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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

This week Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi cover several major highlights from the Swiss tech ecosystem: the new CHF 172m Swisscanto Growth Fund, Wyss Zurich’s impressive 10-year track record, and why Peter Thiel fully exited his Nvidia position — adding fuel to the ongoing debate around an AI market bubble.
Our deep dive features Malaica, a health-tech startup reinventing pregnancy and postpartum care in Kenya, now launching an opportunity on Oomnium.
In our listener question, we discuss whether a potential AI bubble could burst and what this means for founders — including which types of startups are most at risk...

Burn Rate – Deal of the Month: Nexthink, DeepJudge, and Corintis

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi dive into the most exciting developments in the Swiss startup and VC ecosystem of October 2025. After a full market snapshot covering all financing rounds, total investment volumes, and exits, the episode moves into a deep dive on three standout transactions:

– the >USD 3B exit of Nexthink to Vista Capital Partners,
– the USD 42M Series A of DeepJudge, the Legal AI ETH spin-off,
– and the USD 24M Series A of Corintis, a microfluidic chip-cooling startup.

We break down...

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the most exciting developments in the European venture capital ecosystem:
MYNERVA wins the Diamond Award at the 10th MassChallenge Switzerland Awards, McKinsey highlights a historic $1 trillion deep-tech opportunity for Europe, and ENSOY announces the shutdown of its production at the end of November.

In the main segment, Max and Guy wrap up their four-part mini-series on the Upscaler Program. This final episode focuses on the typical growth brakes that slow down scale-ups between 10 and 50 employees — from structures and processes to leadership challenges and external bottlenecks.

They also...