Patsy Zwyssig

Senior Marketing & Communications Manager

Nicole Schaller

Senior UX Designer & Product Owner

Peach Zwyssig

Co-Founder, CEO & Board Member

Generate leads and convert them into paying customers while keeping an eye on your CAC (customer acquisition costs).

These boosters contain tools and strategies to generate targeted traffic including automated campaign management and then convert it. 

Traffic Generation & Conversion

Discover how trigger-based campaign automation, utilizing data-driven triggers to engage audiences through channels like email and WhatsApp, was implemented for Beyond Beauty Club. Learn how playbooks ensure a personalized experience for each user while enabling seamless execution of campaigns, reaching thousands of users with ease.

Delve into the interview presenting the revolutionary digitization of social selling for the Beyond Beauty Club through a single mobile app that enables users to engage, learn, and financially empower themselves by building a side income. 

Showcasing how we implemented advanced 3D avatar technology to faithfully recreate the appearance, movements, and unique vocal characteristics of a celebrity skin expert.

Ile Cepilov gives in this episode answers and explains how the Axelra booster «Referral» can be used to lower Customers Acquisition Costs (CACs).

Provide a hybrid or fully digital and compliant customers onboarding for private and institutional customers 24x7 in any language.  

These boosters ensure a smooth, secure, and compliant entry process into your traditional or crypto services by using advanced identification solutions. 

Onboarding & Identity

The Axelra Booster «Crypto Onboarding» delivers the wallet creation and protection by the user's biometrics. If you want to know more about it, watch this episode with Severin Wullschleger, Co-Founder of Axelra AG.

Retaining customers and maximizing their value (CLTV) over time through personalized experiences, engaging loyalty programs, and innovative sales processes with gamified experiences and academies.

Customer Lifetime Value Enhancement 

A cutting-edge AI skin analysis tool to analyze the provided customer data and turn this into a detailed skin report and a personalized skincare regimen built for the Beyond Beauty Club. 

Dive into an interview about the booster of the Virtual Office App which revolutionizes task management by transforming it into a game, making building a side income both profitable and enjoyable for users. 

Virtual Office App with Tasks & Gamification

Watch this Episode of the «Axelra Show» about the Axelra Booster «Gamification» with Jonas Brunner. We're talking about the cooperative gamification approach of the VIABZ Challenge (now KINASTIC AG) and the stimulation of loyalty for a cryptowallet.


Institutional Onboarding with Video Identification

Onboarding with Mobile Online Identification

Onboarding

Booster in Traffic Generation & Conversion

Data Driven Growth

Booster in Customer Lifetime Value Enhancement

Customer Lifetime Value Enhancement

Booster in Operational Excellence & Customer Service

Multichannel Customer Services with Whatsapp & Zendesk

Operational Excellence & Customer Service

Measuring and converting Lead funnel users with data trigger based and personalized communication using e-mail, whatsapp, sms and call centure activites based on adjust, customer.io and Zendesk for:

Campaign Automation

Building of referral systems, managing and promoting different campaign codes for:

Referral Programs

Revolutionary digitization of social selling through a single mobile app that enables users to engage, learn, and financially empower themselves by building a side income, built for:

Social Selling

Implementing advanced 3D avatar technology to faithfully recreate the appearance, movements, and unique vocal characteristics of a celebrity skin expert for:

3D-Avatar im Selling Process

Integration of Identity.tm / ID.Now KYC Solutions for:

Institutional Onboarding with Video Identification

Integration of Swiss Post Adress Verification and Onfido KYC (Document and Facial Liveness Check) for:

Customer Onboarding with Mobile Online Identification

Creation of a mobile web3 wallet and digital identity for:  

Mobile Web3 Wallet Creation

Integration of QES Ident Service inkl. eIDAS (Swisscom Trust Services) for:

Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)

Integration of existing IAMs like AWS Cognito, Jemmic uSafe and own Axelra IAM Solution for:

Identity & Access Management (IAM)

A cutting-edge AI skin analysis tool to analyze the provided customer data and turn this into a detailed skin report and a personalized skincare regimen for:

AI Skin Analysis & Personalisation

The app turns task management into a game, making the side hustle not just profitable but also enjoyable for:

Development of an in-house Academy to train members with an efficient micro-learning strategy for:  

Academy & Micro Learning

We accelerate the time to market with our boosters based on disruptive SaaS solutions and newest technologies.

Axelra Tech Venture Builder - Boosters

Understanding and navigating the business better, we built interactive dashboards based on aggregated, cleansed and processed data sources for:

DWH Dashboard

Our data scientists have created predictions and a benchmark based on 10 million measurement points or optimised campaign efficiency for: 

Predictions and Benchmarks

Subscription models were implemented with an in-house solution or with a billing engine that ensures various subscription models, including free trials, the periodical billing to credit card and recurring payments with Twint, for:  

Subscription

Customers can interact with customer service 1:1 directly via Whatsapp or E-Mail and the customer support employees answer the ticket in Zendesk centrally for: 

Existing customers of a market player can use this transfer service to switch to our apps in 1 minute without the need for a printer or a trip to the mailbox. We built such solutions for: 

Customer Transfer Service

FAQ articles can be managed in Zendesk Guide and displayed on the app and website in multiple languages, searchable and keyworded. We built such integration for: 

FAQ for Mobile and Website

Streamlining operations, enhancing customer service, and scaling business globally. These Boosters combine analytics and dashboard insights with automation and optimization tools to improve service delivery, operational efficiency and customer service.

Presenting the custom in-house solution that enabled flexible subscription management, enhanced user engagement, and ensured continuous revenue streams for Beyond Beauty Club.

Subscription Model Enhances Customer Loyalty and Revenue

In this video, Lilly Sciolli discusses with Lucas Pelloni, co-founder of Axelra, why customer support is essential for digital products and explore ways to simplify digital customer interaction for our Tech Ventures using Axelra Boosters.

In this episode Tobias Boner is explaining how we build and deliver Dashboards for our ventures.

We accelerates the time to market with our boosters based on disruptive SaaS solutions and newest technologies.

Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map 2024

Swiss Fintech Awards & Fintech Germany Award Winner 2021-Built in: 133 Day-Top 1 CH Fintech 2021 Handelszeitung,  March 21   

Since 2019, we have been building and scaling tech ventures and delivering revenue generating MVPs.

Axelra Micro Tech VC - Track Record

Switzerland has the highest innovation power worldwide. It is therefore not surprising that 10% of the global European fintech companies are based in Switzerland. The Fintech Report 2021 lists around 400 fintechs, with 56% based in Zurich. An always up-to-date and interactive overview can be found on the Fintechmap. 

Venture building is a rather new and challenging discipline. The ever-increasing popularity of private equity as an asset class is fueling the scene worldwide. Especially the early stage venture asset class with the focus in the venture building process. 

It is noteworthy, that due to Covid-19 in Q1-Q3 2020, overall VC investments declined by an average of 12% globally compared to the previous year. Not so in Zurich! In Zurich, VC investments have increased by almost 100% during this time period. 

In this respect, tech venture building in Zurich is a really exciting market and the timing is right. Since the incorporation of tech venture builder Axelra in 2019, we have accelerated the many tech ventures in collaboration with corporates, startups, and ecosystem partners. And of course, we do so with skin in the game! :)

Tech Venture Building in Switzerland

The Next Level of Personalized Social Selling

Beyond Beauty Club

fliggs mobile

Digit Soil

GKB Gioia 3a

frigg.eco

Grizzly

Profit and purpose in 3a retirement savings

Freya Savings

Moflix

toaa

VIABZ

Livealytics

SIBEX

Matchspace Music

Tamper-proof, trackable, rolled out in 30 days

Sensirion

Axelra Micro Tech VC - Learn

Video Introduction to the "Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map" 2024. With this strategic resource, Axelra aims to contribute directly to the Swiss tech startup ecosystem. It is designed to enable early-stage founders and investors to make the most of their valuable time.

Funding Insights

Find out how the collaboration between Graubündner Kantonalbank (GKB) and Axelra successfully created and delivered Gioia 3a. Dr. Martina Müller-Kamp, Head of Market Services and Member of the Executive Board at GKB, and Peach Zwyssig, CEO and Co-Founder of Axelra, share their insights into merging the strengths of startups and corporates.

GKB Gioia 3a - Corporate Venture Building Journey

Venture Building Case

Learn about the synergy between DigitSoil's groundbreaking technology and Axelra's venture acceleration expertise. From ideation to validation, digital product enhancement to business modeling, get an inside look at how they merged their strengths to shape the future of sustainable agriculture.

Digit Soil - Early Stage Venture Building Journey

Check out this video about the Axelra Power Week 2023 with ZKB and Kinastic, showcasing the incredible journey of exploring new technologies like ChatGPT, validating disruptive ideas, and delivering an ambitious prototype and a pre-MVP within just 100 hours.

Power Week - 100 Hours to Pre-MVP

Discover a cutting-edge AI skin analysis tool to analyze the provided customer data and turn it into a detailed skin report and a personalized skincare regimen built for the Beyond Beauty Club.

PRESENTING BOOSTERS

Showcasing how we implemented advanced 3D avatar technology for the Beyond Beauty Club to faithfully recreate the appearance, movements, and unique vocal characteristics of a celebrity skin expert.

Delve into the interview presenting the revolutionary digitization of social selling for the Beyond Beauty Club through a single mobile app that enables users to engage, learn, and financially empower themselves by building a side income.

Dive into an interview about the booster of the Virtual Office App built for the Beyond Beauty Club. The Virtual Office App which revolutionizes task management by transforming it into a game, making building a side income both profitable and enjoyable for users.

Discover how trigger-based campaign automation, utilizing data-driven triggers to engage audiences through channels like email and WhatsApp, was implemented for the Beyond Beauty Club. Learn how playbooks ensure a personalized experience for each user while enabling seamless execution of campaigns, reaching thousands of users with ease.

Presenting the custom in-house solution that enabled flexible subscription management, enhanced user engagement, and ensured continuous revenue streams for the Beyond Beauty Club.

Explore Axelra and Beyond Beauty Club's strategies for international scaling, focusing on technical, legal, and logistical challenges. Discover how adaptable technologies and the MVP approach ensure efficient global expansion.

Venture Building Phases - International Scaling

In this interview from 2023 we share many insights about Axelra that answer questions such as What is Tech Venture Building? What is Axelra doing? And what about the technologies we are implementing to ship MVPs in a 100 days? Wanna know the answers? 

Have a look at the first episode of our Axelra Show with our Co-Founder and CEO Peter Zwyssig (alias Peach).

Axelra Part 1 - Tech Venture Building and delivering MVPs in 100 Days 

Tech Venture Building

Explore this insightful interview to understand the concept of "skin in the game" and what it means for Axelra. Discover how our engagement models are designed and how these models have been instrumental in building our portfolio companies. Learn how commitment and shared risk have been key to our approach and success in nurturing startups.

In this episode Ile Cepilov gives answers and explains how the Axelra booster «Referral» can be used to lower Customers Acquisition Costs (CACs).

Watch this Episode of the «Axelra Show» about the Axelra Booster «Gamification» with Jonas Brunner. We're talking about the cooperative gamification approach of the VIABZ Challenge (now KINASTIC AG) and the stimulation of loyalty for a web3 wallet.

In this episode Tobias Boner is explaining how we build and deliver Dashboards for our ventures. 

In this video, Lilly Sciolli discusses with Lucas Pelloni, Co-Founder of Axelra, why customer support is essential for digital products and explore ways to simplify digital customer interaction for our Tech Ventures using Axelra Boosters.

Relive the magic of our celebration! We had an absolutely unforgettable time celebrating our 5-year anniversary with 150 amazing guests in the Commihalle in Zurich. This aftermovie captures the essence of the event, featuring a heartfelt speech, fun moments, wonderful comments from our guests, and the amazing people who have been part of our journey.

Aftermovie of Axlera's 5-Year Anniversary Party

Event

This video highlights Axelra’s journey of accelerating over 40 ventures, tackling challenging projects, and fostering team spirit through innovative work and collaborative events. Thank you to all Axelrators, ventures, investors, and partners for making it possible!

5 Years Axelra - Highlights of an Incredible Journey

Axelra Tech Venture Builder

Our curated selection of videos and webinars offers you valuable and actionable insights, practical strategies, and learnings from experts on building and shipping revenue generating tech ventures. Dive into our resources, learn from the experts, and take the next step in your tech venture building journey.

Swiss🇨🇭
Early Stage
Tech Venture 
Funding Map  2024

Get insights about our expertise, ventures, daily business and the team.

Speed up your startup journey with actionable insights derived from 38 ventures we accelerated in the last 5 years. This session delves into the crucial 4 stages of tech venture building: finding the fit for the customer/problem, problem/solution, solution/market, and business model. We emphasize the core aspects of product, management, and growth and reveal actionable insights. Learn and exchange with Peach, Lucas and Sacha who acted as venture builders in several tech ventures, and Sacha as now CTO at Beyond Beauty Club / Gigtech, how they doubled the venture’s speed toward profitability.

Actionalbe Insights of 38 Ventures to Double the Speed until Profitability

TECH VENTURE BUILDING LIKE A PRO (1/3)

Speed and adaptability are crucial when building a startup. Learn about efficient ways to design and validate your digital product or service and launch an MVP so that you can start generating revenue within 100 days. We will also talk about the need and efficient ways to pivot and the impact on the validation and traction.

Focus Product: Validation in 50 Days, Launch MVP and Generate Revenues in 100 Days and Pivot Successfully

TECH VENTURE BUILDING LIKE A PRO (2/3)

In the last of the 3 sessions, we share some of our learnings in the areas of management and growth. We refer to building a compelling venture building and hiring plan, incl. a business case with CAC and CLTV in the context of Swiss tech startups, creating a valuation report, and crafting a pitch deck. And we talk about securing early funding for Swiss tech ventures and the funding map. For creating the valuation report, we show insights from our partner Equidam (external service with 140’000 valuations) and have the opportunity to talk with the founder of Equidam.

Focus Management & Growth: from Venture Building Plan to Funding, CAC to CLTV in Swiss B2C Fintechs and Data Driven Valuations with Equidam

TECH VENTURE BUILDING LIKE A PRO (3/3)

We are incredibly proud that Axelra has been recognized as one of Europe's leading startup hubs, making an important contribution to the development of tech ventures in Europe and Switzerland. This award, based on a meticulous methodology by Statista in collaboration with the Financial Times and Sifted, not only demonstrates Axelra's formative role in fostering early-stage tech startups, but also underlines its outstanding achievement of being the No. 1 of the awarded Swiss hubs. 

In this article, you will learn all the details about this prestigious recognition and Axelra's sophisticated and proven methodology for successfully building startups. It shows why this award is not only a success for Axelra but also a win for the entire ecosystem of startups and maybe soon for your venture.

Only the most influential hubs are recognized 

The methodology for identifying the leading startup hubs in Europe is both comprehensive and robust, ensuring that only the most influential hubs are recognized. Over 2,000 organizations were invited to participate and more than 2,600 alumni reviews provided crucial insights into the performance of these hubs. The evaluation criteria were diverse and focused on alumni feedback, expert recommendations, and the success stories of startups that emerged from these hubs. The overall score for each center was derived from a weighted average of these criteria, with alumni experience weighted at 85%, followed by track record and expert opinion.

Ranking Results by Financial Times, statista & sifted 


This careful approach resulted in a selection of 125 hubs spread across 21 countries. The hubs range from university offshoots and corporate incubators to commercial accelerators, highlighting the diverse infrastructure supporting startup ecosystems. The UK emerges as a leading country, hosting the highest number of hubs, particularly in London (24), Europe's venture capital hub. It is followed by Germany (16) and Spain (15), reflecting strong innovation landscapes. A majority of the awarded hubs were founded after 2010. 

Axelra's recognition as No. 32 among these hubs, and its distinction as the No. 1 within the Swiss awarded hubs, is a testament to its contribution to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

Ranking by Region by Financial Times 2024


Find the full special report "Europe's Leading Startup Hubs 2024" here: https://www.ft.com/reports/europe-leading-startup-hubs


Holistic and hands-on approach to accelerating startups

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, Axelra's tech venture building process is characterized by its holistic and hands-on approach to accelerating growth. From ideation to scaling, Axelra's model is designed to closely align with the needs of startups at every stage. Key offerings include a PowerWeek, Pre-MVP, MVP and Scaling phases, each tailored to accelerate the path from concept to market.


Axelra places great emphasis on co-creation and ownership and contributes up to 50% of its costs as "sweat equity", directly linking the company's success to that of its ventures. This innovative model can not only accelerate the path to Series A funding for start-ups, but also significantly increase their valuations.

Axelra's recognition as a top startup hub in Europe is not just an award, but an invitation for startups and corporates to work with a partner that is truly invested in their success. This award demonstrates Axelra's significant contribution to supporting ventures. As Europe grows as an innovation leader, Axelra's approach is a successful blueprint for turning great ideas into successful businesses.

Axelra Tech Venture Builder - Insights

Financial Times identifies Axelra as one of Europe’s leading Startup Hubs 2024: #1 in Switzerland and #32 in Europe

Axelra identified as one of Europe’s leading Startup Hubs 2024

Over the last decade, venture capital has emerged as the most profitable asset class, with tech companies in particular enjoying high popularity. (Source:  J.P.Morgan Asset Management - Guide to Alternatives 4Q 2022) However, building a tech startup is challenging due to the high risks, time and cost intensity. Significant investment is required to generate initial revenue, and up to CHF 5 million may be required to achieve profitability. Early stage funding often takes up to 100% of a founder's time, and in the current economic climate, raising capital is increasingly difficult. 


Against this background, Axelra has developed the «Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map». This map is a direct contribution to the Swiss startup ecosystem and is designed to enable founders and investors to make the best use of their valuable time.


The Global Innovation Index 2023 ranks Switzerland as the most innovative country and it is also considered an attractive location for tech ventures, far beyond the FinTech sector. Approximately 50,000 new companies are founded each year, of which statistically only 10-20% survive after 5 years. Good entrepreneurs are more in demand than ever, because they and their teams make the difference. (Sources: Statista - Global Innovation Index 2023 and Statista: Unternehmensgründungen in der Schweiz)




Early Stage Funding: A Critical Challenge

Early stage financing is a critical aspect of a start-up's success. Not only do founders need to build their business, acquire customers and talent, but they also need to raise capital. Quick and easy access to liquidity and support in Switzerland is a critical factor. While an impressive CHF 3.9 billion of venture capital was invested in the Swiss startup ecosystem in 2022, the path to getting the money into the account is often complex and intransparent. (Source: Swiss Venture Capital Report 2023)




Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map: A Time-Saving Guide for Tech Startups

To address the challenge of early stage funding, Axelra presents the «Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map». This map is a comprehensive guide for startups and makes the landscape of early stage funding in Switzerland understandable.

«The creation of the map is a direct result of Axelra's own experience in building tech ventures», says Peach Zwyssig, CEO of Axelra. «We cover the three areas of product, management and growth, and funding is essential. After more than 20 tech ventures, we have amassed a wealth of experience and data points and find that an aggregated collection of information can be of great benefit to all parties involved.»

The Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map will continue to evolve as the ecosystem changes. It will be regularly updated to ensure that it has a firm place in the Swiss startup ecosystem and always provides relevant and up-to-date information. Axelra is also happy to receive changes/corrections and integrate them into the next update. 

The latest version of the map is always available on our Website. However, it is most useful as a printed poster (60.9 cm x 109 cm), which provides a comprehensive overview of all phases and financing options. The current version can be purchased on www.axelra.com/fundingmap for CHF 29.-.



The «Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map» takes into account that funding options differ depending on the phase of the tech venture. It provides a clear overview of the different phases of an early-stage startup: Ideate, Validate, Launch, Scale and Grow. For each of these phases, specific funding amounts and options are presented that are tailored to the stage and maturity of an early-stage startup. 

Incubator & Accelerator Programs and Venture Builders

Investor syndicates & groups (including angels)



Benefits of Working with a Tech Venture Builder

A tech venture builder brings experience, accelerates execution, is a strong attraction for top talent and provides access to a relevant network in corporate and investor circles. In terms of speed of execution, data shows that startups with a venture builder like Axelra can reduce the time from idea to Series A funding to just 25.2 months, compared to 56 months for traditional startups. In financial terms, this translates to a 53% IRR, tripling the value of their company. (Source: Big Startup Studios Research 2023)

Get insights about our expertise, ventures, press releases and the team.

Axelra Insights

A Time-Saving Guide to Funding Swiss Early Stage Tech Startups.

Press Release about Axelra's Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map

Axelra Presents the «Swiss Early Stage Tech Venture Funding Map»

For a technology startup embarking on the journey to success, prioritizing product development, management, growth, and financing is challenging, especially with limited time and resources.

Often, research and User Experience (UX) design take a backseat, but overlooking them can be costly. If a new digital product doesn't align with user needs and expectations, it risks failure. We'll explore how research and a UX strategy, even under constraints, are vital in the early stages of a startup's journey to success.

Find a Problem worth solving for the target audience

Founding a tech company should be based on an innovative idea. As a founder you are in love with your idea and business concept, convinced the world has just been waiting for your solution. 

However, your solution will only be successful if there is a target group that has a significant problem or need that can be solved with your technological solution.

People don't want to buy a vacuum cleaner, but rather have a dust-free environment, impress visitors with a clean apartment or spend less time cleaning.

So, instead of jumping straight into developing features and building the solution, start by figuring out what your intended audience really needs and whether there is a significant market for your solution.

You can find out using UX research methods such as:

Hypothesis development and verification through interviews with the  intended target group 

Benchmarking to find out which other companies are already solving this problem or parts of it

Personas to visualize the goals, needs and problems of potential target groups

User Journey Mapping to identify the relevant user touchpoints with the  product and thus focus on the features that are most relevant to the user

The experienced UX Designer decides at the beginning which method will be used and to what extent in order to quickly obtain the necessary information.

Get early validation, that your solution meets users needs

The first impression is crucial. A well-designed product doesn't just mean aesthetically pleasing user interfaces. It's about designing an intuitive, user-friendly experience to appeal to your target audience.

Users must be able to find their way around quickly and understand the unique selling proposition with the most important features of your product at a glance. If they like it, they will want to use it and recommend it to others. 

Since a startup's budget is always limited, it is important get the validation from customers, that the solution solves the problem, before a lot of money flows into the technical implementation.

Example for Freya 3a App – from scribble to MVP

This is where prototyping and testing with real users comes into play:

Clickable Lo-Fi prototypes which show the idea and important features and allow users to interact with the product