Swiss Post Ventures

What Swiss Post Ventures does

Swiss Post Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Swiss Post, the state-owned postal operator of Switzerland, and operates within the parent's Open Innovation & Venture Capital division headquartered in Bern. The firm makes minority equity investments in early-stage companies — typically at Pre-Series A through Series B — with initial tickets ranging from $500,000 to $2 million, targeting startups whose working prototypes align with Swiss Post's strategic domains: logistics, mobility, financial services, and digital services. Investments are international in scope, with active portfolio companies spanning Zurich, Berlin, Paris, Helsinki, Munich, Amsterdam, Dublin, Tallinn, San Francisco, Toulouse, and Utrecht.

The program's operating model combines three offerings: (1) a Collaboration Program providing portfolio companies with project funding, reference-customer status, Swiss market access, and industry promotion; (2) venture capital investments through the Swiss Post Ventures vehicle; and (3) a Partner Network connecting Swiss Post with universities (EPFL, ETH Zurich, University of Fribourg), public institutions, and other foreign postal operators. The team is led by Thierry Golliard (Head of Open Innovation & Venture Capital) and includes an Investment Director, Principal, Investment Manager, and Investment Associate, totaling approximately ten professionals.

Monetization is indirect: rather than charging management or performance fees to external LPs, Swiss Post Ventures seeks equity returns realized through portfolio exits and strategic acquisitions by the parent. Several portfolio companies have already exited — TestingTime (acquired by Norstat), Hacknowledge and Bring! (acquired by Swiss Post itself), Metaco, and Beekeeper — illustrating the dual path of financial exit and strategic integration. The program operates within the broader context of Swiss Post's diversification strategy as the parent offsets approximately CHF 85 million in annual letter-volume losses.

Name

Swiss Post Ventures

Legal name

Swiss Post Ltd

Website

https://venture.post.ch

Company type

Public

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Swiss Post Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Swiss Post, Switzerland's state-owned postal operator, making minority investments of $500K–$2M in early-stage startups across logistics, mobility, financial services, and digital services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Corporate Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394), Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists) (FSANAAAD)

Keywords

• Corporate venture capital
• Early-stage investments
• Startup collaboration
• Open innovation programs
• Minority equity investments

Headquarters

HQ city

Bern

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Letter and newspaper delivery: Traditional postal services experiencing declining volumes and revenues, with losses of approximately CHF 85 million annually offset by diversification strategies and price increases.
2. PostFinance financial services: PostFinance, a Swiss Post subsidiary, generates operating profit through financial services including cryptocurrency offerings (22 digital assets available, 36,000+ portfolios opened since early 2024).
3. Venture capital investments: Swiss Post Ventures generates returns through equity investments in early-stage startups, seeking minority interests that allow startups to remain agile while benefiting from Swiss Post's strategic resources.
4. Post office network services: Swiss Post operates a network of over 700 post offices receiving 250,000 daily visitors, enabling service bundling and collaboration with PostFinance.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Swiss Post Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Swiss Post, investing minority equity stakes of $500,000 to $2 million in early-stage companies between Pre-Series A and Series B. Investments focus on startups in logistics, mobility, financial services, communication, and digital services that align with Swiss Post's core business areas. The initiative also offers a Collaboration Program providing project funding, reference customer status, market access, and business expertise to startups.

Product overview

Swiss Post Ventures operates as a corporate venture capital initiative under Swiss Post's Open Innovation and Venture Capital division. The firm provides three primary offerings: (1) Collaboration Program offering startups project funding, reference customer status, Swiss market access, and business expertise; (2) Venture Capital Investments through Swiss Post Ventures targeting Pre-Series A to B stage companies with $500K-$2M investment tickets; and (3) a Partner Network connecting Swiss Post with startups, universities, and institutions. The portfolio includes approximately 20 active investments spanning mobility platforms (Urban Connect, MotionTag), logistics technology (Starship Technologies, Matternet, Trusk, Otoqi), workplace tools (awork, CareerFairy, HeyCare), enterprise software (Classtime, ContractHero, Nimmsta), data/analytics platforms (Roseman Labs, Guuru), and specialized services (Profital, Hacknowledge, Seenons, klarx, getinside). Several portfolio companies have achieved successful exits including TestingTime, Metaco, Beekeeper, Bring!, and Hacknowledge.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Swiss Post Ventures – Venture Capital Investment Program Corporate venture capital initiative providing minority equity investments to early-stage startups (Pre-Series A to Series B) with first tickets of $500,000 to $2 million. Targets companies aligned with Swiss Post's business areas in mobility, logistics, communication, financial services, BPO, and digital services. Offers a lean and fast investment decision process with active business development support.
• Swiss Post Collaboration Program Open innovation program for startups with working prototypes to collaborate with Swiss Post business units. Provides project funding, acts as reference customer, offers Swiss market access, shares business expertise, and promotes startups within the industry and to potential future clients through the PIP program. Includes regular startup pitching days.
• Partner Network Swiss Post's external innovation partner network connecting the organization with startups, universities, public institutions, foreign postal companies, and corporate groups for collaboration and co-development of future technologies.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss Post cooperates with EPFL through the Center for Digital Trust to develop future technologies in untapped business areas. EPFL is a key research partner for Swiss Post's innovation initiatives.
• ETH ZurichcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss Post collaborates with ETH Zurich's Zurich Information Security & Privacy Center (ZISC) to develop future technologies in digital security and privacy.
• University of FribourgminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss Post partners with University of Fribourg's Human-IST institute for research collaboration on human-computer interaction and digital trust.
• MobilityLab SioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint project between city of Sion, Canton of Valais, EPFL, HES-SO, and Swiss Post that has developed into a testing environment for mobility-related growth topics.
• Urban ConnectcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership to holistically shape mobility of corporate customers through digitization and integration of multimodal and sustainable services. Urban Connect provides the multimodal mobility platform with Post Company Cars providing associated services.
• HacknowledgecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss Post collaborates with Hacknowledge for expertise to minimize security risks in its digital services and those of partners and customers. Swiss Post acquired Hacknowledge.
• Offerista GroupminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerProfital platform was created as a Swiss Post Startup out of collaboration with the German Group Offerista, offering digital brochures to customers.
• Swissnex NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss Post maintains a partnership with Swissnex Network as part of its external innovation partner network.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• La Poste Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Le Groupe La Poste (France), focused on early-stage investments in logistics, e-commerce, fintech and digital services. The closest functional peer to Swiss Post Ventures — both are European postal-sector CVCs that have already co-invested (e.g., Getinside).
• bpost ventures: Innovation and venture initiative of bpost, the Belgian national postal operator. Comparable as a European postal-sector CVC investing in logistics, e-commerce and digital services adjacent to the postal core.
• DHL Innovation Center / Deutsche Post DHL Group Ventures: Innovation and venture activities of Deutsche Post DHL Group, the largest European postal/logistics group. Highly comparable in mandate: backing early-stage logistics, mobility and digital services startups with strategic value for the parent.
• PostNL Innovation: Innovation and venture activities of PostNL, the Dutch national postal operator. Comparable as a Benelux postal CVC focused on e-commerce logistics, last-mile innovation and digital services.

Broad incumbents

• Maersk Growth: Corporate venture arm of A.P. Moller-Maersk, the global container shipping and logistics incumbent. Comparable as a logistics-sector CVC investing in startups aligned with the parent's supply-chain, logistics and digital strategy; broader and more international than SPV.
• Porsche Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Porsche AG focused on mobility, automotive, sustainability and customer-experience startups. Comparable because SPV also invests in mobility/urban-mobility themes (MotionTag, Urban Connect, Matternet).
• BMW i Ventures: Corporate venture arm of BMW Group investing in mobility, transportation, sustainability and industrial-tech startups. Comparable as an OEM-backed mobility CVC with overlapping themes in urban mobility and logistics.
• Prologis Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Prologis, the global logistics real-estate operator. Comparable as a logistics-adjacent CVC investing in supply-chain, last-mile and real-estate-tech — themes SPV addresses through Matternet, klarx and Trusk.
• Allianz X: Digital investment arm of Allianz Group, focused on fintech, insurtech and digital ecosystems. Comparable because SPV's strategic alignment to PostFinance places part of its mandate in financial-services / digital-asset adjacencies (e.g., Metaco, HeyCare).

Regional players

• Asendia: International e-commerce and mail logistics joint venture between Swiss Post and La Poste. Comparable as a sibling venture in the same postal ecosystem, providing cross-border e-commerce and direct-mail infrastructure that overlaps with SPV portfolio themes.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments29 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Swiss Post Ventures