Campus - 16.09.2024 - 14:43
On Monday, 16 September, the St.Gallen cantonal parliament approved a special credit of 10 million Swiss francs to expand start-up funding after the second reading in parliament. 5.4 million of this will be used for the HSG START Accelerator. This is a joint project of the University of St.Gallen (HSG) together with Switzerland Innovation Park Ost and START Global. The remaining CHF 4.6 million will be used to strengthen the existing Startfeld Foundation. During the second reading, there were no comments from the council on the bill. The final vote will take place on Wednesday, 18 September (pictured above: the government and parliament building).
The HSG START Accelerator is a foundation established on June 2024. It aims to become Europe's leading accelerator programme, supporting strong, technology-oriented start-ups on their growth path. The programme prepares national and international start-ups for the growth phase in a targeted manner. It helps them to increase their chances of survival and their attractiveness, particularly for venture capital investors, by means of intensive coaching and networking. The foundation behind the accelerator is to be self-sustaining in the future.
With this parliamentary decision, the Canton of St.Gallen is further strengthening its attractiveness as a location for innovative start-ups. The idea of the accelerator is based on a start-up strategy developed by HSG start-up expert Prof. Dr. Dietmar Grichnik and a team from the Center for Entrepreneurship (CfE-HSG). This was done in close collaboration with the St.Gallen Economic Promotion Office, which commissioned the strategy development.
On the basis of this strategy, the HSG Entrepreneurial Journey programmes were developed in the new Vice-Rectorate for Innovation & Quality. These programmes are intended to trigger innovations at the HSG, incubate and scale ideas and launch these on the market. The first funding and transfer strategy was launched.
In addition to the HSG, START Global also supports the accelerator. This organisation is run by around 100 HSG students on a voluntary basis. Every year, they organise the START Summit, Europe's largest founders' conference, at the Olma Messen exhibition centre.
The third partner, Switzerland Innovation Park Ost, is a joint initiative of public institutions, science and the private sector. It is part of the Switzerland Innovation network, which maintains six main locations in Switzerland and is based on a legal mandate from the Federal Council.
The HSG START Accelerator complements the existing cantonal funding opportunities and thus also the proven Startup@HSG programme. Within this framework, HSG coaches up to ten start-ups stemming from the HSG community each semester. In addition, Startup@HSG offers free advice to members of HSG who run start-ups in a wide range of business phases.
The HSG START Accelerator is now intended to sustainably strengthen the regional start-up scene and close a gap in services and financing. This should also prevent growing start-ups from moving to Zurich or other cities in the hope of better financing conditions.
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