{"id":15886,"date":"2024-11-14T22:50:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T22:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1411295"},"modified":"2024-11-14T22:50:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T22:50:25","slug":"founderful-raises-140m-fund-as-switzerland-vies-for-europes-tech-top-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=15886","title":{"rendered":"Founderful raises $140M fund as Switzerland vies for Europe\u2019s tech top spot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zurich-based venture capital firm Founderful has raised $140mn in its second fund \u2014 $20mn more than its target and a strong sign of investor confidence in Switzerland\u2019s flourishing tech<\/a> ecosystem.  <\/span><\/p>\n

First announced back in February, the fund has already invested in 15 early-stage startups. These include <\/span>Chiral Nano, which develops nanomaterials for silicon chips, and 8inks, which is rejigging the lithium-ion battery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founderful \u2014 formerly Wingman Ventures \u2014 was launched in 2019 by Pascal Mathis, the co-founder of local travel marketplace unicorn GetYourGuide, Eat.ch co-founder Lukas Weder and <\/span>Alex St\u00f6ckl,<\/span> former exec at Creathor Ventures.<\/span><\/p>\n

The founder-led VC exclusively backs Swiss startups at the pre-seed or seed stage. Its vision? To transform budding Swiss ventures into global industry leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cFrom day one, we have been relentless in our efforts to create a foothold for the Swiss tech ecosystem on the global stage,\u201d said St\u00f6ckl, partner at Founderful. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFund II is evidence that we have walked the talk, and investors have taken note. This was no easy win, but we fought hard.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Founderful\u2019s new Fund II is backed by a range of institutions, family offices, and founders from unicorns such as Duolingo, Climeworks, <\/span>Proton<\/span><\/a>, and Scandit. <\/span><\/p>\n

Silicon alps?<\/b><\/h2>\n

St\u00f6ckl called the <\/span>Swiss tech ecosystem a \u201cpowerhouse\u201d that\u2019s only just starting to claim its place on the global stage. The Alphine nation has the <\/span>highest number of unicorn companies<\/span><\/a> per capita in Europe and has ranked first in the <\/span>Global Innovation Index<\/span> for 13 years in a row. <\/span><\/p>\n

But perhaps the Swiss tech ecosystem\u2019s biggest asset is its universities and research institutions. ETH Zurich, for one, now produces more university spin-outs<\/a> than any other university in Europe. <\/span><\/p>\n

We profiled one of these companies, Oxyle, earlier this year in an <\/span>in-depth piece<\/span><\/a> about PFAS, commonly known as \u201cforever chemicals.\u201d <\/span>Led by Dr. <\/span>Fajer Mushtaq, Oxyle has developed a reactor that mineralises these cancer-causing compounds, breaking apart their carbon-fluorine bonds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founderful led Oxyle\u2019s pre-seed investment in 2022 under its first $90mn fund, which has since been fully deployed across 40 startups. <\/span><\/p>\n

The VC claims that <\/span>these portfolio companies have since created over 1,100 jobs and secured more than $450 million in follow-on funding. Notable successes include Ethon AI, which helps factories like the <\/span>Lindt chocolate factory<\/span><\/a> save waste, and plastic recycling startup DePoly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Severin Hacker, CTO and co-founder at Duolingo and investor in Founderful\u2019s Fund II called the up-and-coming VC \u201cmeticulous and relentless\u201d in creating value for the founders it backs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir approach, combined with the unfolding potential of the Swiss tech ecosystem, probably makes them one of Europe\u2019s most promising VC firms,\u201d said Hacker. <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zurich-based venture capital firm Founderful has raised $140mn in its second fund \u2014 $20mn more than its target and a strong sign of investor confidence in Switzerland\u2019s flourishing tech ecosystem.   First announced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}