiss Deep Tech Report
The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2026 is designed as a working reference for investors. For every major sector, from robotics, AI and the future of compute to aerial and space, medtech, biotech and energy and climate, it names the established leaders and the emerging startups most worth watching. These shortlists are curated, investor-grade selections made by people close to the companies being built, organized by stage and by sector.
The report’s selection track record speaks for itself. Of the 72 companies featured on last year’s watchlist, one in three closed a funding round within twelve months of publication. More than half grew their teams by over 30 percent, with several more than doubling in size.
The report is published alongside a live digital index that lets investors and ecosystem actors explore the data by sector and location and track the ecosystem as it develops.
The Swiss Deep Tech Report is co-authored by Alexandre Meldem (Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation), Alex Stöckl (Founderful), Wanja Humanes, (Kickfund), Stefan Kyora (Startupticker.ch), and Lorenzo Chiavarini (Dealroom.co).