Scale-ups play a crucial role in economies through innovation and job creation, but scaling up in times of geopolitical and economic instability presents formidable challenges. Investors might hesitate to invest in smaller firms and top talent can prefer the security of larger organisations. To clarify the challenges and key focuses of scale-ups, Deloitte conducted a survey with 42 such companies in Switzerland, aiming to provide valuable insights into their growth trajectories, the challenges they face, and their strategic outlook. The Swiss Scale-up Survey was conducted as part of Pan-European Scale-up Survey, which covered more than 350 scale-ups from 5 different countries.
This survey is part of the Deloitte NSE Scale-Ups Ecosystem initiative.
In total, 42 scale-ups based in Switzerland responded to the 2024 Scale-Ups Confidence Survey. Around 76% of the Swiss respondents hold the position of CEO or co- founder in their respective organisations.
Scale-ups from various segments participated in the survey, with Life Sciences & Health Care, FinTech, and Electronic devices, hardware & semiconductors representing the top 3. The majority of the respondents operate within a B2B context, with a workforce of below 10 full-time employees and revenues below 500K euros.