Huma Siraj
When asked to list the top places in the world for technological innovation, most people would likely mention Silicon Valley, Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom, or perhaps Israel. New data, however, shows the silent ascent of another global leader: according to the research, Switzerland has emerged as one of the most fascinating deep tech communities globally.
According to the Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025, which was released by Dealroom.co, Startupticker, Deep Tech Nation Switzerland, and the venture capital investment firms Founderful and Kickfund, the combined enterprise value of Swiss deep tech enterprises has already surpassed $100 billion. According to the research, Switzerland currently leads Europe and ranks third globally in terms of venture capital funding per capita.
Alex Stöckl, Founderful’s founding partner, says there’s more to come. Stöckl predicts even greater growth over the next five years based on the trajectory of the previous five years. “What lies ahead is incredible: we are currently monitoring 200 extremely early deep tech firms in an ecosystem that is expected to expand rapidly.”
According to the report’s founders, “deep tech” refers to technology that was created through scientific or academic study and development rather than an entrepreneurial breakthrough. Switzerland has an advantage in this area since it is home to two of the top scientific institutions in the world. ETH Zurich and EPFL, both of which are located in Lausanne, have seen more spin-out companies than any other European university outside of Oxford and Cambridge.
Students from all around the world have applied to these universities because they don’t charge tuition and only impose small administrative fees on international students. Some of the largest IT firms in the world have also established offices in Switzerland as a result of this talent inflow; Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Nvidia all have sizable operations there, and more recently, OpenAI and Anthropic, leaders in artificial intelligence, have joined them.
With well-known firms like Neural Concept and Ethon.ai raising $27.0 million and $16.6 million, respectively, in the last year, AI is undoubtedly a part of the Swiss story. According to Nathan Benaich, founding partner of Air Street Capital, Zurich has subtly emerged as a major force in Artificial Intelligence. “The city is a prime ecosystem for creating AI-first companies, thanks to its deep pool of world-class engineers and researchers, which are anchored by companies like Google, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft, as well as increasingly ambitious academic communities driven by ETHZ.”
But there are also several success stories in other industries. For instance, RIVR raised $22.0 million last summer, whereas Anybotics raised $60.0 million before the end of 2024. The Swiss deep tech industry has several important subsectors, including biotech, medtech, and climate tech. Two more crucial areas of attention are semiconductors and quantum computing.
Investors also highlight Switzerland’s increasing collaboration between startups and well-established businesses.
According to Andrei Brasoveanu, a partner at Accel, “what’s particularly compelling is how tech-forward Swiss corporates are stepping up and actively collaborating with spin-offs from world-class institutions like ETH and EPFL, serving as design partners and helping bring cutting-edge technologies to market.”
Investment in Swiss deep tech companies is therefore still increasing. According to the research, the sector raised $1.9 billion last year, up from $1.4 billion in 2023, and is expected to raise an additional $2.3 billion in 2025. Stöckl continues, “I consider Switzerland to be the Israel of Europe.”
According to Nicolas Autret, a partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, “Switzerland has emerged as a deep tech powerhouse on the global stage.” A number of factors, including Swiss academic excellence, a robust intellectual property culture, and close cooperation with Swiss industry leaders, have come together to create Swiss success stories like ANYbotics, Scandit, and Climeworks.”
The last two companies mentioned by Autret, together with Crispr Therapeutics, Proton, and Sonar, are well-known unicorn companies in Switzerland with valuations of $1 billion or more. However, the authors of the report are as enthusiastic about new businesses that are only starting to get traction. Examples are given by DePoly in the climatetech subsector, Lakera, an AI specialist, LimmaTech in the biotechnology sector, and Voliro in the spacetech industry.
According to Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, co-editor of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index, “Switzerland’s top-ranked innovation clusters in Zürich, Basel, and the greater Lausanne/Geneva area have been using their existing strengths and unparalleled skills base to reposition and fortify in fields such as medical technology, biotech, robotics, and AI applications. “This places Switzerland at the vanguard of the upcoming global innovation wave.”
