F10 becomes Tenity. The fintech incubator of the Swiss stock exchange SIX breaks away from its parent company and invests venture capital on a large scale on its own, finews.com have learned.
F10, the fintech incubator of the Swiss stock exchange SIX, has long since moved from the address Foerrlibuckstrasse 10 in Zurich that inspired its name. Now the company is changing that. F10 is about to become Tenity, according to a statement on Wednesday.
Rebranding the company that led dozens of startups in its infancy sees itself also growing up, European CEO Marc Hauser explains in an interview with finews.com. This involves a growth strategy that includes venturing into new markets outside of Switzerland and Singapore and building up the venture capital fund.
Investing millions annually
Tenity is freeing itself from the parent company SIX, as befits its upbringing. In a financing round in April, the stock exchange sold its majority stake in the company to new investors such as Five T Fintech and Synpulse. The six managing partners of F10 also bought into the company.
Tenity’s new venture fund itself raises capital to launch selected startups. The first investments will be made already in March, says Hauser. The plan is to invest double-digit million Swiss francs in young companies each year to build a broadly diversified portfolio of around 400 young companies over four years.
German-speaking Switzerland
The fund will search for companies worldwide in the fintech and insurtech sectors, and in each case tie the startups to Tenity at a very early stage. “We want to be the first institutional investors in fintechs in every case,” Hauser says of the approach.
SIX launched F10 in 2015, as the first of its kind in German-speaking Switzerland, arriving just in time to take advantage of the start-up fever in the fintech industry. While other incubators fell into obscurity over the years or went elsewhere, F10 established itself as a fixture on the local fintech scene, with an offshoot in Singapore.
Over the past eight years, F10 has supported a total of 250 startups in its various programs, with Tenity planning to add eight to fifteen startups to the program in each of its hubs twice a year.
“Bears” Remain Partners
Tenity’s reputation has been built on the support of strong partners such as the private bank Julius Baer and the insurance company Generali, and it is still linked to them. In the spirit of an “open innovation” approach, the company conveys startups’ ideas and expertise to established financial and business companies. “It makes sense for large companies not to drive every innovation in-house,” says Hauser.
The F10 itself has undergone changes. Started as an association, the last few years were characterized by the intention to limit the expenses of the parent company SIX, in order to make fintech’s offers profitable. Two years ago, the transformation into a joint-stock company took place. With the financing round last spring, Tenity is opening up for further growth. SIX will remain closely associated with the company as its main investor and strategic partner, Hauser said.
To Eternity and beyond
The new investors support the growth ambitions and finance the expansion into new markets. Last year’s opening of a branch in Stockholm is an example of the Swiss wanting to get closer to climate and fintech startups in Scandinavia and the Baltics.
This gives the former Swiss-German start-up access to the wider world. Hence the change in the company’s name, which now includes part of the word “infinite”.
