Swiss Champions Fund Launches with Up to CHF 100 Million for Series A/B Rounds from Venture Leaders
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The first dedicated growth fund for Venture Leaders alumni in Switzerland. First close planned for Q4 2026; first investments starting in 2027.
As the leading international roadshow for Swiss startups, Venture Leaders has supported some of Switzerland’s most successful technology companies over the past 20 years. But what comes after Venture Leaders?
Until now, the answer has usually been the challenging road to raising growth capital. Last night, Christian Winkler and Michael Wieser announced the Swiss Champions Fund, a venture capital fund managed by TIE Capital Partners with a target volume of approximately CHF 100 million.
The fund will invest exclusively in companies from the Venture Leaders programùe, acting as a lead or co-lead investor in Series A and Series B rounds. Typical initial investments range from CHF 3.0 million to CHF 5.0 million. The plan is to build a concentrated portfolio; this will be the first Swiss fund to focus specifically on this stage and this particular pipeline.
The launch aims to strengthen the availability of growth capital for Swiss startups and complement existing financing opportunities. The amount of venture capital invested annually in Swiss startups has more than tripled since 2016, from around CHF 940 million to just under CHF 3 billion. Despite this progress, access to larger growth rounds and international lead investors remains one of the major challenges within the Swiss startup ecosystem. As a result, Swiss founders increasingly raise growth capital in London, Berlin, or the United States, thereby ceding substantial ownership stakes in their most successful companies.
“Switzerland doesn’t have an innovation problem – it has a scaling capital problem. Switzerland has been producing world-class companies for years. With the Swiss Champions Fund, we aim to become the growth partner for the most successful Venture Leaders companies and support them during their critical growth phases,” say Christian Winkler and Michael Wieser, Managing Partners of the Swiss Champions Fund.
The fund will become a main sponsor of Venture Leaders and invest exclusively in companies from the Venture Leaders programme. Each year, approximately 60 companies are accepted into Venture Leaders and form the fund’s exclusive investment pipeline.
The launch was announced on the evening of 24 June 2026, during Venture Leaders 20th-anniversary celebration in Zurich.
ABOUT THE SWISS CHAMPIONS FUND
The Swiss Champions Fund is a fund that focuses exclusively on Series A and Series B investments in Swiss deep-tech companies from Venturelab’s Venture Leaders program. Managing Partners Christian Winkler and Michael Wieser bring many years of experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and fundraising. Together, they have been involved in establishing, structuring, and financing fund and investment structures with a total volume of approximately CHF 200 million.