START-UPS: TRY SWITZERLAND!
There is a number of good reasons to do so. A pleasant living environment, of course, but also first-rate economic conditions, support, and infrastructure that guarantees a high success rate.
Aware of its relatively modest size on a global scale, the Swiss Confederation is doing everything to keep its own startup creators (article SGE), on its territory, but also to bring them from elsewhere in the world, and more from Europe in particular. With strong legitimacy: this ecosystem finds its roots in the strong tradition of innovation and advanced industry of the country. Innovate, test, fail, recover, restart, succeed … The strong resilience of Swiss entrepreneurship through the ages inspires these generations of young creators who are starting out today.
Here are the most important advantage for startups in Switzerland:
- Facilitate the creation of your startup:
Because project leaders have little time to devote to the administrative part of creating their business, creating a startup in Switzerland can be done in a few clicks on the site www.startbiz.ch.
Proposed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) for many years, this website intends to bring together on a single platform the main administrative procedures to be carried out to declare your business (Commercial register, VAT, Accident insurance …), whatever the canton of establishment, as well as a detailed guide to navigating on it. Dematerialization and simplification are therefore the rules that led to more than 40,000 companies being created since 2004. All the creators of startups can benefit from this tool in order to be able to focus on the heart of their activity.
Start-ups can also rely on the services of the Swiss Business Hub within the Embassy of Switzerland which helps them in the choice of structure and gives them the keys to social and fiscal matters in Switzerland.
- Funding available for startup creators:
Aware both of the need to foster the emergence of success stories in the region and of the fragility of economic models when starting up startups, a pool of private investors and companies, the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation, launched at the end of 2017, an investment fund which will be endowed with up to 500 million Swiss francs. The purpose of this private fund, called the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation, is to support projects in the region, from seed to commercial development. “I want the good ideas developed in Switzerland not to be exported to California, that they do not create jobs there. These jobs must be created with us” recently testified Federal Councilor Johann Schneider-Ammann in the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, who contributed his patronage to this initiative.
- Numerous reception infrastructures:
Supported by the country’s universities or carried out by private initiatives, many technology parks and nurseries mesh the territory.
The main association of these parks and nurseries, Swissparks (www.swissparks.ch), claims 45 members and more than 2000 companies supported. They, therefore, offer a wide variety of choices in setting up their startup, depending on the canton envisaged or the specialty sought. Each of these sites then offers the main services that we are entitled to expect: accommodation, advice, network, etc. For their part, the cantons also set up, at the local level, a battery of services to make life easier for innovative entrepreneurs.
This is the case, for example, with the Canton of Vaud which, since 2013 with Innovaud (www.innovaud.ch), wishes to foster the development of a transversal ecosystem of innovation, by bringing together the main players in its territory, in particular these business parks and nurseries. Similarly, the Canton of Jura, with Créapole (www.creapole.ch), has a similar approach to raising awareness of innovation at the local level and promoting its environment among startups. It also brings together local economic players to facilitate the development of innovative projects.
Finally, it is in this context that the approach of the Commission for Technology and Innovation also falls, whose precious mission is to facilitate the transfer of technology between academia and businesses.
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