What Kick Foundation does

Kick Foundation is a Swiss non-profit foundation established in 2021 and headquartered at St. Alban-Vorstadt 12, Basel, in the "Haus der Stiftungen." It was founded by Ernst Göhner Stiftung (EGS) and Gebert Rüf Stiftung (GRS) with the stated mission of strengthening Switzerland as a business and innovation location by promoting young entrepreneurial talent at Swiss schools and universities. The foundation operates a meta-orchestration model that bundles existing and new startup-support initiatives into a single graded value chain: Idea Kick (school-level idea validation), Talent Kick (1–2 year programs at universities for students and doctoral candidates), Venture Kick (a 9-month funding programme for entrepreneurial scientists), InnoBooster (deeptech acceleration for science-based businesses already in the Venture Kick process), and First Ventures (early-stage ventures integrated from GRS). A programme called Startup Spirit @ School, delivered with operative partner IFJ Institut für Jungunternehmen, brings real-world entrepreneurial experience into vocational classrooms.

The foundation does not sell products or services and does not accept unsolicited grant applications. Its economic inflows are foundation funding from its two founding partners. In the most recent disclosed period the foundation distributed CHF 12,000 to IdeaKick, CHF 805,773 to TalentKick, and CHF 9,367,916 to Venture Kick, totaling CHF 10,185,689 across the programs. Beyond its programs, the foundation participates as an investor in early-stage Swiss deep-tech rounds, including BTRY AG's $5.7M seed (2025-11-06) and Mosaic SoC's $3.8M pre-seed (2026-04-30). Kickfund, a legally independent fund launched by the founding partners, extends the model by donating to the pipeline and investing in the most promising ventures emerging from it.

The foundation's board comprises President Dr. iur. Suzanne Avedik, Vice-President Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart, and members Philip Bodmer, Sandra Tobler, Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler, Samuel Bon, and Nicolas Johner, with Dr. sc. nat. Pascale Vonmont leading the Foundation Office. Track-record metrics attributable to the broader Kick ecosystem — though largely predating the 2021 foundation through Venture Kick — include CHF 10.2 billion raised by 986 VK-Startups since 2007, 16,108 jobs created by those startups, and the fact that 10 of the TOP 10 and 66 of the TOP 100 Swiss startups are Venture Kickers. Talent Kick has formed 121 teams since 2021 and those teams have raised CHF 45 million.

Name

Kick Foundation

Legal name

Kick Foundation

Website

https://kickfoundation.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Kick Foundation is a Swiss non-profit foundation based in Basel that orchestrates a staged entrepreneurship support pipeline—Idea Kick, Talent Kick, Venture Kick, InnoBooster, and First Ventures—serving young Swiss entrepreneurs from school through growth financing, funded by Ernst Göhner Stiftung and Gebert Rüf Stiftung.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Entrepreneurship Development Programs

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Youth Business Incubators & Accelerators (EDAMAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Education Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAK)

Keywords

• Entrepreneurship support programs
• Startup funding initiatives
• Founder training programs
• Deep tech acceleration
• Innovation grants

Headquarters

HQ city

Basel

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Foundation Funding: Kick Foundation receives funding from its founding partners Ernst Göhner Stiftung (EGS) and Gebert Rüf Stiftung (GRS) to operate its entrepreneurship support programs including IdeaKick, TalentKick, and VentureKick.

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Kick Foundation operates a multi-stage entrepreneurship support ecosystem that provides training, coaching, team-building, and grant funding to young entrepreneurs and scientists across Switzerland. It runs five interconnected programs — IdeaKick, TalentKick, VentureKick, InnoBooster, and First Ventures — that form a graded value chain from idea validation in school, through team creation and business case implementation at universities, to growth financing for science-based deeptech startups.

Product overview

Kick Foundation offers a multi-stage entrepreneurship support ecosystem consisting of five interconnected programs: Idea Kick (for school-level initiatives), Talent Kick (for university students and doctoral candidates with 1-2 year support), Venture Kick (a 9-month funding programme for entrepreneurial scientists), InnoBooster (for deeptech businesses with high market potential), and First Ventures (for early-stage ventures). The programs are designed to support entrepreneurs from their first idea in school through tertiary education to growth financing, forming a comprehensive value chain from idea validation to business case implementation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Idea Kick: Program supporting young entrepreneurs from school-level initiatives, links them to follow-up programs, includes Startup Spirit @ School bringing real-world entrepreneurial experience into school classrooms.
• Talent Kick
• Venture Kick
• InnoBooster
• Startup Spirit @ School

Products and services

• IdeaKick School-level entrepreneurship program that supports young entrepreneurs from initial idea validation, links them to follow-up programs in the Kick pipeline, and includes the Startup Spirit @ School initiative that brings real-world entrepreneurial experience into school classrooms.
• TalentKick University-level program that promotes committed students and doctoral students interested in entrepreneurial implementation through a 1-to-2-year support programme based at their university, including team creation and business case implementation.
• VentureKick A 9-month funding programme for entrepreneurial scientists at Swiss universities designed to take promising business ideas from research to market through staged funding and coaching.
• InnoBooster Program aimed at speeding up innovative, science-based deeptech businesses that have already entered the Venture Kick process and promise high market potential; fully integrated into the Kick Foundation funding pipeline.
• First Ventures Gebert Rüf Stiftung initiative integrated into the Kick Foundation funding pipeline that supports early-stage entrepreneurial ventures emerging from the Kick ecosystem.
• Startup Spirit @ School Programme that brings Jungunternehmer:innen (young entrepreneurs) and their founder stories directly into Berufsschulen (vocational schools) through interactive Story-Talks, providing real-world entrepreneurial experience.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• IFJ Institut für JungunternehmenminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerOperative partner for the Startup Spirit @ School program, helping to bring real-world entrepreneurial experience into school classrooms.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Entrepreneur First: Talent-first accelerator that brings together individuals before they have a company to form deeptech startups. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both focus on identifying and forming technical founders (often scientists) into startups, with EF operating a global model vs. Kick's Switzerland-only approach.

Broad incumbents

• MassChallenge: Global non-profit accelerator running equity-free programs for early-stage startups across multiple geographies and verticals. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both are non-profit, equity-free ecosystem orchestrators supporting high-potential founders, though MassChallenge is far larger and more international.
• Innosuisse: Swiss federal innovation promotion agency funding applied research, startup creation, and innovation projects across all sectors. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both channel public/philanthropic capital into Swiss startup creation and deeptech commercialization, though Innosuisse operates at much larger scale and on a broader mandate.
• Techstars: Global accelerator network running 13-week cohort programs with standardized mentorship and seed investment. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both operate structured, time-boxed acceleration programs with milestone-based funding, though Techstars takes equity and operates globally.
• Startupbootcamp: Global accelerator running industry-specific programs (FinTech, InsurTech, Health, etc.) with structured mentorship and follow-on funding. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both provide accelerator-style training and funding pathways, though Startupbootcamp is industry-vertical focused and operates across multiple geographies.
• Y Combinator: Global benchmark accelerator running fixed-duration cohort programs and providing seed capital plus demo-day exposure. Comparable to Kick Foundation's Venture Kick because both run structured, milestone-based funding programs with competitive selection, though YC operates at vastly greater scale and globally.

Direct peers

• IFJ Institut für Jungunternehmen: Swiss non-profit foundation focused on supporting young entrepreneurs through training, coaching, and competitions. Directly comparable to Kick Foundation because it operates in the same Swiss entrepreneurship-support niche and is already an operative partner of Kick Foundation via the 'Startup Spirit @ School' program.
• venturelab: Swiss startup competition and training platform running the 'Top 100 Swiss Startup Award' and supporting early-stage founders with coaching and investor access. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both serve as talent-discovery funnels for the Swiss startup ecosystem and operate graded, competitive selection processes.

Regional players

• Seedstars: Swiss-founded global accelerator and competition focused on emerging-market startups. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both run graded startup competitions (Seedstars Prize vs. Venture Kick) and operate accelerator-style support programs, though Seedstars targets emerging markets while Kick targets Switzerland.
• Founderful: Swiss pre-seed venture fund running structured pre-seed programs for Swiss founders. Comparable to Kick Foundation because both target early-stage Swiss founders and operate in overlapping deal flow — notably Founderful led the Mosaic SoC pre-seed round in which Kick Foundation also participated.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kickfoundation/posts/?feedView=all

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments3 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Kick Foundation