2018 Startup GUIDE - 10th Edition

18 | COVER STORIES
Where do you see the CVC industry in five years from now?
CVC has emerged as an important function in the open innovation
ecosystem for large corporates alongside M&A, strategy
and R&D. So, the number of CVCs has grown from 250 dedicated
units when we first started to about 1’500 worldwide today. In
my view, there will certainly be downcycles on the road ahead,
which are healthy for the system as a whole, but ultimately CVC
is here to stay as one of the key investor types in the ecosystem.
In particular, Asian corporates are driving the trend that will bring
CVC to the next order of magnitude. For instance, Softbank has
closed their Vision Fund with USD 100bn and deployed USD30bn
already, on par with Tencent that has spent upwards of USD30bn
between 2015 and 2017.
Facts and Figures
Swisscom Ventures is the venture capital arm of
Swisscom AG, the leading telecommunications and
IT provider in Switzerland. Since our inception in
2007, we have invested in over 50 IT, digital media
and telecommunication companies from our offices in
Switzerland (Zurich and Lausanne) and the USA (Silicon
Valley). As a strategic investor, we offer entrepreneurs
access to our technical infrastructure and market
channels in addition to financial support. We focus on
sectors of domain expertise such as Telco & IT Cloud,
DeepTech and Cybersecurity as well as Big Data & AI
related new business models.
Offices
Foundation 2007
AUM
Employees 9
Target Investment Size
Target Geographies
Target Sectors
Investment Style
Deal Structures
Key Investment Criteria
Zurich, Lausanne, Palo Alto
CHF 300m
1 – 3MCHF initial commitment at
seed / early stage
Switzerland, Europe, USA, Israel
ICT & DeepTech, IoT, Enterprise
Solutions, Security, Fintech, Media
& Ads, eHealth
Active
5 – 25% equity stake, minority
Strategic fit to SC Group, team
quality, market maturity & growth
potential
SWISS STARTUP GUIDE 2018