AAA Debiopharm backs Venture Kick

Debiopharm backs Venture Kick

Switzerland-based drugs company Debiopharm Group said it would support the country’s national pre-seed fund, Venture Kick, to help business ideas at Switzerland’s institutes of higher learning and universities.

Debiopharm is the first private company to join the ranks of the five foundations – Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Ernst Gohner Stiftung, OPO-Stiftung, Avina Stiftung and Fondation 1796 des Associés de la Maison de banquiers privés Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie – in Venture Kick, which has awarded SFr8.5m ($m) since 2007 to 233 spin-offs in a programme managed by IFJ Institut für Jungunternehmen.

The objective is to double the amount of spin-offs, by speeding up the process of launching a company and by making start-ups more attractive for professional investors. In order to meet its objectives, venture kick offers up to SFr130,000 in pre-seed capital.

Pascale Vonmont, president of Venture Kick’s strategy committee and Deputy Director of Gebert Rüf Stiftung, said partnerships between private and public actors as well as foundations were important: “We are very pleased to welcome Debiopharm among the donors who are behind the venture kick initiative. In this day and age, it is essential to work together in order to have a real and sustainable impact on society at large.”

Thierry Mauvernay, delegate of Debiopharm’s board, said: “Switzerland is a great platform for innovation and this not only the case in the life-sciences sector, our field of activity. It remains of paramount importance to support today’s young entrepreneurs who guarantee the jobs of tomorrow by launching new companies. Our institutions of higher-learning and universities are gorged with young talents; enabling them to launch their own projects seems to be an essential contribution to Switzerland’s future.”

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