Venture Leaders Fintech: Swiss fintech startups receive enthusiastic recognition in London

The Venture Leaders— the members of the Swiss National Startup Team— have a clear objective: They envision themselves as global players and are aiming for international expansion. The Venture Leaders Fintech 2023 roadshow brought ten selected Swiss entrepreneurs to London, where they benefitted from an accelerated learning curve. Through exchanges with their peers in the team, in addition to market exposure, pitch sessions with investors and experts, and hands-on business development, each startup was able to significantly strengthen its entrepreneurial network. The Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow is organized by Venturelab and the Embassy’s Swissnex team and supported by EPFL, ETH, PostFinance, and Walder Wyss.

Venturelab has organized international roadshows for the Swiss National Startup Teams for 19 years. The ambitious entrepreneurs and their promising startups are introduced to exclusive investors and potential customers in leading technology hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston, China, Hong Kong, Barcelona, London, and Munich.



Alumni of the Venture Leaders Fintech program include high-flying startups such as Crypto Finance (acquired by Deutsche Börse), eCollect (acquired by Intrum), Imburse (acquired by Duck Creek Technologies), Qumram (acquired by Dynatrace), Lend, Sonect, TP24, Wyden, and many more.

Swiss fintech startups impress UK investors
This year's Venture Leaders Fintech were selected from more than 60 applications by a jury of investors and experts. The Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow offered a one-week deep dive into London’s startup ecosystem for the founders of Aisot Technologies, Delega, Divizend Suisse, GenTwo, GOWAGO, Instimatch Global, Properti, THORWallet, TRESIO, and Yourasset.


The Venture Leaders Fintech 2023 in London

The roadshow included two investor demo days, one organized by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and their Teachers Venture Growth (TVG) team and corresponding investor contacts and one by Forestay Capital and their investor network. Furthermore, Postfinance hosted an investor networking reception to connect the Swiss National Fintech Team with UK investors.

“The program is great, you get to meet exceptional founders in London as well as join an exceptional group. Overall, it makes you challenge your company, and inspires you to be better”, said Rutger Verhoef, CEO and Co-Founder GOWAGO.



Participants were not only able to build a strong investor network in London but also learn from experienced entrepreneurs through a Q&A session with Guillaume Pousaz, the founder of checkout.com, a session with Revolut, and a Q&A session with CrowdCube. They also shared similar objectives and challenges with UK entrepreneurs during a fintech fondue dinner.

"Venturelab and Swissnex played pivotal roles in orchestrating a highly successful roadshow in London, providing a platform for interactive engagement with prominent international investors, strategic networking opportunities, and fostering collaboration among ten diverse and intriguing startups, facilitating the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and problem-solving," commented Adrian Edelmann, CEO of Instimatch.

Beyond the investor and entrepreneurs’ meetings, the founders expanded their knowledge with a valuable UK landscape and fintech ecosystem overview and a powerful fintech networking reception at the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK with 80 financial industry experts. Thanks to Swissnex the Venture Leaders Fintech could also participate at the Fintech Connect conference and pitch their startups on stage.
 

Thank you @SwissStartupsUK for hosting the Swiss National Fintech Team at the Swiss Embassy in London as part of the Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow 2023: https://t.co/n7eD84CZiB #VleadersFintech pic.twitter.com/X1apFKAn7D

— Stefan Steiner (@blogstone) December 5, 2023

"The week with the Venture Leaders was an amazing opportunity to present our startup Gentwo in front of investors and dive into the London ecosystem," added Philippe A. Naegeli, CEO and Co-Founder of GenTwo.


Stefan Steiner, Co-Managing Director at Venturelab, has supported the Venture Leaders Fintech: "Swiss startups definitely do not need to hide from global competitors and we can be proud of our Swiss National Fintech Team that will decentralize the financial industry. I am already looking forward to further news and upcoming funding rounds of these 10 startups.”

The Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow is organized in partnership with the Embassy’s Swissnex team, and supported by EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), ETH Zürich, Postfinance, and Walder Wyss.


Learn more about the Venture Leaders Fintech 2023 below: