The Swiss Founders Fund (SFF), an early-stage venture capital firm, is presenting the first results of its venture-building arm. According to Startupticker.ch, three companies have emerged from the first cohort of SFF Studio, a 14-week programme for experienced entrepreneurs. All three are based in Zurich and work in artificial intelligence: voice AI, data protection in the face of AI, and agentic AI.

500 applications, eight builders, three companies

The first edition attracted 500 applications, according to Startupticker.ch. Eight “venture builders” were selected to form the cohort in Zurich. Their mission: explore problems, test solutions and build a company with the support of mentors and operators. By the end of the programme, three companies had been born.

A structured path

Each team followed the same path: a two-week bootcamp, a build phase, a formal decision (continue, pivot or stop), then a go-to-market sprint.

Patrick Degen, a partner at SFF Studio alongside Christian Mischler and Jacopo Trinca, sums up the approach: “We created SFF Studio to put experienced builders in front of real customers from the very first week and let the facts decide which ideas survive. That involved pivots, a merger and one project we chose to stop, and it gave us three companies we are proud to support. Our role now is to help them become independent companies.”

Cedric: an AI teammate for small businesses

Cedric takes care of the follow-up work that often falls through the cracks in small organisations. The tool works in Slack, Discord, Telegram and in its own web app; users connect Gmail and the tools they already use. They then ask it, in plain language, to follow up with clients, update a CRM, prepare invoices, summarise meetings or turn conversations into tasks. Important actions must be approved by the user.

In terms of traction, Cedric has reached nearly 3,000 users, including agencies, creative teams and sales teams, according to Startupticker.ch. The company has also started an enterprise pilot project with a European industrial company, whose name has not been disclosed. A pilot, not a firm contract: the distinction matters.

Underheard: customer interviews conducted by an AI

Underheard offers an AI interviewer that conducts customer interviews around the clock and draws structured conclusions from them. The client team describes what it wants to learn; the platform designs the interview, from a short feedback exchange to a full market study. The AI conducts each conversation, asks follow-up questions, then groups the answers by theme and links each finding to the quotes that support it, with results available within minutes.

In its first three months, Underheard conducted interviews for 27 organisations, from hotels to multinational brands, according to the source.

Cedreon: AI for professions bound by professional secrecy

Cedreon targets businesses that handle confidential client data, such as law firms, fiduciaries and family offices, and enables them to use the leading language models securely. Its key strength: automatic masking. Before a question reaches the AI model, Cedreon replaces names, account numbers and other sensitive data with placeholders, then reinserts the real values for the person who asked the question.

Clients can sign a data processing agreement or an agreement relating to Swiss professional secrecy with Cedreon. On request, it uses providers that process data in Europe or in Switzerland; it does not store the data. Launched in July this year, the company signed its first paying clients within a few weeks, followed by paid pilots with fiduciaries and law firms. By mid-September, the team had delivered a web workspace, desktop applications for Mac and Windows and an API.

Launch, pilots, funding: what to distinguish

The milestones reached are not of the same nature. Cedreon is the only one of the three for which the source gives a launch date, followed by paying clients and paid pilots. Cedric highlights a user base and a pilot with an industrial company. Underheard reports the number of organisations for which it has conducted interviews. No funding round has been announced for these companies.

Nor does the source specify what the SFF takes in exchange for its support (equity stake, amount invested or other terms), or the names of the founders of the three companies. It states only that the SFF will continue to support the three companies until they become independent businesses.

A second cohort in 2027

With SFF Studio, the Swiss Founders Fund does not merely invest in start-ups: it builds them itself, following the venture studio model. SFF Studio is preparing a second cohort, planned for 2027; applications can be submitted at sffstudio.com.

Sources

  • Startupticker.ch: “First three ventures emerge from SFF Studio’s inaugural cohort”