Taking off for new horizons

SEF.Growth provides SMEs and young enterprises with targeted support to help them turn their particular growth ambitions into reality. The initiative’s modular structure offers a number of benefits, including in particular entrepreneurial spirit, a practice-oriented approach and access to a first-class network that spans the whole of Switzerland. It therefore plays a key role in strengthening Switzerland as a business location over the long term. Participating companies benefit from long-term support and receive targeted assistance and encouragement along their journey.

Who can apply?

The SEF.Growth programme offers solutions for young enterprises, scale-ups and SMEs. We help companies with their development, including over a lengthy period where necessary, and support them through a range of suitable services.

Successful participation in any of the solutions is subject to the following basic requirements:

Defined growth strategy and up-to-date business plan
Existing market presence and initial concrete sales
Clear positioning and differentiation in the market
Headquarters or main source of value generation in Switzerland
No reorganisation and restructuring required

Benefits and added value

Even with a high level of innovation, outstanding products and high-quality services, a company’s growth plans can often only be implemented in part:

One common cause of this is where the strategy is not geared sufficiently to the key success factors.
The company is unable to provide investors with a convincing demonstration of its expansion plans and misses out on growth financing as a result.
Another is where a company lacks entrepreneurial know-how in certain areas and a strong network of investors, patrons or industry specialists.

Free Offer

The SEF.Growth initiative offers support in all these areas with the aim of helping young enterprises and SMEs overcome these problems. Thanks to our long-standing relationships with our partners, all services are provided to companies free of charge.

Certified SQS Process

The Swiss Economic Forum follows an SQS-certified assessment process, guaranteeing high quality and absolute confidentiality. A similar process has been used for more than 20 years to judge the Swiss Economic Award for entrepreneurs – with a success rate of over 90%.

Advice from leading experts

The SEF.Growth initiative is based on the principle that entrepreneurs strengthen companies. More than 50 renowned and highly experienced entrepreneurs from the Swiss Economic Forum’s national network are personally committed to strengthening Swiss young enterprises and make their expertise available to the initiative. The pool of experts includes leaders from a diverse range of industries along with experts in strategy, technology and finance. This unique network of expertise offers substantial advantages for participating young enterprises and SMEs, which benefit from independent, expert analysis of their business models and growth strategies.

Network

Our platforms also bring the spheres of business and politics together and create the basis for new ideas to be developed, while our firmly established position enables you to make the right contacts.

Conditions of participation:

Provided you meet the above criteria, you are in principle eligible to participate in the growth programme and take advantage of the various support services on offer. SEF.Growth will make the final decision on acceptance and access to the various services. Please get in touch if you have any questions about the process. We will work with you to identify suitable services based on your company’s stage of development.

Thanks to the support and cooperation of our various programme partners, the SEF.Growth initiative is able to provide its wide range of services free of charge to a limited number of participating young enterprises and SME every year.

It goes without saying that we handle all your data in the strictest confidence. It is only shared with other parties such as our expert teams or partners with your prior consent. All our experts are bound by a non-disclosure agreement. Before sharing any kind of information, we will send you an overview of the intended recipients together with their condensed CVs. Should you object to the composition of the expert team, for example due to an existing competition situation or similar, we would immediately look for a suitable alternative solution.