advantage is definitely over. And that they are now forced to innovate, if they want to continue to compete with financial hotspots like New York, London or Singapore. To demonstrate the economic importance of the Swiss financial center in the country, here are 3 key numbers (source: SwissBanking):

• 105’000+ jobs
• 6’136 billions in assets under management
• 18,3 billions in taxes

Switerland is counting plenty of support organizations for innovation in different sectors, like AlpICT, Cleantech Alps, BioAlps, etc. And the Swiss Federal Agency CTI (Commission for Technology and Innovation) is fostering innovation in all these sectors. Until recently, however, you didn’t heard anything about FinTech. Strangely. Of course, you need to have a real willingness to act for the players in the financial and banking industry to move forward. Which was not really the case until recently. But things are moving… and in the right direction! I’ve recently read an interview of Laurent Haug in the Swiss economic magazine Bilan (in French, you you can read it here) regarding the state of the Swiss FinTech. He’s underlining the fact that innovating wasn’t really in the DNA of Swiss banks, even though things are moving with the biggest banks. For instance, UBS is partnering with technology park BlueLion is starting to invest in FinTech startups and has even launched a startup competition… in Singapore. Laurent is also explaining that the FinTech ecosystem in Switzerland is relatively small and is behind places like London. Banks can have different strategies, like enter into partnerships, incubating startups (internal or external incubators – according to Laurent, there is an explosion of FinTech incubators in Switzerland) or buying out some companies. The key point is that they need to move, they cannot seat anymore on their assets. As often, Switzerland also lacks of prominent role models (big success stories) in the FinTech… the last big one was Swissquote. When you think back, it’s kind of a pity: Zong, the successful company of David Marcus which was sold for $240M to eBay in 2011, was originally started in… Geneva! Unfortunately, the local FinTech ecosystem has earned much of this success, as all the operations were already in the US… Laurent is also surprised there is no big Swiss conference on FinTech… This is also changing, fortunately! On May 5th, the third edition of Finance 2.0 will take place in Zürich, gathering more than 300 people. Started by serial entrepreneur and investor Marc P. Bernegger and his business partner Rino Borini, the event will cover the challenges of FinTech and give the opportunity to 6 FinTech startups to present on stage (apply here). The website is currently in German only, but the conference will be mostly in English. If you check « My Events Selection« , you may have seen that I have a 20% discount for you if you want to attend this conference (register here and insert the discount code « startupolic« ). Finally, François Briod, a young FinTech entrepreneur from Lausanne, has started a crowd-sourced list of Swiss FinTech startups and investors. You can contribute to the emergence of the Swiss FinTech community by listing the startups or investors here. You’ll find here below the current (March 19th, 2015) state of the FinTech Swiss startup list:

Geneva Area
BeCash	Payment	Cash in easily, wherever you are
SBex	Bitcoin	SBEX is operating a BTM network around Switzerland
Mobino	Mobile money	Mobino enables mobile payments for 5 billion people, delivering the future of money, available today.
Wecan.fund	Crowdlending	Wecan.fund allows savers to lend money directly to small and medium sized businesses in #Switzerland.
InvestGlass	Financial Information Platform	Private Banking Artificial Intelligence with Personalised Financial News
Lausanne Area
KiWi	Mobile money	KiWi offers to small merchants in emerging markets a mobile solution to accept and manage both electronic and cash payments
TawiPay	Remittances comparison	Comparison website for international money transfer services
OneSnap	Mobile payment	Use your phone to pay online. End the billing and shipping nightmare.
CashSentinelEZYcount	PaymentOnline accounting	Large payments. Here, now, safely.Online accounting system developed in Switzerland for small Swiss companies
NetGuardians	Risk management	Fraud, data theft, information leaks under control with behavorial software
Zurich Area
Addfin	Invesment manager	Addfin is an online secured platform that helps you to structure and manage your office, wealth management and client relations from anywhere
Contovista	Personal finance	Delightfull customer facing bank management software
DATANEXT	Asset management	Asset management cloud platform
Dealmarket	Fundraising platform	Bringin investors and fundraisers together
EasySys	Online accounting	Business softwares for SMEs
Fundbase	Investment platform	Fundbase delivers a web-based platform to discover, execute and monitor complex investments
Investiere.ch	Crowdinvesting	Crowd investing platform in Switzerland
Klimpr	Payment	Peer to peer mobile payment
Knip	Insurance	Digital insurance manager
MoneyPark	Insurance	Widest range of products, best terms and in-person advice on mortgages, insurances and investments.
MoneyVane	Asset management	Investment platform to reduce operating costs
Numbrs (CentralWay)	Personal finance	One app for all banks
Run my accounts	Accounting	Online accounting software and automation
Sellxed	Online payment	Simple plugin for online shot to accept payments
Splendit	Educational finance	Crowdfund your education
Squirro	Financial information Platform	Squirro delivers market intelligence and operational intelligence.
Swiss-Metrics	Credit Risk	Lower bad debt expense by applying well known and best practice credit risk management metrics.
TradeGear	Investment and trading	Redefine self-directed investing and trading
Wealthport	Financial information Platform	Wealthport empowers organisations to unlock their wealth of data. Automate data preparation, boost data quality and enrich data to discover the right insights, within seconds, not months

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