Mission Statement
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| "Guiding Science-based Start-ups to Success" |
Guiding Science-based Start-ups to Success
Innovation drives the economy. Switzerland urgently needs people with exciting business ideas, who also have the drive to take on the competition and turn their vision into reality. The aim of CTI is to evolve innovation in and for the Swiss economics through a collaboration between science and the economy. For this purpose CTI launched its CTI Start-up initiative in 1996 to promote Swiss science-based start-up companies with high growth potential. CTI fosters entrepreneurship via its training and coaching courses. These activities are modular in structure and enable young entrepreneurs to get the specific support they need.
What does the CTI scheme offer?
Start-up companies are given an initial assessment and feedback on their business plan. Once accepted into the CTI Start-up programme the company is assigned a professional business coach. The CTI's coaches have a proven track record in growing start-up companies and are able to draw on a wide network of business contacts. They support the company for up to two years and stay in regular contact with them. Workshops are offered to give companies a specific boost in fields such as intellectual property rights, financing, business modeling, sales, etc. With CTI Invest companies are able to benefit from a large network of investors. In collaboration with swissnex Boston and San Francisco they have access to a huge business network in the U.S. and could even be provided with temporary office space to conduct business development on-site in the U.S.
The process can culminate with the award of the CTI Start-up label. The award is based on an extended assessment of the company by an independent board of experts and demonstrates the start-up's readiness for sustainable growth, whether independently or with additional venture capital. This award can be a real asset when it comes to securing future financing from the market. Since 1996 more than 250 companies have been awarded the CTI Start-up label. Over 85% of them are still in business. They are directly responsible for the creation of around 3500 highly-qualified jobs and have raised more than CHF 1.2 billion in external financing. A study carried out by the University of Basel in 2010 compared the performance of CTI label companies with a test group from the same technology fields that had not benefitted from such coaching. CTI label companies showed a substantially higher survival rate. They had also grown twice as fast and had been successful in acquiring more venture capital.
Conditions
To be eligible for this support, companies need to conduct their business activities in Switzerland. We look for market-driven projects with a strong technology base and adequate intellectual property protection. Projects need to be scalable with a strong market potential and are expected to generate a multi-million turnover within five years. And best of all: Our services are free. All we expect is a committed and motivated team with enough diversity to cover the key competencies needed in a start-up.
If you want to set up a strong start-up, contact us and become part of the CTI Start-up programme.