Swiss Deep Tech Report: Startups drive $100B in value

The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025, a Deep Tech Nation Switzerland initiative, offers a comprehensive new dataset and analysis on the Swiss Deep Tech ecosystem. We at Kickfund collaborated closely with Dealroom.co, Startupticker and our fellow venture capital firm Founderful to create it. The report is the first of its kind to map the full scope of Switzerland’s Deep Tech performance – from research institutions and patents to venture activity and late-stage outcomes. 

The report’s findings are striking: 

• Swiss Deep Tech companies have created more than $100 billion in combined enterprise value.
• From 2019 to 2025, Switzerland allocated 60% of its total venture capital into Deep Tech – more than any other country globally. 
• Over the same period, Switzerland ranked first in Europe and third worldwide for Deep Tech VC funding per capita, backed by both a strong domestic research base and increasing levels of international capital. 
• Nearly 96% of late-stage Deep Tech rounds in Switzerland were led by global investors, with US and EU firms now accounting for the majority of capital inflow. 
• Behind Oxford and Cambridge, 2 of the top 4 universities creating Deep Tech spinouts in Europe are Swiss:  ETH Zurich and EPFL.

The report establishes a definitive benchmark for the ecosystem’s strength and signals its global potential. With over 1,500 Swiss Deep Tech startups analyzed and data spanning more than five years, the report positions Switzerland not just as a center of academic excellence, but as a global-scale producer of science-based innovation and venture outcomes.

"Switzerland has long excelled in fundamental research, but we believe the next decade belongs to the scientists and engineers who turn that research into global companies," said Alex Stöckl, Founding Partner at Founderful. "This report is about making that transformation visible - about telling the story of Swiss Deep Tech in hard data, and positioning it clearly on the world stage. Founderful is proud to lead that effort."

The report also highlights a new generation of Swiss startups driving that shift. AI/ML already accounts for 23 percent of companies founded since 2021, almost double its previous share. Climate & Energy, Robotics and TechBio have each expanded at speed. The strength of this cohort reflects a deeper pipeline forming at the intersection of academic excellence, local entrepreneurial talent, and increasing support from sector-focused investors. The international visibility of these startups is growing rapidly, but local capital – particularly at the later stages – remains limited, creating both a challenge and an investment opportunity.

As Kickfund invests exclusively in Swiss early-stage deep tech startups, our portfolio companies are good examples of the new generation. Here are some notable companies mentioned in the report:

• AI: Irmos Technologies
• Robotics: Tethys Robotics
• Aerial & Space: AskEarth, DPhi Space
• Semiconductors & Quantum: NovoViz
• ClimateTech & Energy: BTRY, CellX Biosolutions, Cosaic, Cowa Thermal Solutions, Kidemis, Perovskia Solar, qCella, SoHHytec, Seprify
• TechBio: Alithea Genomics, Nerai
• MedTech: CustomSurg
• Biotech: ASTRA Therapeutics

Geraldine Naja, Director for Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness at the European Space Agency, commented: ‘‘With the launch of the European Space Deep Tech Innovation Centre in Villigen, Switzerland is proving how precision science, agile industry and open collaboration can propel space technologies from lab to orbit. This new hub is more than a facility—it’s a testbed where European autonomy meets global opportunity. At ESA, we see Switzerland’s deep tech strengths as a catalyst for advancing Europe’s technological sovereignty, commercial competitiveness and innovation resilience.’ Severin Schwan, Chairman of Roche, added: "Switzerland has long been a global hotspot for biotech innovation. The exceptional concentration of pharma expertise around Basel, combined with academic excellence and access to capital, continues to make it one of the world's most fertile grounds for breakthrough biomedical innovation."

Investors are reallocating capital toward the next wave of AI-powered verticals. In 2024 almost one-third of all Swiss deep-tech funding went to AI-first startups, from generative protein design and industrial autonomy to foundation-model safety, tripling the share recorded in 2020. This funding surge is matched by a rising cohort of growth-stage companies such as Energy Vault, ID Quantique and Cradle, underscoring Switzerland’s ability to turn lab breakthroughs into mission-critical products for Fortune 500 customers.

‍Chris Keller, Managing Director Central Europe at AWS, added: "Switzerland stands at the forefront of global AI innovation, leading with the highest AI patents per capita and one of the most dynamic startup ecosystems."

As Switzerland’s Deep Tech ecosystem matures, we plan to deepen the dataset and track sector performance across key hubs including Zurich, Lausanne, Geneva, and Basel. As more Swiss Deep Tech startups reach scale, the goal is to give founders, investors, and policymakers a reliable view of progress - and a strong case for the country’s leadership in Deep Tech.

The full report is available for download here: https://deeptechnation.ch/resources/swiss-deep-tech-report-2025