DNA Summit 2027
Switzerland builds billion-dollar innovation.But not enough billion-dollar companies.
A highly curated gathering of founders, investors and executives shaping Switzerland’s next generation of global companies.
Closed-roomInvitation-ledNo mediaNo stage theatreNo bought speaker slots
THE CIRCLE, ZURICH · 2027
Built on BAD1 Berlin
- 500 selected attendees
- 200 founders
- 200 investors
- 40+ unicorn founders and leading investors
- €500B+ AUM represented
- €110B+ company value represented
- 500 selected attendees
- 200 founders
- 200 investors
- 40+ unicorn founders and leading investors
- €500B+ AUM represented
- €110B+ company value represented
Innovation is in Switzerland’s DNA.Global company building should be too.
Switzerland builds exceptional technology.
The next step is building a path for more companies that win globally.
That path depends on the moments where companies usually break through or stall:
- Growth capital.
- Enterprise customers.
- Scale experience.
- Public conditions.
- International attention.
DNA Summit brings these conversations into the same room.
No media. No stage theatre. No bought speaker slots.
A closed summit for work that usually happens too late.
The summit focuses on the questions that decide whether Swiss companies scale internationally.
The goal is simple: make more Swiss companies globally relevant.
- 01Growth capital
Get serious growth capital to Swiss scale-ups before strategic options narrow.
- 02Enterprise demand
Turn large companies into real customers, market makers and scale partners for Swiss breakthrough technologies.
- 03Scale experience
Bring founders closer to operators who have built, hired, sold and expanded at global scale.
- 04International attention
Put Switzerland in the global capital, customer and operator networks that decide what scales.
- 05What changes next
Define what changes across capital, corporate demand, operator access and public positioning, and who moves first.
Not the broad startup scene.
The people building, backing and scaling the companies that will define the next decade.
01Founders
Scale-up founders with the substance to become global category leaders.
02Capital
Tier 1 VCs, growth funds, crossover investors, corporate venture teams and family offices that can shape serious rounds.
03Corporate leaders
Corporate leaders who own markets, business units, procurement power or transformation agendas large enough to create real demand.
04Operators
Exited founders and operators who have lived the jump from local traction to international relevance.
05Public leaders
Public and institutional leaders who can move Standort, policy, university transfer, infrastructure and international positioning.
06Connectors
Connectors with trusted access to the companies, capital, customers and global rooms others cannot easily reach.
If someone is invited, there is a reason.
New summit. Proven format.
DNA Summit builds on the experience behind BAD1 Berlin, a closed-room format built around one principle: the quality of the room matters more than the size of the audience.
500
selected attendees
40+
unicorn founders and leading investors
€500B+
AUM represented
DNA brings that same closed-room discipline to Switzerland’s scale-up agenda.
See BAD1
The Circle, Zurich Airport.
A summit about international scale should not feel local. The Circle gives DNA a connected, neutral place for people coming from Switzerland and abroad.
Close enough for serious people to come in, spend the day and leave with a different view of what Switzerland is building.
10 min
Zurich city centre
90 min
Major European business hubs
Direct
Zurich Airport
Help build the summit Switzerland should already have.
Founding Partners get an early role in shaping who is in the room, which questions are taken seriously and how DNA becomes an international signal for Swiss scale.
For corporates, institutions and capital partners, this is a chance to stand close to the next generation of Swiss global companies before the agenda is crowded, packaged or obvious.
They stand behind a simple belief
Switzerland should be known not only for the innovation it creates, but for the companies it builds.
This is not traditional event sponsorship.
It is a founding role in something meant to become hard to ignore.
Confidential conversations welcome.
Want to help move the agenda forward?
Not every contribution needs to be financial. Make an introduction. Bring someone into the summit. Share your expertise. Help us get the right people involved.
Your contacts for DNA Summit
DNA Summit is being built with partners, supporters and contributors across the Swiss scale-up ecosystem.
For Founding Partner conversations, strategic introductions and summit curation, Niklas Etzel and Maren Schlieper are your first contacts.
Maren Schlieper
Maren has spent 15 years inside the European startup and scale-up ecosystem, including senior roles at DeinDeal and wefox, where she worked close to the realities of fast growth, transformation and company building.
As an Innosuisse Scaleup Coach, mentor and advisor, she has supported more than 100 startups and scale-ups through strategic change, scaling challenges and founder decisions.
As part of the team behind BAD1 Berlin, she brings direct experience in building curated founder-investor formats where the quality of the room matters more than the size of the audience.
Niklas Etzel
Niklas has seen first-hand what it takes to move a European company onto the international stage: scaling from DACH into Europe, relocating the company to Silicon Valley and raising venture funding from a Silicon Valley VC.
Through 45Nord, he now advises organisations and large Areal developments on building innovation ecosystems that connect corporates, academia, startups, scale-ups and capital. His work focuses on creating the conditions that help breakthrough technologies move from promising innovation to customers, strategic partnerships and international relevance.
DNA starts with a summit. The ambition is bigger.
The summit is the starting point. The goal is to build a lasting network around the people helping Swiss companies scale globally.
More connections
Founders, capital, corporates, operators and public leaders working with each other earlier.
More companies
More companies scaling internationally from Switzerland.
More global outcomes
More of the innovation created in Switzerland becoming global business.
More global companies built from Switzerland.
If your organisation wants an early role in helping more Swiss innovation become global companies, we should talk.
Confidential conversations welcome.