Venture

What Venture does

Venture is a Swiss non-profit foundation that operates Switzerland's leading annual startup competition, founded in 1997 by Dr. Thomas Knecht while he was managing director of McKinsey's Swiss office. The foundation, formally established in 2013, runs a structured multi-stage competition each year across six industry verticals (Business & Finance, Consumer Solutions, Industrials & Engineering, Medtech & Healthcare, Pharma & Biotech, and Social & Environmental Impact). Applications are submitted online via the Award Force SaaS platform from October through February, with semi-finalists (top 10 per vertical), finalists (3 per vertical), and winners selected by expert juries through live pitches culminating in an award ceremony. The organization is co-organized by ETH Zurich, EPFL, McKinsey & Company, Knecht Holding, and Innosuisse, with additional advisory support from sponsors such as Roche.

The foundation does not develop proprietary technology and explicitly identifies as a competition organization rather than a technology company. Its digital infrastructure consists of the third-party Award Force platform for application and evaluation management, a Mentoring Hub that connects semi-finalists with industry expert mentors, and an Alumni Hub for ongoing community engagement. The core "product" is the orchestration of the annual competition lifecycle: jury evaluation, pitch training, mentorship matching, and award disbursement. Total prize money exceeds CHF 500,000 annually, including a Grand Prize of CHF 150,000 (CHF 50,000 vertical winner plus CHF 100,000 Grand Prize plus McKinsey consulting package), finalist prizes of CHF 10,000, a CHF 50,000 Spotlight Award, and a CHF 10,000 Audience Award.

Venture's business model is foundation-funded rather than revenue-generating: operating costs and prize disbursement are covered by contributions from the co-organizers and Advisory Board sponsors, while mentors and jurors contribute their services pro bono. The geographic scope is restricted to startups headquartered in Switzerland or with at least one Swiss resident team member. Since 1997, competition alumni have founded over 1,500 companies and created more than 15,000 jobs in Switzerland, establishing the foundation as a central node in the Swiss early-stage innovation ecosystem.

Name

Venture

Legal name

venture foundation

Website

https://venture.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Venture is a Swiss non-profit foundation, founded in 1997, that runs Switzerland's leading annual startup competition across six industry verticals. It awards over CHF 500,000 in annual cash prizes plus mentorship and McKinsey consulting packages to early-stage Swiss startups, co-organized with ETH Zurich, EPFL, McKinsey, Knecht Holding, and Innosuisse.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Startup Competition & Entrepreneurship Support

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC)

Keywords

• Startup competition
• Entrepreneurship support
• Venture awards
• Startup mentorship
• Founder networking

Headquarters

HQ city

Zürich

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Competition Operations Funding: Funded through the venture foundation by organizers and sponsoring companies represented on the Advisory Board. The foundation was established in 2013. Activities are also supported by mentors and jurors providing services pro bono.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

Venture runs Switzerland's leading startup competition, established in 1997, awarding over CHF 500,000 in prize money annually across six industry verticals. The foundation offers a free-to-enter annual competition complemented by a Mentoring Hub that connects founders with industry experts and an Alumni Hub that maintains an active network of past participants. Venture does not take equity and operates as a non-profit foundation.

Product overview

Venture operates as Switzerland's leading annual startup competition platform, functioning as a single unified offering rather than a modular product architecture. The core product is the Venture Competition itself, which combines cash prizes (up to CHF 150,000), expert coaching, mentorship networks, pitch training, and networking opportunities. Supporting the competition are three digital platforms: the Award Force Platform for application submission and evaluation tracking, the Mentoring Hub connecting semi-finalists with industry experts, and the Alumni Hub for ongoing community engagement. The competition spans six industry verticals and runs annually from October through June.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Spotlight Award: A special recognition award within the >>venture>> competition that shines a light on innovation, creativity, and impact beyond traditional competition categories, rewarding the recipient with CHF 50,000.

Products and services

• Venture Competition

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1,500 companies founded by competition alumni
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ETH ZurichcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1997Co-organizer since the inaugural year 1997. Represents world-class scientific competence and research. Hosts over 20,000 students and 530 professors from 120 countries. Over 400 spinoff companies and 21 Nobel laureates confirm its innovative power.
• McKinsey & CompanycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1997Co-organizer providing top management consulting expertise. Consistently named world's most prestigious consulting firm. Serves clients in 134 cities in 67 countries with over 30,000 people. Provides pitch training with experts and consulting packages as prize for winners.
• Knecht HoldingcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1997Co-organizer. Dr. Thomas Knecht founded the venture competition while managing director of McKinsey's Swiss office. Knecht Holding is a diversified service company with divisions including Eurobus-Group, Knecht-Reisen, and Welti-Furrer.
• InnosuissecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1997Co-organizer. Federal agency responsible for promoting innovation in Switzerland. Provides targeted training courses, entrepreneurial mindset programs, individual coaching for startups, and supports science-based innovation projects.
• EPFLcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1997Co-organizer. Europe's most cosmopolitan technical university centered on teaching, research, and innovation. Hosts 14,000 people from 120+ countries with 13 bachelor and 24 master programs. Average of 13 high-tech startups created at EPFL each year since 1997.
• SwissTech Convention Center (EPFL)minorOthersHost venue for the 2026 Award Ceremony and final pitches on June 15, 2026 in Lausanne.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Techstars: Global equity-taking accelerator with a structured competition and mentorship model. Larger incumbent that operates a similar mentorship-driven competition format but at greater scale and with a different (equity-based) economic model.
• Slush: Large annual startup and technology event with a heavy focus on founder competitions and founder-investor matchmaking. Comparable as a high-profile ecosystem event, though not a sustained program.
• Y Combinator: Largest startup accelerator globally with a competition-style application process and strong alumni network effects. Same fundamental model (multi-stage selection of early-stage founders), but at vastly larger scale and with equity participation.

Direct peers

• Founder Institute: Global pre-seed accelerator and founder program with cohort-based selection, structured mentorship, and an education-driven model. Comparable to venture because both serve very early-stage founders and rely on structured programs rather than large equity checks.
• Seedstars: Swiss-rooted global startup competition with a similar vertical/regional selection format, mentorship, and prize-based model. Direct peer due to the shared origin in Switzerland and overlap in early-stage founder selection.
• Mass Challenge: Global non-equity startup accelerator running cohort-based competitions across multiple regions and verticals. Operates a very similar model to venture: cohort selection, mentorship, and non-dilutive prizes for early-stage founders, making it the closest direct peer in format and mission.
• Startupbootcamp: Global network of industry-focused startup accelerators running cohort-based programs with mentor matching. Direct peer on the structured competition + mentorship model, though it takes equity rather than operating as a foundation.
• venturelab: Swiss non-profit supporting early-stage founders through stages and competitions, with strong ties to Swiss universities and corporate partners. Most direct Swiss domestic peer given overlapping ecosystem role and target founders.
• Startup Weekend (Techstars): Global weekend-style startup competitions that culminate in pitches and prizes. Directly comparable pitch-and-prize competition format targeting similar early-stage entrepreneurs.

Regional players

• SICTIC: Swiss angel investor club connecting early-stage startups with Swiss investors. Adjacent Swiss early-stage ecosystem player that channels capital toward the same applicant pool that venture selects from.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ventureoffice
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC4nyp30gvlnzi_i9uawpLFw
• Facebookfacebook.com/venture.ch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/venture-companies-for-tomorrow
• Instagraminstagram.com/ventureoffice

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments46 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Venture