The Switzerland is often called an innovation paradise. The country was number one in the 2025 ranking of global digital competitiveness by IMD, surpassing Singapore and the United States. Switzerland is also in the top 10 of patent deposits worldwide, as we learned this week. And consistently, EPFL and ETH Zurich appear in the top 50 international universities.
There are global podiums. But there is especially the reality on the ground. In the span of a few days, several extremely promising start-ups have announced nice successes: the Vaud company Kandou AI raised $225 million, the specialist in weeding robots Ecorobotix crossed the threshold of 1000 machines and is investing in the United States, and the Zurich-based designer of delivery robots RIVR being acquired by Amazon.
In laboratories, and then in factories, Switzerland is doing very well. We remember that in January, the industrial AI specialist Neural Concept, based in Lausanne, raised $100 million for its growth. And still in Lausanne, Nexthink, focused on the digital experience of employees, reached a valuation of $3 billion.
Not enough capital
Successes are striking. But they are also extraordinarily fragile. Very often, these promising companies are emanations from EPFL and ETH Zurich. Pillars of research, forming excellent specialists (and perfectly complementary to the valuable HES), these universities must endure drastic cuts in their budgets. The Confederation imposes significant financial pressure on the EPFs, which is almost a suicidal strategy given their importance in innovation in Switzerland.
In parallel, there is still the question of funding. While start-ups easily find 1 to 5 million, scale-ups, with higher capital needs, often turn to the other side of the Atlantic. In addition, it is observed that regularly, Amazon or Meta, the empire of Mark Zuckerberg, come to acquire Swiss tech gems. Good for their founders and investors. Even if sometimes, a team of engineers remains in Switzerland, the substance of these companies is sucked to the United States.
Let’s be aware of the successes of Swiss tech startups. But also, and above all, of their fragility. And let’s already think about ensuring the development of those that will be created in the coming years.
