Market Switzerland
Expansion in Switzerland is increasing
Switzerland has seen a steady growth of private equity in the last years. Hereby companies have been financed in different industries with different dimensions.
Over the last five years around 100 companies have been supported with about 1.5 billion by PE-investors in Switzerland. 70% of the funded companies are in the early-stage of the PE-cycle. However, the buy-out-industry is, measured in volume, the biggest part of the market (about 70%). Compared to the annually GDP Switzerland take place in the European average, even if the total is relatively small (< 1% GDP).
It should be noted that these figures do not cover the whole market, but just reproduce the investments of the institutional PE-companies. There are barely figures available which would show the business angel market in Switzerland. It is estimated that the main business angel networks invest between CHF 10 and 20 million per year. So business angels could invest up to CHF 150 million in one year.
Only a few sectors dominate
In recent years, most of the investments flowed into the consumer and retail sector (39%), followed by traditional industrial companies (19%). However, considering the numbers of transactions you realize the importance of technology sectors like life sciences (38%) and information & communication (30%). Interestingly, in recent years in other key sectors of Switzerland such as chemicals, construction or finance were hardly invested with PE-capital.
The Swiss market is much diversified
In Switzerland the PE-industry has professionalized itself very strong in recent years. There exist a diverse landscape of investors with different strategies and regional preferences. At the end of 2011 approximately 70 PE-companies were located in Switzerland. In recent years large Swiss companies as Swisscom, Roche or Novartis have started to support young firms directly.
Besides there are a huge ecosystem of professional associations (e.g. SECA), state and private further initiatives (e.g. CTI start-up), technology-parks (e.g. www.technopark-allianz.ch), incubators (e.g. www.swissparks.ch), business angels associations and institutional investors, which support founder and young firms in different ways.
Just the young internet scene has seen a boom in recent years, after that internet companies had to migrate to the United States. However, the competition is never sleeping. The USA and their Silicon Valley, London or more Berlin as well are interesting locations for young firms. At the same time more extern start-up companies come also to Switzerland and look for capital and compete with local entrepreneurs about financing.
Finally, for each founder it is the same…No one is born as an entrepreneur, but it is a result of a continuous learning process.
Below you find the main PE-investors in Switzerland:
For more detailed statistics about the Swiss market, please visit the statistics subsection on our homepage.