Independent students-2-students venture capital


Backing student founders

We invest 25'000 CHF in your startup, provide any student in 🇨🇭 with personalized feedback and support, demystify the funding process, and more.

Reviewing applications on a rolling basis.

Supporting bold ideas & great people

We support amazing student founders from the Swiss 🇨🇭 higher education system. Our activities revolve around 3 action pillars: educate, invest, and accelerate.

educate

learning & transparency
of the 
funding process


public investment process, criteria, templates, & more

invest

investment of 25'000 CHF cash and free 10'000 CHF AWS credits

apply for funding

accelerate

become VC ready through
our feedback
and network


we love to talk at
✉️
hello@s2s.vc

Investment Process

For transparency, we outline our investment process and some useful documents here. At any stage we try to provide helpful feedback, regardless of the investment decision.

1. (Talk &) Apply ▶️

We are happy to talk as early as possible! When satisfying most of our ☑investment criteria, startups submit their 📝investment application. We have an optional 🖼️S2S pitch deck template.

2. Pitch 🎤

If a potential fit, the startup founder(s) present their pitch deck to S2S during a first formal meeting. Questions from both sides are possible! Please find some 📄VC question examples here.

3. Due Diligence 🕵️

The S2S deal lead writes a detailed investment memo. It might include interviewing experts and (potential) customers. This memo is voted on by an S2S student investment committee (IC).

4. Offer, Signing, & Money Transfer 💸

With a positive IC decision, we converge on terms (🤝S2S CHF 25k standard term sheet here). And then both parties sign a standard legally-binding agreement. After signing this, money is transferred.

5. Portfolio Support & Reporting 🤝

Portfolio support includes simplifying raising by consensually sharing the memo with our and your network of co-investors. We expect monthly updates (📈S2S update template here)

Portfolio

Teams that are building the future, and received investment from S2S.



Maven Health is making waves in the preventive healthcare market by providing metabolic health assessments based on non-invasive saliva samples. To assess the level of different metabolites, most healthcare professionals currently rely on multiple blood samples. Maven Health helps health care professionals, clinical labs, and nutritionists assess the metabolic wellbeing of their patients with a simple saliva sample, which allows them to know if and how to treat patients within their preventive care programmes by supporting them with detailed and actionable insights.

Founded in 2022 by a team with 2
EPFL co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by David Campbell and supported by Arnout Devos



askEarth provides an easy-to-use answer engine to access unique information from daily satellite images. Freely available, trustworthy and up-to date, Earth Observation (EO) images are a powerful tool to fight disinformation and provide traceable information to the public. Yet, insights from EO are mainly reserved for data scientists. To change this, askEarth is democratizing the access to EO information by building an intuitive EO answer engine powered by Natural Language Processing.


Founded in 2023 by a team with 3
ETHZ and 1 UZH co-founders.
Website - LinkedIn Job openings

Deal led by Mikhail Stoliartchouk & Sarper Melik Ertekin



Enantios is transforming the field of molecular characterization, in the context of complex chiral molecules and biologics. Understanding molecular structure is crucial in predicting how a molecule interacts with the body. However, tools for proper characterization have lagged behind, hindering drug discovery and increasing costs. Enantios is addressing this challenge by leveraging a state-of-the-art measurement technology based on Raman Optical Activity (ROA).

Founded in 2022 by a team with 2
ETHZ co-founders.
Website - LinkedIn - Job openings

Deal led by Alessandro Boccassino & supported by Maximilian Krödel



Oryl Photonics simplifies solubility measurement with its patented light-scattering based solution. Their instrument saves days of repetitive work, thousands of dollars of consumable cost and provides quick and reproducible solubility data through sustainable use of resources (chemicals, compounds, consumables).


Founded in 2020 by 2 EPFL co-founders.

Website - LinkedIn - Job openings


Deal led by Jaques Schmidt & David Campbell



Biosimo AG is pioneering the production of sustainable chemicals, focusing on acetic acid and its derivatives. By developing a groundbreaking process which uses bioethanol - a renewable resource - as the primary feedstock and a scalable catalytic process, they drastically reduce global warming contributions from the chemical industry.


Founded in 2021 by a team with 2 ETHZ co-founders.

Website - LinkedIn - Job openings


Deal led by Jaques Schmidt & supported by David Campbell



Storabble helps individuals and businesses to find the right storage space. Customers save time and make sure they find the best storage solution by accessing the largest range of storage facilities for private individuals in Switzerland. Simultaneously, they help Swiss self-storage providers and companies with a real estate portfolio increase their turnover, avoid vacancy costs, and reduce marketing costs.

Founded in 2023 by a team with 3
HSG and 1 FHNW co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Marvin Reusing & Noah Ghisleni and supported by Katerina Rigana



CITUS follows the mission of a healthier skin. The skin’s elasticity is a major factor for clinicians and for researchers to decide upon treatment strategies and test efficacies of products. The current solutions, which lack sensitivity and objectivity, are prone to errors thus creating large costs for the healthcare system. CITUS’ solution, NIMBLE, provides a reliable, objective and easy-to-use measurement.

Founded in 2023 by a team with 2
ETHZ co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Lewis Jones & supported by Flurin Andri Martin



enhance-d improves the data-tracking, data analysis, and patient experience for people with diabetes types 1 & 2. The software is connected to typical diabetes monitoring hardware, such as continuous glucose monitors (CGM), and provides data analysis and recommendations based on the patient’s data to improve day-to-day decision making.

Founded in 2022 by a team with 1
UNIBE post-doc co-founder.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Maximilian Krödel & supported by David Campbell



Sensawear brings the first wearable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors to market, allowing for both tissue pressure AND tissue oxygenation tracking in paraplegic patients. Their innovative product enables accurate risk assessment and prevention of life-threatening and expensive pressure wounds.

Founded in 2023 by a team with 2
UNIBE student co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Anirudhh Ramesh & supported by Eric Bezzam



FRIGG provides a DeFi solution to the multi-trillion dollar gap in sustainable infrastructure financing. Their platform is faster, standardized and more transparent than existing financing options, enabling infrastructure developers to build previously-unimaginable projects.

Founded in 2022 by a team with 2
UZH co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Anirudhh Ramesh & supported by David Campbell



Digit Soil provides a soil health sensor that allows to see live information on biological soil quality and decomposition of organic matter by measuring soil enzyme activity.


Founded in 2022 by 2
ETHZ co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Arnout Devos



Correntics enables companies to strengthen their supply chain by understanding scientific data about climate change & natural hazards.

Founded in 2021 by a team with 1
UZH &   
1 ETHZ
co-founder.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Julia Wagner & supported by Arnout Devos



Umi applies immersion learning, repurposing short real-world videos for users to learn real language usage. Instead of teacher-made content, Immersely uses <1 min daily life situations, which provides better immersive context to teach language.


Current languages: 🇺🇸 🇯🇵 🇪🇸

Founded in 2022 by a team with 1
ETHZ co-founder.
website - app store - google play


Deal led by Arnout Devos



Prodlane has built MAIA, the Artificial Intelligence Assistant for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), a personal AI assistant. It recognizes correlations across multiple documents and delivers in-depth answers in seconds. This allows SMEs to chat with their documents in a GDPR-compliant way.


Founded in 2021 by a team with 1
HSG co-founder.
website - LinkedIn - job openings


Deal led by Arnout Devos



Using synthetic biology and machine learning, Adaptyv Bio is accelerating protein engineering for therapeutic and industrial applications.

Founded in 2021 by 4
EPFL co-founders.
website - LinkedIn - YC profile


Deal led by Nhi Luong, Lewis Jones, & Arnout Devos


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Contact Us

Vision for investors & press

Discovering breakthrough innovations through the eyes of the next generation.

  • 🚀 Vision

    Discovering breakthrough innovations through the eyes of the next generations

    Students have clear advantages over established investors when it comes to understanding the needs of the next generation. We believe that a student-run operation will discover several breakthrough ideas and novel business models of their peers that would otherwise have a hard time getting funding in Europe.

  • 💡 Concept & Investment

    Students run the whole VC operation and are supported by a strong network of advisors & mentors & board of directors. S2S publishes the investment criteria and other documents that will help to bring transparency into the community.


    The investment committee consists of representatives from leading student organizations ("Club of Clubs") and is driving the investment of 10 million CHF into university-linked start-ups over the next few years.


    • Autonomy. Students make the investment decisions autonomously and negotiate key terms with the start-ups directly (incl. valuation & ticket-size).
    • Mentoring. The team is mentored by experienced VCs and entrepreneurs. This ensures consistently high quality even if the student teams change over the years.
    • Network. Your entry ticket to the local VC ecosystem. We enable you to get to know the existing VC landscape and boost start-ups with our co-investor relations.
  • 🥅 Goals

    1. Hands-on Venture Capital Learning: Students learn all elements of venture capital operations and make real investment decisions. They are put in the driver seat to make a real impact on the ecosystem in funding new, big, and unconventional ideas.
    2. Discovering the next tech leaders: Enable highly-educated students to become the investors of the future and discover the tech leaders of tomorrow among their peers.
    3. Increase the velocity of university startups: Foster an entrepreneurial mindset in students and increase the velocity of university start-ups. A student-run VC will inspire also further peers to get the courage of starting their own company.
    4. Long-term thinking for people & the planet: The next generation looks at opportunities beyond short-term profits. This enables funding also ventures with social entrepreneurship and more long-term investments in people and planet.
  • 💸 Investment Strategy & Scope

    1. Ticket Size that Matters: We back ambitious projects at pre-seed level with CHF 25k initial investment for founders to grow their business.
    2. Technology at the heart and business scalability in the focus: We look for technology developed at institutes of higher education with the potential to become innovative, scalable, and profitable solutions.
    3. Diversity & people-centric: We back world-class founding teams with a passion to take risks and to build transformative technology ventures that tackle societies' toughest problems.
    4. University link: At least one of the founders must be a current student at institute of higher education (Bachelor, Master, PhD) or young alumni.
  • 🌱 Giving back: 50% of the carry

    50% of the carry goes to our student team and student organizations


    Investors in S2S Ventures enjoy a unique deal flow with a typical VC fee model while giving back to the ecosystem. From the carry, we donate 50% to the students who have been involved in our team and to student organizations to strengthen the ecosystem in a sustainable way. The annual management fee is directly used for events, team-building, operational expenses, and to provide ecosystem support & partnerships. No salaries are paid to the student teams or BoD/advisors.

Investment team

Analysts, Partners, and Community Managers

Our student team sources, evaluates, and decides on investing in student startups.

Team St.Gallen

Lion Six

Partner & Vice-President St. Gallen

BSc Computer Science (HSG)

Felix Wiese

Partner
MA Accounting & Corporate Finance (HSG)

Marlene Silz

Analyst
MA Business Innovation (HSG)


Oscar von Podewils

Analyst

BA Business Administration (HSG)

Simon Schütz

Analyst

MA Accounting and Corporate Finance (HSG)


Thaddäus Heim

Analyst
MA Accounting and Corporate Finance (HSG)


Tom Esslinger

Analyst

MA Business Innovation (HSG)

Charles Karamoko

Community Manager

MA Business Innovation (HSG)

Katleen Chang

Community Manager

MA Banking and Finance (HSG)

Team Zurich

Sarper Melik Ertekin

Partner & Vice-President Zurich
MSc Electrical Engineering (ETH Zurich)


Fabius Wiesmann

Partner

PhD Cancer Biology (UZH)


Amélie August

Analyst

MSc Management, Technology and Economics (ETH Zurich)


Pietro Miotti

Analyst
Computational Science (USI/ETH Zurich) 


Elina Teplygina

Community Manager

BSc Electrical Engineering (ETH Zurich)



Alessandro Boccassino

Analyst

MSc Management, Technology and Economics (ETH Zurich)


Bahar Acilan

Analyst
BSc Computer Science (ETH Zurich)


Nora Zimmerli

Analyst

PhD Energy and Process Engineering (ETH Zurich)


Nayanika Debnath

Analyst
MSc in Computer Science (ETH Zurich)


Max Schaldach

Analyst
BSc Mechanical Engineering (ETH Zurich)


Team Lausanne

Jaques-Christopher Schmidt

Partner & President
PhD Chemistry (EPFL)


Meline Cretegny

Partner & Vice-President Lausanne
MSc Life Sciences (EPFL)


Xunhui Wang

Analyst
PhD in Chemistry (EPFL)


Analyst

BSc Economics (UNIL)

Maia Migliaro

Analyst

MSc Mechanical Engineering (EPFL)

Analyst
MSc Computer Sciences (EPFL)


Lorenzo Arbolino

Community Manager

MSc Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (EPFL)


Giammarco Bozzelli

Community Manager

MSc Sustainable Management and Technology (EPFL, IMD, UNIL)


Advisory Board

The advisory board brings in decades of experience from venture capital investing and deep-tech entrepreneurship to mentor the next generation of investors.

Cynthia Jurytko

Board Chair S2S co-founder,

Wille Finance

Isabelle Siegrist

Board Member Sandborn,

Forbes 30 under 30

Alex Ilic

Board Member S2S co-founder,

Dacuda, Magic Leap

Alumni

Our alumni go on in studies, industry, and academic careers. They remain connected to the organization as collaborating venture partners, and are a reference for their deals.

Name Main Role Main Location Terms Active
Katerina Rigana Partner & VP St. Gallen St. Gallen Fall 22 - Spring 23
Noah Ghisleni Partner St. Gallen Fall 22 - Spring 23
Quynh Vu Community Manager Zurich Fall 22 - Spring 23
Flurin Andri Martin Partner & VP Zurich Zurich Fall 22 - Spring 23
Louis-Emmanuel Chriqui Analyst Lausanne Fall 22 - Spring 23
Evy Chang Analyst Lausanne Fall 22 - Spring 23
Anirudhh Ramesh Partner & VP Lausanne Lausanne Fall 22 - Spring 23
Maxime Cornut Community Manager Lausanne Fall 22 - Spring 23
Arnout Devos Founding Partner & President Lausanne Spring 21 - Spring 23
Lewis Jones Founding Partner Zurich Spring 21 - Spring 23
Thomas Meier Founding Board Member Zurich Spring 21 - Spring 23
Sephin Alappatt Partner & VP St. Gallen St. Gallen Spring 22 - Fall 22
Pardis Adams Analyst Zurich Spring 22 - Fall 22
Julia Wagner Founding Partner & VP Zurich Zurich Spring 21 - Fall 22
Liliane Krüsi Founding Partner Zurich Spring 21 - Fall 22
Raphael Beuter Founding Partner St. Gallen Spring 21 - Spring 22

Contact Us

Please use the form below to get in touch

 or send us an email on hello@s2s.vc

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