--- title: "Swiss Scale-Up Report identifies 265 scale-ups in Switzerland; CHF 26.6B valuation, 71% keep jobs in Switzerland" sdDatePublished: "2026-09-15T14:10:00Z" source: "https://deeptechnation.ch/swiss-scale-up-report-mobile-viewer/" topics: - name: "economy, business and finance" identifier: "medtop:04000000" - name: "business enterprise" identifier: "medtop:20000349" - name: "business information" identifier: "medtop:20000170" - name: "science and technology" identifier: "medtop:13000000" - name: "technology and engineering" identifier: "medtop:20000756" locations: - "Denver" - "Lugano" - "Zug" - "Geneva" - "Lausanne" - "Vaud" - "Zürich" - "Berlin" - "Basel-Stadt" - "Germany" - "Switzerland" - "United States" - "Japan" - "Singapore" - "Israel" - "United Kingdom" - "Canada" --- Swiss Scale-Up Report identifies 265 scale-ups in Switzerland; CHF 26.6B valuation, 71% keep jobs in Switzerland Swiss Scale-Up Report Mobile Viewer | Deep Tech Nation Switzerland A selective read-through of the report’s principal findings, evidence, cases and perspectives, for policymakers, corporate leaders, institutional investors and the wider ecosystem. Deep Tech Nation Switzerland · September 2026 Chapters follow the order of the full report; every entry is clickable. Chapter dividers state each chapter’s central finding. Page numbers refer to this overview; “Go deeper” boxes refer to the printed pages of the full report. How to read this overview Who was counted, and how to read this overview Who qualifies as a scale-up A Swiss-headquartered company meeting at least one of three criteria: CHF 20 million or more in cumulative equity raised over the past ten years; 30 or more employees worldwide; or CHF 5 million or more in annual revenue growing at least 20% year on year , measured on the latest full fiscal year. The definition is broad on purpose: deep tech companies raise capital before revenue, while software and service companies can pass the startup phase on revenue alone. Deep tech status follows dealroom.co’s classification, applied uniformly. How to read survey findings. The survey leans younger, more Zurich-based and thin in Basel-Stadt and Geneva, heavier in AI & Software (29% against 15% of the identified population), lighter in Life Sciences (23% against 41%) and less funded (median CHF 21 million against CHF 37 million). It understates the population’s scale rather than overstating it. Findings are associations, not causes; subgroup comparisons are indicative; companies that have already relocated are absent by construction; and cells with fewer than five respondents are suppressed. This overview presents the report’s principal findings, evidence and perspectives. Selected detail, methodology and additional analysis remain in the full Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026 (81 pages). It works at two levels. The five Key Findings state what the report concludes. The thirteen chapters then substantiate them with evidence, qualification, cases and expert voices, in the report’s own order. Each chapter divider states the chapter’s central finding, so the dividers alone can be read as a summary. “Go deeper” boxes point to material left in the full report, by its printed page number. Every chart states its population and source; where a figure is an illustrative extrapolation, a ceiling or an association rather than a cause, the page says so. Read the full report → Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Methodology and Definitions, p. 8; Methodology Annex, pp. 78–81. A new layer of the Swiss economy, born in the lab 265 scale-ups identified · CHF 26.6 billion combined valuation · 43% university spin-offs · 71% keep most jobs in Switzerland For the first time, Switzerland’s scale-ups are counted company by company, within a national population estimated at 400 to 500. The map shows not a handful of outliers but an emerging group of the economy: most of it founded in the past decade, most of it deep tech, much of it walked out of ETH Zurich, EPFL and the country’s other research institutions. These companies do not offshore. They bring the world’s talent to Switzerland, and their research teams, measured against all private-sector R&D in the country, weigh far more than their number would suggest (Figure 2.3). Note. Illustrative upper-bound extrapolation of the respondents’ 2,659 R&D FTE (75 companies) to 400–500 companies, assuming respondents are representative. Because the survey leans deep tech and deep tech is research-heavy, this is a ceiling, not a population estimate (performed by startupticker.ch). Benchmark: 58,899 R&D FTE in all private Swiss companies. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026; startupticker.ch; FSO (2025). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 6 and p. 15; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); startupticker.ch; FSO Half grow faster than 50% a year · 60% run below break-even · deep tech: 23% EBITDA-positive against 63% of the rest Crossing growth with profitability sorts the cohort into four ways to scale: Rockets growing fast before profit, Compounders growing on their own earnings, companies investing for scale, and a small elite doing both. Every quadrant is populated, which is the healthy sign. The Rockets are the largest group and the one Swiss growth capital must serve. Deep tech sits disproportionately below the profit line because it builds more before it earns; in a venture-backed cohort that is generally consistent with investment ahead of profit rather than distress, though the survey cannot separate the two in every case. Either way, it makes the strongest case for patient money (Figure 3.5). Note. Survey population disclosing both growth and profitability (n = 58 of 75; 17 not classifiable). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 6 and pp. 19–20; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75) Swiss science attracts the world’s capital CHF 13 billion raised since 2012 · Swiss share of later-stage capital: 27% in 2019 to 2022, 13% in 2025 · 7 in 10 plan a round within two years Foreign investors have financed most of the growth of Switzerland’s scale-ups, and that capital is an asset: it makes large rounds possible and opens markets. The road to it is long, more than five years from founding to a first later-stage round, and Swiss investors kept pace with the market until 2022. Since then foreign capital has recovered faster than domestic capital, and the pipeline is loaded: most respondents already have their next financing in view. The opportunity is for Swiss capital to take a larger share of rounds that are happening anyway (Figure 4.5). Note. Later-stage capital 2012–2025 by investor origin, identified population (n = 265). Equal-split attribution among named co-investors, so the Swiss share is an upper bound. Source: startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 6 and pp. 23–25; startupticker.ch funding database (July 2026) 76% earn most revenue outside Switzerland · 79% would consider a foreign acquirer, 39% a Swiss one · with at least one third Swiss investors on the cap table, 49% consider a Swiss acquirer, against 13% with less Swiss scale-ups are international from the start: no company without European revenue has reached CHF 10 million in sales, and exposure rises with scale. Exits follow the customers, and most surveyed founders expect one within five years. The Swiss route stays open where the cap table is Swiss: companies with a Swiss-anchored investor base are far more open to a Swiss buyer or a SIX listing than those without, and the exchange has shown it can absorb focused growth stories as well as large listings. Ownership follows financing, which makes it a choice Switzerland can still make (Figure 7.2). Note. Survey population (n = 75); multi-select, so shares sum to more than 100%. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 7 and pp. 35–37; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75; investor mix n = 59) Founders ask for execution, not subsidy 73% name easier pension-fund investment · 61% standardized employee equity · 48% faster work permits · 44% stamp-duty abolition Asked which of the Startup-Agenda’s measures would help them most, founders put domestic growth capital first, and the priority sharpens with need. None of the four asks is new, and none is out of reach. All sit in the Startup-Agenda Switzerland adopted in February 2026; the legal room for institutional money has existed since 2022; Swiss venture funds now return on par with the European benchmark; and the package that secures European research access goes to the vote. Whether Switzerland can create scale-ups is settled. Carrying them to maturity is a decision, and the founders have said what it takes (Reforms overview, Chapter 9). Note. Survey population (n = 75); companies selecting each reform, multi-select. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026; Startup-Agenda Switzerland (2026). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, Key Findings p. 7 and p. 47; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75) 265 scale-ups identified by name within an estimated 400 to 500, worth a combined CHF 26.6 billion. Almost half were founded between 2016 and 2020, and 43% are spin-offs of a Swiss university or research institute. 01 The Swiss Scale-Up Landscape One feature is dominant among scale-ups: about 60% fall into the deep tech category. This clearly demonstrates where growth opportunities lie in Switzerland, and applies to all sectors and regions. […] The study confirms once again that deep tech is the sweet spot of the Swiss ecosystem. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 10–13; startupticker.ch database (July 2026); dealroom.co; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75) Where they are and what they do The survey reproduces the ranking, not the proportions. Zurich provides 48% of respondents against 34% of the population; Basel-Stadt and Geneva are clearly under-represented. Life Sciences is 23% of the survey against 41% of the population; AI & Software 29% against 15%. Findings with a Basel flavour, life sciences above all, are more visible in the population data than in the survey. Chapter findings are read against this composition throughout. Go deeper in the full report Survey vs identified population, theme by theme (Figures 1.2–1.7) — pp. 11–12 Funding profile: 45% of respondents below CHF 20m raised — p. 12 Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, pp. 11–12; startupticker.ch database (July 2026); dealroom.co; ETH Zurich; EPFL; European Spinout Report 2025 The 75 surveyed companies carry an estimated 2,659 R&D positions, about 35 per company, and 71% keep most of their workforce in Switzerland. The engine is dense, not large: about 10% exceed 250 employees, against roughly 25% in Germany. The corporate core stays at home 71% keep most of their workforce in Switzerland; the anchor loosens only gradually with size. Even among the 19 companies with 100 or more employees, 13 still employ most of their people here. Sales and local support move closer to customers; the corporate core, and much of the value creation attached to it, tends to stay. Headcount is where Swiss scale-ups trail peers abroad: 45% employ more than 50 people, but only about 10% exceed 250, against close to 25% in Germany. Note. Survey population (n = 75). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026. A research engine out of proportion to its size. In seven of ten companies more than a quarter of employees work in R&D; in 28% researchers are the majority. Summing the survey bands puts the 75 companies at an estimated 2,659 R&D positions, about 4.5% of the 58,899 R&D FTE the Federal Statistical Office counts across all private Swiss companies. Scaled to the estimated 400 to 500 scale-ups, the segment would carry on the order of 14,000 to 18,000 R&D positions, between a quarter and a third of private-sector research employment (Figure 2.3, Key Finding 1). That extrapolation is an upper bound: the sample leans deep tech, and deep tech is inherently research-heavy. Even read conservatively, a few hundred companies carry a share of the national research effort out of all proportion to their number. Source: Swiss Scale-Up Report 2026, p. 15; Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026 (n = 75); FSO (2025 release); Swiss Startup Radar 2025 Note. Survey population (n = 73 of 75; 2 preferred not to disclose). Source: Swiss Scale-Up Survey 2026. Science becomes protected technology. Nearly nine in ten responding companies employ at least one PhD holder; in nearly one in four, PhDs are more than a quarter of the workforce. 43 of 70 companies (61%) own patents or hold them under exclusive licence, and one in four holds more than ten. Switzerland files seven times more European patents per capita than the EU average. The engine runs on cap