SICTIC is the leading angel investor club with a focus on early-stage startups. We finance startups that have a highly scalable innovative product with their domicile or a co-founder in Switzerland or Liechtenstein. Our international smart money investors invest in financing rounds of up to CHF 2 million. We also provide professional, corporate and institutional investors access to our deal flow. Our free Swiss Angel Investor Handbook has set the standard for angel investing in Swiss tech startups. Our large investor community has financed startups that have created thousands of jobs. SICTIC is overseen by pro-bono Board Members, who are actively involved in the ecosystem by participating in investor events, mentoring startups, acting as startup board members and supporting ecosystem organisations, and bringing their experience to help build successful companies. SICTIC is a non-profit association with offices in Zürich, Lausanne, and Ticino.
Board
Dr. Thomas Dübendorfer
Thomas Dübendorfer holds a Ph.D. and master in computer science with honors with distinction from ETH Zurich. He worked as software engineer in Silicon Valley and seven years as Tech Lead on security and privacy projects at Google in Zürich, receiving three Google OC awards. He was awarded SECA Business Angel of the Year 2024.
As president he shaped the Information Security Society Switzerland ISSS for five years, during which the number of members more than doubled to over a thousand. He is a lecturer at ETH Zürich and has co-founded several Internet technology based product centric startups in Switzerland, among them Spontacts AG (activity-based social network, exit to Scout24 Group)…Read more
Dr. Bolko Hohaus
Vice President
Romandy
Bolko Hohaus holds a Ph.D. in economics as well as a master in statistics and computer science from LMU München. He is founder of HCP, a company focussed on fintech innovation, and is active as business angel, startup coach and serving as a board member in an early stage start-up.
He has more than twenty years of investment experience in the global technology sector. He co-founded an investment vehicle focusing on smaller technology companies which got listed on the Swiss stock exchange, and has worked as head of the technology team at Lombard Odier Investment Managers and Allianz Global Investors.
Magdalena Tarasinska
Magdalena Tarasinska has over 15 years of corporate finance experience in Fortune 500 companies and currently serves as CFO in a fast growing Swiss ICT startup. She represents Switzerland at World Business Angels Investor Forum as a VP Startup Committee.
The WBAF is an organisation committed to collaborate globally to empower the economic development of the world by fostering innovative financial instruments for SMEs, innovators and startups. Magdalena hold MS degree in Economics and is a member of professional finance body ACCA.
Marcel Egger
Board Member
Deal Flow
Corporate Finance Executive in Pharmaceuticals / Watches / Jewellery / Fashion / E-commerce. Expertise in appraisal of projects, business cases, financial plans. ERP process implementation and optimisation / Digital Transformation. Buy side M&A, business integrations. Active smart money investor having pleasure in supporting and coaching in new / disruptive areas.
Several years experience in Pharmaceutical and Luxury Groups – CFO, Head of Group Planning, Board Member, Program Director.
Education: HEC Lausanne, EMBA Rutgers, NJ.
Nicola Fantini
Board Member
Jury
Nicola Fantini has founded and built up software companies such as Sciant AG (Software development services, 150 employees, exit to VMware in 2006, now more than 500 employees in Sofia (BG), Aviaso AG (turned into the globally leading provider of fuel efficiency, exit to Honeywell in 2015), Spectas, CloudBroker and ScaleTools.
He has published papers in magazines such Expertfocus, IEEE and Future Generation Computer Systems and is actively participating in H2020 research projects. He is leading the SICTIC jury and is investing in startup companies.
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Dr. Cornelia Gut-Villa
Board Member
Education
Cornelia Gut-Villa holds a Ph.D. and master in business administration from the University of Zurich. She has over 20 years’ experience in financial services, strategy consulting and startup coaching.
She is active as an independent entrepreneur and private investor with her own consulting firm in addition to her activities as part of the incubator Startfeld in St. Gallen.
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Ralph Mogicato
Board Member
Investor Community
Ralph Mogicato has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Singapore. He is now an investor, board member or advisor for startup companies in the technology field with focus on B2B fintech and insuretech and guest lecturer at several universities of applied sciences as well as a lecturer at the University of Zurich.
Stephan Thalmann
Stephan is a proficient executive with a rich experience across diverse industries. He initiated his career in marketing & sales at a renowned international cash handling provider. In 2007, Stephan took on the role of CEO and owner of a domestic manufacturing company in the heating and ventilation industry. His dedication and leadership skills enabled him to transform the company into the market leader. He strategically diversified the company’s portfolio through an acquisition and integration of another business, ultimately paving the way for a successful exit to a Swiss-based private equity firm.
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Melanie Gabriel
Melanie is an entrepreneur, board member and angel investor. She is the co-founder and former CMO of Yokoy, a Sequoia-backed FinTech & AI company recently acquired by Travelperk. In her weekly podcast and newsletter Follow the Gradient, Melanie and her guests share how to scale a business in Europe while staying sane.
She lectures on entrepreneurship at ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen, is a board member of SICTIC and Moodtalk and holds different advisory board mandates.
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Special Thanks
The first ICT Investor’s Day happened on 15.11.2010. It was organized by Jan Fülscher and others as part of their activities in the special interest group (Fachgruppe) “Innovation” of the association SwissICT. In 2014, Alexander Büch, Thomas Dübendorfer (President), Jan Fülscher, Dania Gerhardt, Myke Näf, and Oliver Staffelbach founded the association Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC). After discussions in the board of SwissICT and SICTIC it was agreed to run this event by SICTIC starting 27.10.2014 and to rebrand it from “Swiss ICT Investor’s Day” to «SICTIC Investor Day».
Jan Fülscher
Jan Fülscher is known for his extensive involvement in the startup sector, not only as a co-founder but also in planning and creating startup support frameworks, including incubators and financial organizations. His background merges technical and business knowledge, enhancing his role in the startup community. He leverages this experience as an Innosuisse trainer, mentoring new entrepreneurs and contributing to academic programs.
Sébastien Flury
Sébastien Flury was the driving force to expand the investor events of the Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC) to Western Switzerland and to establish SICTIC as strong brand for angel investors that fund early-stage deep tech startups in Switzerland.
Thomas Kern
Thomas has been instrumental in launching the Swiss Fintech Angels initiative with SICTIC’s annual Swiss Fintech Investor Day established back in 2016 as the go-to event for Swiss seed and early-stage fintech startups looking for funding. With funding success rates of often more than 50% for those 12 startups that pitched, it has been well established as an excellent matchmaking event for startups and angel investors.
Tatjana de Kerros
Tatjana, who is also active at Ricola, the radical innovation lab of the Swiss SME Ricola, brought in valuable inputs from family offices.
Nina Reinhart
Nina connected SICTIC to young entrepreneurs and key people in the ecosystem, contributed to SICTIC’s diversity efforts, shaped the board’s strategy, and engaged as a startup board member. She will continue to support SICTIC as an advisor.
Dr. Oliver Staffelbach
Oliver, lawyer and a SICTIC co-founding member active in the board since 2014, gave guidance in legal questions and helped to ensure SICTIC is fully FINMA compliant and has a solid legal basis in everything SICTIC engages in.
