Stefan Kuentz, Pär Lange and Alexander Schläpfer, co-heads at Swisscom Ventures, make up one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2026 Powerlist.
Dominique Mégret was head of group strategy for Switzerland-based telecoms company Swisscom when he set up Swisscom Ventures in 2007. He led the unit until February 2024 when he left to become CEO of portfolio company Ecorobotix. Rather than get a replacement from outside, Swisscom handed the reins to partners Stefan Kuentz, Pär Lange and Alexander Schläpfer who are now running the CVC unit jointly as managing partners.
The division of responsibilities means Kuentz is overseeing staff management and handling the unit’s relationship with Swisscom, Schläpfer manages fundraising activities and Lange is tasked with quality assurance on deal flow and deal management along with Swisscom Ventures’ investment committee. The portfolio was allocated across the overall team.
This is not the usual way a succession is handled at the top of a unit, but Kuentz, Lange and Schläpfer have been at Swisscom Ventures for a combined 45-plus years, and it was that experience that meant they could sell Swisscom on a sense of continuity.
Swisscom was far from the only stakeholder that had to be sold on the idea. The unit began raising money from external investors for its Digital Transformation Fund in 2018, and, when it closed its last fund four years ago at CHF 300m, over 75% of the capital came from limited partners like Swiss pension funds.
It is also seen raising a new fund as the Digital Transformation Fund ends its investment period.
“We haven’t decided on the structure yet, but it will be a similar size to in the past. The first fund with thirteen LPs was CHF 200m, the last one with nineteen was CHF 300m and it’s probably going to be in the same range,” said Kuentz, on the next fund.
One thing that has remained relatively consistent is Swisscom Ventures’ focus. Roughly half of its investments are in interesting Swiss startups with a strong preference on deep tech and spin-offs from major universities in Switzerland while the other half is international, in European, Israeli and US investments in telecoms, IT infrastructure technology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
As of early 2026, Swisscom Ventures remains an active investor, having participated in 10 new investments over the past 12 months, including Apono’s $34m B round and Mondra’s $13.3m A round and maintained a strong focus on early-stage to series C rounds.
Exits have also picked up with at least half a dozen since the start of last year. Actility being acquired by Netmore Group, Deepomatic by IQGeo, Amdocs bought Matrixx Software for $200m and Beekeeper merged with LumApps in a $1.1bn deal.
The GCV Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
Here’s a snapshot of their recent deals:
