Wingman Ventures eyes new USD 120m fund to back Swiss startups

“Our target for the fund is higher this time, but we have the same strategy – we just want to put in bigger cheques in at first and for follow-ons,” Weder said. “We will still be acting as the lead investor as pre-seed stage.”

The VC leads pre-seed funding rounds for Switzerland-based technology companies and has invested in sub-sectors including consumer technology, B2B software and industrial technology.
The firm’s 2019-vintage, USD 80m debut fund deployed initial investment tickets of USD 900k on average, whereas Fund II can deploy initial tickets of average USD 1.2m, with additional reserves for follow-on rounds.

“The LP base of our first fund is a mix of mainly entrepreneurs, with a couple of funds-of-funds, family offices and asset managers,” Weder said. “With Fund II, we expect more institutionals to join, but it’s the existing LP base who will make up a big part of the fund size.”

The venture capital market in Switzerland is continuing to develop, Weder told Unquote, requiring more capital from investors. “The Swiss market was previously not really the focus of the European or US VCs, but we have more systemically brought good deals to the table and we’re seeing much more activity from well-known names here,” he said. “These names are also investing at earlier stages, looking at seed to Series B – we’re seeing that companies don’t need to move to the US to get their Series B funding.”

Switzerland’s academic backdrop is also a driver for VC activity and the firm’s dealflow. “The ETH Zurich and the EPF Lausanne are competing with Harvard and Stanford in global rankings,” Weder said. “But a lot of talented people drop out of these institutions, and it’s part of our strategy to engage with them. We have access to really good talent, and more people are becoming aware of this.”

Wingman Ventures currently has 40 companies in its portfolio and has made two exits to date, according to Weder.

"Our fund has a 10+2 year lifespan, and we know that it often takes at least 10 years to build a successful company," he said. "So we are not looking for short term exits – the two we have made were good offers with a strategic fit, but we don’t want to push early exits."

Wingman Ventures was formed in 2018 by Weder and fellow founding partners Pascal Mathis and Alex Stöckl. Weder founded Eat.ch, which was sold to JustEat, whle Mathis co-founded travel platform GetYourGuide. Stöckl is the former COO of Gärtnerei and a former senior investment manager at Creathor Ventures.

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