Portfolio companies were backed with equity or long-term loans with a profit share, as SVC is trying to boost jobs in innovation in the country's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SVC said all its SFr100m would be fully invested by the end of 2013.

SVC – Ltd. for Risk Capital for SMEs, the SFr100m corporate venturing fund of Switzerland-based bank Credit Suisse, has invested a fifth of its money in 13 companies in its first year.

Portfolio companies were backed with equity or long-term loans with a profit share, as SVC is trying to boost jobs in innovation in the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SVC said all its money would be fully invested by the end of 2013.

Hans-Ulrich Meister, chief executive (CEO) of Credit Suisse Switzerland, said: "These efforts underscore our commitment to increasing the attractiveness of Switzerland as a business location and to supporting SMEs. The Swiss economy is export-oriented and growth is driven by a high level of demand from the global economy. The continuing innovative strength of Swiss companies and their outstanding quality are important success factors."

Johannes Suter, CEO of SVC, added: "As a centre of employment, Switzerland offers an abundance of talent, above-average infrastructure and a high level of quality awareness."


The 13 companies:

– Agrofrucht-Inn, which produces dried fruit that avoids the use of preservatives.

– Consenda, which has a LocalPoint product for the digital dissemination of news for local newspapers.

– Elmove, a power train for electric motorcycles.

– HeiQ Materials, winner of the Swiss Innovation Award 2010 and produces sustainable chemical coatings for industrial, textile and medical applications.

– Me2Me, which offers its customers services and digital platforms in the field of Voice2Text designed to optimize efficiency and archiving of dictated messages.

– Omnisens, which manufactures measurement, control and navigation instruments for highly sensitive installations, such as oil pipelines and power transmission lines.

– Poken, which helps the digital exchange of information, facilitating the exchange of contact data, network profiles and company documentation and previously backed by local phone operator Swisscom’s corporate venturing unit.

– Royal Tag, a producer of radio frequency identification (RFID) chip applications for counting and measuring in cattle breeding and industrial laundry services.

– Selfrag, which uses artificial lightning to fragment stones, concrete, electronic scrap, glass and other solids and has Affentranger Associates  as lead investor along with a group of private and institutional investors, including the Ammann Group.

– Silentsoft, a provider of energy optimization in large buildings and bulk inventory monitoring.

– Solar Industries, the largest Swiss producer of solar modules and at the end of April completed its third fundraising round with the issue of shares to SVC to increase its share capital from SFr28.4m to SFr30.9m.

– Sonic Emotion, which has three-dimension sound technologies. SVC took half the SFr4.1m round in September 2010, to take Sonic’s total amount raised since its founding in 2003 to SFr8.4M.

– Stratpharma, a specialist in the development, licensing and global marketing of pharmaceutical products.