About S2S Ventures
The First
Believers.
Founded in 2021, S2S Ventures has established a deep track record of spotting Swiss winners at the earliest possible stage.
Early Stage Focus
S2S Ventures leads pre-seed and seed rounds for student-led startups, providing the initial capital and conviction needed to turn research into scalable ventures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about S2S Ventures – our investment thesis, terms, eligibility, process, and benefits.
What is your investment thesis?
Our overarching mission statement is to help student founders build successful and impactful startups - we back the boldest and best. Our target is to be the #1 Pre-Seed value-add investor in Switzerland.
Our competitive edge and unfair advantage is the non-corporate and flat structure and deep scaffolded embedding and integration into the student system in Switzerland. This enables us to move fast, act decisively and only recruit the most most ambitious people - this is what's hard for big firms to replicate!
What are your terms?
Stage: Pre-seed, seed, pre- and post-incorporation - right after FFF and angels.
Ticket Size: Fixed CHF 25'000 via a CLA with different term sheets
Who is eligible for funding?
Founder Profile: At least one founder must have maximally graduated from a higher education institution in Switzerland within the past 2 years - thus mostly student first time founders
Industry: Industry agnostic.
Geography: Switzerland only, including Fürstentum Lichtenstein
Role: First check in within non-equity rounds, lead-investor preferred in equity rounds (follower)
How long does our process take?
Depending on how cooperative the founders are, we target 3 weeks from initial contact to final investment decision. Signing contracts and wiring money can take another 1 to 3 weeks.
What non-monetary benefits can S2S provide to a startup?
Our most important non-monetary benefits can be divided into three categories: operations, networking, and recruiting.
We offer you one-to-one support from our portfolio analysts, feedback on your pitch decks, and office hours with our legal team. Furthermore, we give you credibility: we can share our due diligence with investors, showing them that your startup has been thoroughly vetted. Plus, there are smaller benefits like AWS credits.
We bring you direct access to investors and we support you in fundraising through our partnerships and investment network. We've helped startups like Hoshii close million-dollar rounds in just weeks by making direct investor-to-investor introductions - always with target investors chosen by the founders. Some have secured 100% of their investor meetings this way. You are also invited to exclusive S2S events, such as the Portfolio Summit, which is an opportunity to connect with other startups and investors.
We also help with recruiting efforts for our portfolio companies, for example through sharing open positions on our WhatsApp channels, LinkedIn reposts, and leveraging our personal network.
Our Evolution
From a student initiative to Switzerland's leading early-stage student VC. Here is how we built the platform.
VC Partnerships
VC partnerships were formed to propel S2S to new heights, strengthening our access to capital and investor networks.
Team Growth
Teams grew more and more across Switzerland, expanding our capacity and deepening our student founder network.
Team Growth
Teams grew more and more across Switzerland, helping more founders connect to capital, community, and support.
Team Growth
Teams grew more and more across Switzerland, broadening our reach and impact for student-led startups.
First Investment
Recruiting extended to St.Gallen and Lausanne while the thesis was tested through many interviews with VCs, startups, and founders. In fall, the first investment was made in Adaptyv Bio (YC S21).
The Idea
During the end of this year, the idea of a student-to-student fund came to mind, with only three students from Zurich.