Current venture capital financing state. Q1 2023

The last two events I have attended were a conference about Excellence in Europe organized by SECA - Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association and the presentation of the Swiss venture capital report 2023 by Innovaud and Startupticker.ch. I share here some of the impressions I got.

While financing in 2022 was drastically reduced compared to the RECORD year 2021, it stood at decent level compared to previous years ( * - 2020).

There is a positive sentiment towards this year, or definitely less pessimistic than expected by many. Remember the much uncertainty we had for this Winter? It is developing smoother. However the capital doesn’t seem to be flowing at a good pace. While 2022 capital raised by companies in Switzerland was at steady level (publicly disclosed rounds), the last quarter moved only 11% of the total amount.

Long term speaking, there is a need for growing the private equity sector and venture capital financing. Achieving more attractive valuations for companies, this way removing the imposed need of having to move to the USA or at least get quoted at US Exchanges in a later stage (60%+ of the cases).

As individuals we should claim to our investment advisors, managers of our pension funds, private or State funds, to bet for more risk/more return solutions, we are missing the returns that more risk-tolerant countries are obtaining.