Mission Statement
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| "• 110 Spin-offs founded in 5 years
• 22 Spin-offs founded in 2011 alone
• Spin-off survival rate of 88%
• > 1200 new research agreements in 5 years
• > 300 patent applications in 5 years" |
Linking Science and Business
ETH Zurich is a leading global natural science and engineering university. Its technology transfer office, ETH transfer, is linking science and business and has a long tradition of supporting spin-offs.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) has an impressive five-year track record in technology transfer with 110 spin-offs, more than 1200 new research agreements and over 300 patent applications. Founding of spin-off companies has been a strong focus of the institution over the last 18 years. A lot of effort has been put into the encouragement and support of such ventures and accordingly the number of newly founded spin-offs has increased significantly over the last few years, with 22 in 2011 alone. And these companies are successful; 88% of ETH Zurich spin-offs survive the first five years. Various spin-offs have gone through a trade-sale such as Kuros-Therapeutics (Straumann), ISE (Synopsis) or GlycArt (Roche), Procedural (ESRI). A few are even listed at the Swiss stock exchange (e.g. u-blox, Cytos). Others, such as Autoform, Sensirion and Supercomputing Systems have kept their independence and are to date established Swiss companies respected in the international markets. A study published in 2008 shows that investments in ETH spin-offs pay off with an average pooled internal rate of return (IRR) of more than 40%. National and international investors have already recognized this and spent close to 170 M CHF over the last 10 years on ETH spin-offs.
These positive results are based on an exceptional mixture of excellent technologies, highly motivated and educated people and a broad and professional fostering of the entrepreneurial spirit at ETH Zurich. ETH transfer will continue to give its utmost best to prepare spin-offs for a good start, by providing on-campus housing, access to infrastructure, coaching, a wide network of partners and platforms such as the Venture business plan competition to establish local and international visibility.
Switzerland is a champion in generating new technologies. At ETH Zurich we will continue to direct all our efforts to make these available to the market. Spin-offs are an excellent vehicle for this purpose.
Come and visit ETH transfer!