Venture Kick Foundation

Offers Venture Kick Foundation as a Swiss startup launch platform with staged grant and convertible growth support.

Venture Kick Foundation is a Swiss philanthropic foundation established in 2007 to back early-stage startups emerging from Swiss universities and research institutions. The foundation sits in the Kick Foundation structure and is co-funded by a consortium that includes Gebert Rüf Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Hauser-Stiftung, Fondation Alcea, ESA BIC Switzerland, Swisscom, and Deeptech Nation Switzerland Foundation.

Its model is a three-stage package capped at CHF 150,000 per startup. Stage 1 is a CHF 10,000 non-repayable grant, while Stage 2 and Stage 3 are CHF 40,000 and CHF 100,000 convertible loans. Stage 1 is reserved for business-development costs and cannot be used for incorporation capital or founder salaries; the program is open to Swiss startups only.

That structure makes Venture Kick a disciplined launch platform rather than a broad subsidy fund. Since 2007 it has backed more than 1,250 startup projects, and the portfolio metrics point to substantial follow-on momentum, including roughly CHF 60 million deployed, 84% survival, and two unicorns, Climeworks and Cyberhaven. Applicants succeed when they can show a credible company formation path, a clear market problem, and progress that can justify moving from grant support into convertible capital.