Start-ups rely on partnerships with established companies to advance more quickly, and they also select investors that can support them in their next phase of growth.
Dear reader
Agritech scale-up xFarm has made another acquisition, thus strengthening its market position in Brazil: the deal was financed partly through a bridge round, in which BlackRock join the list of investors in the Ticino-based start-up. Klarent has secured more than USD 8 million In a seed round, bringing on board Mosaic, one of Europe’s most prominent early stage investors. Klarent’s autonomous software testing platform is already in use by several well-known clients including Sixt, JD Sports and NZZ. The company is now set to expand into the US.
For fintech company Rivero, the focus is on expansion – specifically into central and eastern Europe – with backing now secured from Elevator Ventures. This venture capital firm is owned by Austria’s second largest bank, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), which operates as a universal bank across 11 central and eastern European markets. Meanwhile, KA-EX has brought on board Swiss professional tennis player Belinda Bencic as both investor and brand ambassador. And insurtech brokerage LTY has gained Akiden Ventures, which has extensive experience in driving growth.
These funding rounds show that start-ups are specifically seeking investors that can help them advance and that they are successful in persuading these high-profile backers to come on board. However, the pursuit of strategic partnerships goes even further: for instance, ZuriQ and Infineon have deepened their collaboration following their joint achievement of a world record in the field of quantum computing. Now they aim to scale the technology from the prototype to commercial quantum processing units. Similarly, fintech start-up Unplex has set an ambitious goal through its strategic partnership with Infront: the two parties intend to bring agentic automation to wealth management.
Next week, learn more about the Swiss Scale-up Report in a live Swisspreneur podcast featuring Alexander Schlaepfer from Swisscom Ventures and myself.
This Tuesday sees the kick-off event for >>venture>> take place in Zurich, as well as the Female Innovation Forum. The following week, SECA’s event will feature Swiss VCs on stage, and Swiss Startup Nights will be held in three weeks’ time.
Our application overview includes several start-up camps, powered by Innosuisse and managed by Swissnex, for which the deadline is fast approaching. Last but not least, the application period for the ESA BIC Switzerland programme is also coming to an end shortly.
Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch
