---
title: Switzerland Has Become Europe's Model for Deep Tech Investment
description: A new report ranks Switzerland first in the world for the share of venture capital going to deep tech, ahead of China and the US, and a model for Europe.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-06-17T11:50:17.426Z
updated: 2026-06-17T11:50:17.435Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/switzerland-deep-tech-investment
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-a-stunning-aerial-view-of-lucerne-switzerland-with-a-swiss-f-18558698.jpg
categories: Startups, EU Focus, Markets
content_type: News
region: Switzerland
publication: Sovereign Magazine
---

Switzerland directs a larger share of its venture capital to deep tech than any other country, according to a report published on Wednesday whose authors present the country as a template for how Europe can build [globally competitive technology companies](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/europe-sovereign-ai-talk-vs-action).

[The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2026](https://deeptechnation.ch/resources/swiss-deep-tech-report-2026) finds that 63 per cent of Swiss venture capital now flows to deep tech, the highest share of any nation, ahead of China at 56 per cent and the United States at 54 per cent. Switzerland also ranks first in Europe for deep tech investment per head, at $1,470, which places it among the top three countries worldwide alongside Israel and the United States. Swiss deep tech funding has grown roughly fivefold since 2015 to a record $2.6 billion in 2025.

The report was published by Deep Tech Nation Switzerland, Founderful, Kickfund, Startupticker.ch and Dealroom.co, and launched at the VivaTech conference in Paris.

## Why Switzerland Leads the World on Deep Tech Investment

Deep tech covers companies built on hard science and engineering, from advanced computing and artificial intelligence to robotics, where the commercial product rests on years of laboratory research before it reaches a market. The world's most valuable companies are now built on data centres, AI and robotic automation, sectors dominated by the United States and China. Switzerland is one of the few places outside those two where the underlying work is both researched and commercialised at the frontier.

What the report describes is less a sudden surge than a shift in behaviour. For years the country's strongest spinouts [left to scale elsewhere](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/klarna-s-1-37b-nyse-ipo-another-european-unicorn-flies-west-while-brussels-fiddles). Increasingly they stay, and foreign capital follows them in. Among the report's co-authors are several of the country's most active deep tech investors, who say the largest global funds no longer need persuading to look at Switzerland and now arrive on their own initiative.

"The energy and talent dynamism reminded me of what we saw in Israel and the UK in the early 2000s," said Saul Klein, founding partner of the venture firm LocalGlobe. He added that "Europe's role in the global economy during the coming decade depends highly on our ability to accelerate such ecosystems and build global category winners."

> "The energy and talent dynamism reminded me of what we saw in Israel and the UK in the early 2000s."
> — Saul Klein, Founding Partner, LocalGlobe

## Building a Deep Tech Economy Without Public Venture Capital

What distinguishes the Swiss case from the rest of Europe is how little of it was financed by the state. In France, the United Kingdom and Germany, much of the late-stage money for deep tech is channelled through public institutions such as Bpifrance, British Patient Capital and the German Future Fund. Switzerland has no equivalent, and the report's authors treat that absence as central to the story rather than a gap to be filled.

"We built one of the world's most deep tech-focused economies without a franc of public venture capital," said Wanja Humanes, partner at Kickfund and a co-author of the report. "In Germany, France and the UK, much of the late-stage money is state-backed through Bpifrance, British Patient Capital or the German Future Fund. In Switzerland that barely exists, and yet the world's best investors now come here on their own initiative, with some setting up shop. No public money had to write the cheque to make this real."

## The University Pipeline Behind Swiss Deep Tech Startups

The supply of companies traces back to two universities. ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne are Europe's leading sources of new deep tech spinouts, and the report says they have extended that lead since 2023. The country has the highest density of AI researchers in the world, twice that of the United Kingdom and the United States. It has created 3.5 times more venture-backed robotics startups per head than the US since 2020, and five times more than the UK. Artificial intelligence and machine learning now account for one in four newly founded Swiss deep tech companies, up from roughly one in nine.

The change the report emphasises is that those companies increasingly grow at home. "For the first time, the companies spinning out of ETH and EPFL are staying, scaling and attracting serious capital," said Jean-Philippe Fricker, co-founder and chief system architect of Cerebras Systems, the wafer-scale computing company. "If you want to know where the next generation of compute and AI hardware gets invented, this is a place in the world worth watching."

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, president of EPFL, said the pipeline runs directly from the laboratory. "At EPFL we see it every day: the discoveries made in our laboratories become the deep tech companies of tomorrow."

## Where the Opportunity Sits for Deep Tech Investors

For investors, the report's most pointed finding concerns late-stage capital. Foreign investors supply 88 per cent of Swiss deep tech funding at rounds of $100 million and above, against 75 per cent across Europe, while domestic capital falls to just 12 per cent at that stage. The authors read this as a market that is underweight late-stage money relative to the quality of the companies being built, and therefore one where new investors still have room to enter early.

That gap sits on top of a deepening base. The Alpine Tech Cluster anchored in Switzerland is one of only two European super clusters, housing more than 1,500 venture-backed deep tech startups, and the report counts seven times more patents per head than the European average in [microelectronics and high-precision sensors](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/swiss-startup-chipmind-says-europe-s-43bn-chip-bet-missed-the-point).

## What the Swiss Model Means for Deep Tech in Europe

The cohort of companies now moving from seed to Series A is the largest Switzerland has produced, and it is only now reaching the stage at which company value and capital raised tend to compound most sharply. The report is built as a working reference for investors, naming the established leaders and the emerging startups across robotics, AI, the future of compute, space, medtech, [biotech](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/superlab-suisse-launches-geneva-location-what-new-lab-space-means-for-switzerland-s-biotech-s) and energy. Of the 72 companies on last year's watchlist, one in three closed a funding round within twelve months of publication.

The headline ranking carries a methodological caveat. The share-of-venture-capital figure uses Dealroom.co's definition of deep tech, which includes life sciences, applied consistently across every country compared, and the United States figure already counts its large foundational-model rounds. The full report is available from Deep Tech Nation Switzerland.

## FAQ

**Q: What is deep tech?**
Deep tech describes companies whose products are built on advances in hard science and engineering, such as advanced computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and new materials. Unlike conventional software businesses, they usually depend on years of laboratory research before a commercial product reaches the market.

**Q: Why is Switzerland a leader in deep tech investment?**
The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2026 finds that 63 per cent of Swiss venture capital goes to deep tech, the highest share of any country, and that Switzerland invests $1,470 per head, first in Europe. The report attributes this to a strong university pipeline at ETH Zurich and EPFL, a high density of AI and robotics researchers, and growing interest from foreign investors.

**Q: How can investors access Swiss deep tech startups?**
The report notes that foreign investors already supply 88 per cent of Swiss deep tech funding at rounds of $100 million and above, while domestic late-stage capital is comparatively thin. It argues this leaves room for new investors to enter earlier in a top-ranked ecosystem, and it publishes sector-by-sector shortlists of companies to watch.

**Q: What does the report say about deep tech in Europe?**
It positions Switzerland as a model for how Europe can build globally competitive deep tech companies, largely without the state-backed late-stage funds used in France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The largest seed-to-Series-A cohort in the country's history is now reaching the stage where value compounds most quickly.