All episodes

E82 [AI-Translated] Deals of the Month – January 2026 | Swiss VC Market Snapshot | Swissto12 | Chiral Nano | Sparkli

E82 [AI-Translated] Deals of the Month – January 2026 | Swiss VC Market Snapshot | Swissto12 | Chiral Nano | Sparkli

36m 32s

Here is the English version of your Spotify description for Episode 82, in your standard Burn Rate format:

In this episode of Burn Rate, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi analyze the most important startup deals from January 2026 in the Swiss venture capital ecosystem. In the Burn Rate Market Snapshot, they break down around CHF 496 million invested across 19 financing rounds, discuss the strong acceleration compared to December, recent exits without disclosed prices, and key ecosystem signals around the ETH Deep Tech Summit, Project Switzerland, and the Swiss Venture Capital Report. A look at Europe shows a stable but...

E81 [AI-Translated] Constructor | MS AI Acc | Venture Leaders | VC Report | Founder Associate | Orama VR | Schole AI

E81 [AI-Translated] Constructor | MS AI Acc | Venture Leaders | VC Report | Founder Associate | Orama VR | Schole AI

43m 48s

In this episode of Burn Rate, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi cover the latest signals from Switzerland’s venture ecosystem — recorded on Thursday, February 5. In the news segment, they discuss the first closing of Constructor Capital Fund I ($110M), the new cohort of the Microsoft for Startups Switzerland AI Tech Accelerator, and a look back at 20 years of Venture Leaders with standout ecosystem results.

The main segment is a deep dive into the Swiss Venture Capital Report 2026 (“Trend Reversal”), featuring an interview with Thomas Heimann (co-initiator and co-author). Together, they unpack what’s really behind the headline numbers:...

E80 [AI-Translated] ETH Summit | b2venture | Vi | PitchBook | Neolabs | Waterfall | Zombie-VC | Oviva | Tech5 | Sparkli

E80 [AI-Translated] ETH Summit | b2venture | Vi | PitchBook | Neolabs | Waterfall | Zombie-VC | Oviva | Tech5 | Sparkli

36m 44s

In this episode of Burn Rate, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the key signals shaping the Swiss venture capital ecosystem. Guy shares insights from the ETH Deep Tech Summit, with over 1'000 participants, around 100 spin-offs from ETH, EPFL, PSI and EMPA, and clearly rising international investor interest. In the news segment, the episode covers the final closing of b2venture Fund V (€150m), the first closing of the new Vi Partners fund (CHF 150m), and PitchBook data showing Switzerland among the global leaders in VC funding per capita. The discussion also touches on “Neolabs” – AI startups raising billions...

E79 [AI-Translated] MyBikePlan | Terralayr | Index | Project Switzerland | SWISSto12 | Ex Nunc | noriware | Alphalum

E79 [AI-Translated] MyBikePlan | Terralayr | Index | Project Switzerland | SWISSto12 | Ex Nunc | noriware | Alphalum

51m 26s

In this episode of Burn Rate, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi break down the key developments shaping the Swiss venture capital ecosystem at the start of 2026. In the news section, they discuss the exit of Zurich-based mobility fintech MyBikePlan to Germany’s JobRad Group, the €192 million mega-round raised by battery storage player Terralayr, and the upcoming generational transition at global VC firm Index Ventures following an exceptional year of exits.

The main topic of the episode focuses on Project Switzerland. Guest Michael Sauter, Project Lead of the initiative, joins the discussion to explore how Project Switzerland aims to close...

E78 [AI-Translated] Deals of the Month - Dezember 2025 | Swiss VC Market Snapshot | Assaia | Gravis | Neural | Soverli

E78 [AI-Translated] Deals of the Month - Dezember 2025 | Swiss VC Market Snapshot | Assaia | Gravis | Neural | Soverli

35m 7s

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi break down the most important startup deals from December 2025 in the Swiss venture ecosystem. In the Burn Rate Market Snapshot, they contextualize CHF 250m invested across 22 rounds, discuss a strong month for biotech M&A (including acquisitions by Grupo Landsteiner), SK Capital’s majority takeover of Swyx Biopharma, the sale of Homebuddy, and the newly published Swiss VC performance study by the University of Basel, SECA, and Deep Tech Nation.

In the Deep Dive, they analyze four standout transactions: Asaya’s USD 26.6m Series B for AI-powered airport operations, Gravis Robotics’ USD 23m...

E77 [AI-Translated] Übermorgen Ventures | Startup Founding&Bankruptcies 2025 | 10y Tenity | Burn Rate Predictions 2026

E77 [AI-Translated] Übermorgen Ventures | Startup Founding&Bankruptcies 2025 | 10y Tenity | Burn Rate Predictions 2026

32m 52s

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the key developments shaping the Swiss startup and venture capital ecosystem at the start of 2026. The news segment covers the first closing of Übermorgen Ventures’ climate-tech fund at CHF 55 million, a new IFJ report showing record company formations alongside a sharp rise in bankruptcies, and the 10-year anniversary of Tenity, which is repositioning itself with a stronger focus on AI-enabled digital finance built on blockchain technologies.

The focus topic is the team’s predictions for 2026. They outline which sectors are expected to benefit from renewed momentum, including AI as...

E76 [AI-Translated]  EPFL AI-Launchpad | SwissHealth | M&A2025 | Swiss VC-Rendite | Vesting | HomeBuddy | Assaia | Ionic

E76 [AI-Translated] EPFL AI-Launchpad | SwissHealth | M&A2025 | Swiss VC-Rendite | Vesting | HomeBuddy | Assaia | Ionic

33m 52s

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the key developments from the Swiss startup and venture-capital ecosystem. Topics include the launch of the EPFL and UBS AI Launchpad to support AI spin-offs, SwissHealth Ventures doubling the size of its evergreen digital-health fund to CHF 100 million, and Switzerland heading toward a record M&A year in 2025 despite a strong Swiss franc.

The main deep dive focuses on the first comprehensive performance study of Swiss venture-capital funds, published by the University of Basel together with SECA and Deep Tech Nation Switzerland. Based on real cash-flow data and covering more...

E75 [AI-Translated] Deals of the Month - November 2025 | Swiss VC Market Snapshot | Flexion | Mimic | Spacetek | BTRY

E75 [AI-Translated] Deals of the Month - November 2025 | Swiss VC Market Snapshot | Flexion | Mimic | Spacetek | BTRY

36m 3s

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi break down the most important developments in the Swiss startup and venture capital ecosystem in November 2025. We open with the Market Snapshot, covering investment volumes, deal activity, and exits — including a strong month with CHF 425M invested and the acquisition of SixPeaks by AstraZeneca.

In the Deep Dive, we analyze four standout deep-tech transactions that capture where Swiss innovation and venture capital are heading:

– the $50M Series A of Flexion Robotics, building the software “brain” for autonomous humanoid robots,
– the $16M Seed round of Mimic Robotics, bringing human-level...

E74 [AI-Translated] BoldBrain | Black Forest Labs | STA | Startup Radar | RLN | Gravis | Cerrion | Saporo | Xcert

E74 [AI-Translated] BoldBrain | Black Forest Labs | STA | Startup Radar | RLN | Gravis | Cerrion | Saporo | Xcert

35m 1s

In this episode of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi break down the most important developments in the Swiss and European startup ecosystem. We start with the Boldbrain Startup Challenge 2025, where Healthtech, Biotech and AI companies dominated the top spots. We then dive into Black Forest Labs’ $300M Series B — the one-year-old German AI startup whose Flux models are now considered among the world’s leading image-generation systems. We also analyse the winners of the Swiss Technology Award 2025, highlighting major trends in nanotechnology, precision medicine and industrial innovation.

Our deep dive focuses...

E73 [AI-Translated] Flexion | Swiss Spin-Off Nation | Gemini 3 | VC M&A 26 | European Tech | Distal | SpaceTek

E73 [AI-Translated] Flexion | Swiss Spin-Off Nation | Gemini 3 | VC M&A 26 | European Tech | Distal | SpaceTek

40m 26s

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi break down the most exciting developments of the week in the startup and VC ecosystem.
We discuss Flexion’s impressive $50M Series A to build the “brain” of humanoid robots, the new European Spinout Report 2025 where Switzerland dominates Europe’s deep-tech spin-off landscape, and Google’s strong return to the AI frontier with Gemini 3.

Our deep dive focuses on M&A as the megatrend of 2026: together with our guest Bernhard Trösch (Everstride Partners), we analyze how buyer profiles, price levels, and “silent M&A” have shifted — and what founders must do now to...