For the 14th year in a row, Switzerland is number one on the Global Innovation Index [1]. The country is also Europe’s leader in artificial intelligence (AI). In 2024, Swiss AI startups raised CHF 345’000’000. This amount is a 134% increase from the year before [2]. This growth gives investors a chance to support new and exciting Swiss companies.
Investing in AI is different from other areas. The technology changes very quickly, and companies compete with others from around the world. Not all AI companies grow in the same way. To understand which Swiss AI startups are strong, investors need a new way of thinking.
This guide helps investors and company founders look at growing AI and machine learning companies in Switzerland. It explains what the “growth stage” means for these companies, which ones are doing well, and how to judge the biggest risks.
What Growth-Stage Means for Swiss AI Startups
For an AI company, the “growth stage” is about more than just how much money it has raised. It means the company is moving from research to selling its product widely [3].
Three signs show a company is in the growth stage:
- Funding: The company has raised money beyond its first “seed” rounds. In Switzerland, seed funding is usually under CHF 2’000’000 [4]. Growth funding rounds are much bigger. For example, Yokoy raised USD 26’000’000 [5], and Unique raised USD 30’000’000 [6]. These large amounts show that investors believe in the company’s business plan.
- Customers : The company has paying customers, not just test users. Scandit has over 1’700 customers around the world [7]. DeepJudge’s sales grew by 500% in one year [8]. These numbers show that people want to buy what these companies are selling.
- Team: The team is getting bigger. Early companies are run by a few founders. Growth-stage companies need more employees to grow. A team with more than 15 people often means the company is ready to scale up.
Swiss AI companies have special challenges at this stage. It is hard to find talented workers because of global competition. Building trust in areas with many rules, like finance and healthcare, takes a long time. Also, training large AI models costs a lot of money. Because of these challenges, Swiss AI startups often focus on solving problems for specific industries.
Six Swiss AI Companies at Growth Stage
Switzerland has many AI companies that are selling their products successfully. Here are six examples of what a growth-stage company looks like.
- Scandit
Scandit started in 2009 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich. It uses computer vision, which helps computers “see,” to scan barcodes and collect data [9]. In 2022, the company raised USD 150’000’000 and was valued at over USD 1’000’000’000 [10]. Scandit has more than 1’700 customers, including major companies like Carrefour and FedEx [7]. The company’s yearly income doubled between 2020 and 2022 [11]. Scandit is based in Zurich, and Swiss investors like Swisscom Ventures supported it early on [12]. - Yokoy
Yokoy started in 2019 in Zurich. The company uses AI to automate company spending, like managing expenses and invoices [13]. It raised USD 26’000’000 in its Series A funding round [5].Yokoy now works with over 700 companies, including well-known brands like Breitling and On Running [14]. Its technology saves finance teams many hours of manual work. The company was also backed by Swisscom Ventures [15]. - Unique
Unique creates AI tools for finance and sales teams. In February 2025, the company raised USD 30’000’000 [6]. The Swiss stock exchange operator, SIX, uses Unique’s product for its 4’000 employees [16]. This use shows the technology can work for large businesses. Unique is based in Zurich and was started by founders who have built companies before [17]. - LatticeFlow
LatticeFlow is another spin-off from ETH Zurich that started in 2020. The company works on making AI systems more dependable and safe [18]. LatticeFlow has raised at least USD 17’800’000 [19]. AI teams at Siemens, the Swiss Federal Railways, and even the US Department of Defense use LatticeFlow’s tools [20]. This client list shows the company serves both business and government customers. It is based in Zurich and received money from Swiss investors like b2venture [21]. - Swiss-Mil
Swiss-Mile was created at ETH Zurich in 2023. The company makes self-driving delivery robots for businesses [22]. It raised USD 22’000’000 in early 2024 [23]. One of its investors is Bezos Expeditions [24]. Swiss-Mile is located in Zurich, a major center for robotics in Switzerland. - DeepJudge
DeepJudge was ranked third in the 2025 Top 100 Swiss Startup Award [25]. The company uses AI to help lawyers review contracts and other documents [26]. DeepJudge raised USD 42’000’000 in its Series A funding round [27].
The company’s sales are growing by over 500% each year [8]. This rapid growth shows that law firms find its product very useful. DeepJudge is located in Zurich.
The Swiss AI Ecosystem: Where Innovation Happens
Swiss AI startups are not alone. They are part of a strong network of universities, research labs, and business partners.
Academic Foundations
ETH Zurich and EPFL are among the best universities in Europe for creating new technology companies [28]. ETH Zurich has started 583 companies. In 2024, AI and machine learning was the top category, with 10 new companies formed [29]. These schools give startups access to top researchers and talented students.
The Swiss National AI Institute was launched in October 2024 by ETH Zurich and EPFL to support AI research and new ideas [30]. It received a grant of CHF 20’000’000 for 2025-2028 [31]. Swisscom is a key partner [32]. One of its goals is to build a Swiss AI language model by summer 2025 [33].
Where Startups Cluster
Zurich is the main center for AI in Switzerland. It is home to research labs for major tech companies like Google, Meta, and OpenAI [34]. This concentration of talent creates both opportunities and challenges. Startups can hire skilled people, but they must compete with large companies for those same engineers.
In 2024, Zurich had 194 startup funding rounds, the most in Switzerland. The area around Lausanne and Geneva had 151 rounds [2]. Many AI companies in that region focus on healthcare because of EPFL’s strength in life sciences.
Corporate Partners and Customers
Swiss companies are eager to use AI. SIX uses Unique’s platform. Siemens works with EthonAI and LatticeFlow. An AI fraud-fighting tool from Netguardians protects 60% of Swiss state-owned banks [35]. These business relationships help startups prove their technology works and improve their products.
Government Support
Switzerland supports new companies from the ground up. Innosuisse is a government agency that gives money to early-stage companies. The Swiss National Science Foundation gave four times more money to AI research in 2022 than it did in 2017 [36]. This support helps turn new research into real businesses.
AI Subsectors in Switzerland
Swiss AI companies are strong in several different areas.
Applied AI
Switzerland’s strongest area in AI. Here companies use AI to fix specific problems in an industry. There are many growing companies in financial technology (Yokoy), legal technology (DeepJudge), healthcare (RetinAI), and real estate (PriceHubble) [37]. They succeed because they understand their industry’s needs very well.
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Switzerland has a history of great engineering. This background can be seen in the robotics companies coming from ETH Zurich. Swiss-Mile builds robots for industry, and ANYbotics makes robots that inspect buildings [38]. Both have raised a lot of money. This area combines AI software with hardware, which makes it harder for new competitors to enter.
Computer Vision
Computer vision allows machines to understand images and videos. This area is well-developed with uses in shipping, retail, and manufacturing. Scandit is the most successful company in this space. Other growing companies like LatticeFlow and Viso.ai are also doing well [39].
Natural Language Processing
Natural Language Processing (NLP) helps computers understand human language. Companies in this area work on analyzing text and processing documents. For example, Legartis helps lawyers check contracts [40]. The Swiss AI Initiative also released Apertus, an open language model, showing that this is an important area for the country [41].
Machine Learning Infrastructure
Fewer Swiss companies build tools just for managing machine learning projects, which is called MLOps. But the skills are in high demand [42]. Organizations like the Swiss AI Center offer tools to help companies use machine learning models [43]. Other companies like Toloka provide platforms to support the entire process [44].
How to Evaluate Swiss AI Startups
Judging growth-stage AI companies requires looking at different factors. These five are the most important.
Team Background
Check the education and work history of the founders. Many top Swiss AI companies, like Scandit and Swiss-Mile, were started by people from ETH Zurich or EPFL [7] [22]. Other founders have a lot of experience in their industry. The team at Unique, for example, has started successful companies before [17]. A strong technical background often signals that the founders deeply understand the technology.
Customer Validation
Having real, paying customers proves that a company’s technology is useful. EthonAI works with Siemens [46], and Unique’s customers include SIX [16]. Visium has built over 250 AI solutions for major companies like Roche and Nestlé [47]. Look for companies with well-known customers. Ask how many customers they have and if they are growing. A fast growth rate, like DeepJudge’s 500% increase, is a very good sign [8].
Data Advantages
AI models need data to learn and get better. A company with a special dataset that others cannot get has a strong advantage. Ask where the company gets its data. Some companies build this advantage over time. As more customers use their product, the company gets more data, which makes the product even better.
Go-to-Market Traction
Look at how the company sells its product. Scandit has 1’700 customers [7], and Yokoy has 700 [14]. These numbers show they know how to find and win customers. Selling AI to large businesses can take a long time. Companies that have found a way to sell their products more quickly have an advantage.
Model Performance
It is important that an AI model works well, but companies rarely share their performance numbers. Instead, look for other signs. Neural Concept says its AI makes complex computer models run 1’000 times faster [48]. Legartis says its AI was trained by lawyers [49]. These statements suggest the product offers real value.
Risks to Watch
Investing in AI has its own unique risks.
Talent Competition
Two-thirds of Swiss technology companies say they have trouble finding workers with AI skills [50]. Big companies like Google and Microsoft hire many engineers in Zurich, which makes it hard for startups to compete for talent. Swiss companies also sometimes have trouble finding experienced sales and business leaders. Many of them open offices in the US to find this talent [51].
Big Tech Competition
Swiss startups often compete with huge companies like OpenAI and Google. They succeed by focusing on one industry very well. For example, Unique focuses on finance teams [6], and DeepJudge focuses on legal teams [26]. This specific focus gives them an edge. Switzerland’s reputation for privacy and security also helps them compete against US companies.
Regulatory Change
The European Union’s AI Act will be fully in place by August 2026 [52]. Swiss companies with customers in the EU will have to follow these new rules. Switzerland also updated its own data privacy law in September 2023 [53]. Companies that design their AI systems with privacy in mind from the start can use this as a selling point.
The Swiss Trust Advantage in AI
Switzerland is creating a brand around “trustworthy AI,” but there is more than just branding. The Swiss National AI Institute is focused on creating AI that is open, clear, and fair [30] [54]. The Apertus language model is a good example. It was built using public data and was carefully checked to protect people’s privacy [41]. This approach is different from many commercial AI models that are kept secret.
Swisscom’s Swiss AI Platform lets businesses use powerful AI models while keeping their data safe within Switzerland [55]. This feature helps with privacy concerns. The government is also working on a Digital Trust Label to show which digital services are reliable [56].
For investors, this trust advantage means Swiss AI companies can be successful in sensitive areas like finance and healthcare. For founders, it means that being clear about data privacy is a key to success.
Market Size and Growth
The Swiss AI market is growing quickly. It is expected to grow from USD 1.74’000’000’000 in 2024 to USD 7.71’000’000’000 by 2030 [57]. Generative AI could add about 11% to Switzerland’s economy in the next ten years [58].
Investors are taking notice. In 2024, almost one-third of all money invested in Swiss deep tech companies went to AI startups [59]. The CHF 345’000’000 invested in AI startups in 2024 was 134% more than the year before [2].
Healthcare and biotech still get more total funding in Switzerland [60]. But AI is the fastest-growing area. Most Swiss AI companies plan to sell their products all over the world.
For investors, this situation creates a good opportunity. The cost to invest in an early Swiss AI company can be lower than in Silicon Valley, but the quality of the talent and technology is just as high.
Finding Investment Opportunities
Traditionally, growing Swiss AI companies have raised money from venture capital firms, not crowdinvestors. Some of the top investors are Swisscom Ventures, b2venture, and Redalpine [61]. Large US investors also fund Swiss startups [62].
Angel investor groups like SICTIC often invest in very early-stage companies [63]. Growth-stage funding rounds are typically too large for individual angel investors. For example, Swisscom Ventures usually invests between USD 2’000’000 and USD 10’000’000 to start [64].
Opportunities for individual investors are growing as new platforms offer access to different types of assets. Multi-asset platforms made for Swiss investors (like CapiWell) can provide access to deals in real estate, lending, and private companies that were once only for large institutions.
For founders, it is important to know what investors expect at each stage. Growth-stage investors want to see more than just good technology. They want to see a clear sales plan, good financial numbers, and a path to success.
Information Rights
Information rights are rules about what financial reports you get. Swiss law gives basic rights, but you should ask for more in your agreement [14].
Big investors usually get [15]:
- Yearly financial reports that have been checked by an accountant.
- Financial reports every three months.
- The company’s plan for spending for the year.
Crowdinvesting investors usually get updates every three or six months through the platform.
Responsible AI as a Competitive Edge
The idea of creating fair and ethical AI is becoming a real business advantage.
Groups like AI Swiss are working to build a future where AI helps people [65]. Startups are creating businesses based on this idea. FairwAI uses AI to find and fix bias in healthcare and hiring [66]. Unit8 is a company that has promised to use data and AI responsibly [67].
The Swiss National AI Institute’s focus on trust and openness supports these efforts [30]. It is even working on projects to build AI for communities that are often overlooked [68].
When looking at AI companies, investors should ask about their responsible AI practices. How do they handle data? What do they do to prevent bias? Companies that can answer these questions well are better prepared for the future.
Takeaways for Investors and Founders
Swiss AI and machine learning startups have a special mix of top technical talent, a strong focus on specific industries, and an advantage built on trust and high standards.
For investors, the opportunity is in supporting growth-stage companies that have already proven their technology works. The six companies described in this guide show what success looks like: well-known customers, fast sales growth, and large funding rounds.
For founders, success comes from mixing great technology with smart business plans. The winning Swiss AI startups understand their industry’s problems better than general AI tools can. They build teams with both research and sales skills. They also use Switzerland’s reputation for trust as a way to stand out.
The support system in Switzerland is strong. Universities provide a steady stream of talent, business partners help prove the technology works, and the government supports new ideas.
The challenges are also real. It is hard to hire talented people, and rules can change. But Swiss companies that focus, build data advantages, and execute their plans well can succeed on a global stage. AI is a tool that is changing every industry. The best investment opportunities are in the companies that are leading this change.
For Swiss investors, navigating this high-growth sector requires a balanced plan. Investments in exciting fields like AI can offer great returns but also come with high risk. This challenge is why a multi-asset approach is so important. Using a platform like Capiwell, Swiss investors can balance high-risk healthcare and technology bets with more stable alternative investments, creating a more secure and diversified portfolio.
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