The decline in investments in Swiss start-ups continues
Investments in Swiss start-ups fell in 2024, totaling 2.4 billion francs against 2.6 billion in 2023. The IT sector is particularly affected, with a decline in 34% of funding.
The year 2024 confirms the negative trend initiated in 2023 for the Swiss start-up ecosystem. According to the latest edition of the Swiss Venture Capital Report, investments in young Swiss shoots continued to decrease, with a total of 2.4 billion francs invested, compared to 2.6 billion the previous year. To this is added, for the first time, a drop in the number of funds, which went from almost 400 in 2023 to 357 in 2024.
The decrease observed concerns all the investment phases, with a total of 84 laps registered. However, while the volume of funding in the final phase has remained stable, investments in the priming phase and the start -up phase dropped by around 20%.
The number of exits remained weak (41), as in 2023, illustrating a persistent trend. Swiss companies bought 11 start-ups, while 10 acquisitions were made by American companies.
Biotech takes up the lead
After several years of domination of the IT sector, biotechnologies have again become the first sector in terms of investment, with 730 million Swiss francs raised in 2024. The Cleantechs follow with 472 million, while information technologies (Excluding fintech) occupy third place, with 315 million.
In 2024, investments were more balanced between the different Swiss regions. Zurich experienced a 27.1% drop in invested capital, probably because of its central role in the IT sectors and the declining fintech. Likewise, the canton of Zug, where Fintech companies are particularly present, recorded a 47.3 % drop in investments.
On the other hand, the canton of Vaud benefited from the revival of dynamism in the Biotech and Medtech sectors.
Young shoots it badly loties
From artificial intelligence to fintech, including robotics, Swiss start-ups have raised hundreds of millions in 2024. The fact remains that the sector has gone through a second consecutively difficult consecutive year. Large investments have indeed been almost absent and the craze for artificial intelligence, observed on other markets, has not yet spread to Switzerland, observe the authors of the Swiss Venture Capital Report 2025. More than 2 billion francs invested in 2022, the entire sector (including fintech) attracted only 521 million francs in 2024, a decrease of 34% compared to 2023. Excluding fintech, the IT sector saw the contribution of new capital reaching 315 million, marking a decrease of 13% compared to the 362 million collected in 2023.
If the overall investment volume in the IT sector has decreased, a trend has emerged: the volume of financing in the start -up phase (Early Stage) jumped from 91%, going from 85 million in 2023 to 163 million in 2024. Revee, funding in the priming phase and advanced phase fell by around 45%. In addition, the IT sector remains the first in terms of number of funds, with 94 rounds curly in 2024, far ahead of the Cleantech segment (67 fundraising).
