In Switzerland, a startup generally goes through three initial funding rounds: pre-seed, seed and Series A. With each funding round, the amount grows and the investors change. Philanthropic backers and grants come first, business angels next, and venture capital funds from Series A onwards. Benchmarks drawn from Venture Kick, Innosuisse and startupticker.ch, up to date as of October 2026.
Pre-seed and seed funding pay for the company's first steps. Series A comes next, when the company needs to grow, hire or target new markets. This page details these first three steps. The later stages and the full range of players are covered in our guide to raising funds in Switzerland.
Each round serves a stated objective, and it is this objective that convinces investors. More recent cases are gathered in our startup funding rounds section.
What does a pre-seed round fund?
Pre-seed funds the move from an idea to a business project. At this stage, the risk is at its highest and conventional investors stay on the sidelines. Venture Kick, a philanthropic initiative of a private consortium, puts it bluntly: these risks are covered neither by public money nor by private investors.
Venture Kick gives an idea of the amounts involved. Its first "kick" provides 10,000 francs for an idea coming out of a Swiss university. The programme then pays out up to 150,000 francs in three stages, according to its website. Compl.AI and VectorFly each received 40,000 francs, according to the Venture Kick website consulted on 22 October 2026.
The programme's results are public, but they are its own figures. Since 2007, Venture Kick has supported 1,251 projects with 66.99 million francs of seed capital. The startups it supported went on to raise 10.234 billion francs in total. The programme reports a survival rate of 84% for incorporated companies.
Does a grant count as a funding round?
No: a grant is not a funding round, because it brings no shareholder into the capital. Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, thus funds start-ups that are not yet on the market, without taking any stake.
Its "Start-up Innovation Projects" offer targets science-based projects stemming from applied research. They must prepare a first market entry, in any field. The grant agreement is concluded with the start-up alone: no research partner is funded.
Selection goes through several filters. Three independent experts first assess the application, submitted on the Innolink platform. The Innosuisse Innovation Council then picks the projects invited to pitch, and makes the final decision. The offer's page does not publish a typical amount.
The landscape extends beyond Innosuisse. Startupticker.ch lists 70 organisations that offer grants and loans throughout a start-up's life. The portal also lists around a hundred prizes useful to young companies.
How much is raised in a seed round, and from whom?
Seed brings the first investors into the capital, in exchange for shares in the company. Business angels, individuals who invest their own money, often group together in clubs. Startupticker.ch keeps a directory of more than 100 business angel clubs, venture capital funds and corporate investors active in Switzerland.
The Venture Kick track shows the next step. Its winners can obtain an additional 850,000 francs in equity from Kickfund. On top of that comes an InnoBooster grant of 150,000 francs. The scheme thus advertises up to 1.15 million francs per startup, combining equity and grant.
None of our sources sets a typical amount for a Swiss seed round. Dilution, that is, the reduction in the founders' stake, depends on the amount raised relative to the agreed valuation. Each new round brings in new shareholders and reduces this stake.
Any announcement should be read with three questions in mind: how much, who leads the round, and for what purpose. The same grid applies to a first pre-seed round as to a raise from a family office.
What changes with a Series A?
Series A brings in professional venture capital. Venture capital funds lead the larger rounds, often alongside corporate investors, known as corporate venture capital. The money is used to grow: hiring, industrialising, targeting new markets.
A dated example: on 21 October 2026, Lausanne-based Sonexos announced a raise of 5 million francs, described as "pre-Series A" according to Startupticker. The round is led by Valquest Partners, with Bosch Ventures, private investors and business angels from the industrial sector. The Sonexos raise is meant to take its prototypes to an industrial product.
The case also shows the weight of the lead investor. Fadi Noureddine, founder and managing partner of Valquest Partners, joins the Sonexos board of directors. The startup's core technology is licensed from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
The amounts climb quickly after that. Venture Kick, for instance, relays the announcement of UniSieve and its 9 million dollars, raised to scale up its membranes.
Further along the track, Basel biotech Nouscom closed a Series D of 135 million dollars, announced on 19 October 2026. Angelini has backed the company since Series C, and all existing investors put money in again. Nouscom's Series D shows how each round builds on the previous ones.
How do you tell a funding round from a partnership?
A funding round brings money into the capital, in exchange for shares. A commercial partnership or a product launch brings in no equity, even when announced on the same day. Sonexos illustrates this: its raise comes with agreements with STMicroelectronics, the Vandewiele group and SIT, which concern production, not the round.
The table summarises the available benchmarks, stage by stage.
| Stage | What it funds | Players cited in Switzerland | Amount benchmark (source) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | Moving from idea to project | Venture Kick, Innosuisse (grants), prizes | 10,000 to 150,000 francs (Venture Kick) |
| Seed | First equity, first steps | Business angels, Kickfund | Up to 850,000 francs in equity (Kickfund, via Venture Kick) |
| Pre-Series A and Series A | Growing, industrialising, hiring | Venture capital funds, corporate investors | 5 million francs for Sonexos, October 2026 (Startupticker) |
| Later series | Trials, expansion | Syndicates of funds and corporates | 135 million dollars for Nouscom, Series D, October 2026 (Startupticker) |
Where can you find figures on the Swiss market?
The benchmark remains the Swiss Venture Capital Report. It is published by startupticker.ch and the investors' association SECA, in collaboration with startup.ch. The annual report analyses funding rounds and lists all publicly known rounds.
Its 2022 edition already analysed rounds by sector, by canton and by investment phase. The update for the first half of 2026, a 16-page document, adds a survey of 75 Swiss investors. A historical benchmark: in 2021, Swiss start-ups received a record 3.1 billion francs in venture capital.
Global averages give an order of magnitude, not a norm. According to CB Insights, the average round rose from 23 million dollars in 2025 to 49.8 million in 2026. A few giant rounds, mainly in artificial intelligence, pull this average upwards.
Key figures
- 10,000 francs: Venture Kick's first "kick" for an idea; up to 150,000 francs in three stages (Venture Kick).
- 850,000 francs: additional equity available from Kickfund, plus a 150,000-franc InnoBooster grant (Venture Kick).
- 1,251 projects supported by Venture Kick since 2007, with 66.99 million francs of seed capital (Venture Kick).
- 5 million francs: Sonexos's pre-Series A round, announced on 21 October 2026 (Startupticker).
- 135 million dollars: Nouscom's Series D, announced on 19 October 2026 (Startupticker).
- 3.1 billion francs: record venture capital invested in Swiss start-ups, in 2021 (startupticker.ch).
- More than 100 business angel clubs and funds listed, 70 grant and loan organisations (startupticker.ch).
What we don't know yet
- The usual amounts of a pre-seed, a seed and a Series A in Switzerland: none of our sources puts a figure on them. They appear in the PDF reports of the Swiss Venture Capital Report.
- Usual dilution levels: the sources consulted give neither a scale nor a valuation, for Sonexos or for Nouscom.
- The amounts paid by Innosuisse to a start-up: the offer's page does not publish them.
Sources
- Venture Kick, programme overview
- Innosuisse, Start-up Innovation Projects
- startupticker.ch, Swiss Venture Capital Report
- Startupticker, announcements of the Sonexos and Nouscom raises (October 2026), via our articles
- CB Insights, cited by Fintechnews Switzerland on 21 October 2026, via our fundraising guide
