New senior management team at Swisscom Ventures
Dominique Mégret, founder and head of Swisscom Ventures, will be moving to Ecorobotix per 1 March, where he will take over as CEO. His role at Swisscom Ventures will be handed over to an established team: Stefan Kuentz, Alexander Schläpfer and Pär Lange will assume the leadership of the company as joint Managing Partners. They have been closely working together in the ventures team for years and have built it up in collaboration with Dominique. They bring with them a range of skills and experience, are extremely well connected and will lead Swisscom Ventures successfully into the future.
Dominique Mégret founded Swisscom Ventures in 2007. Since then, the division has become a key player in the Swiss start-up scene and is now one of the biggest venture capital investors in Switzerland. Swisscom Ventures supports companies on their journey over several years from the start-up to the growth phase, with the aim of ensuring that they develop into sustainably successful companies. Abroad, Swisscom Ventures focus lies on new technologies with the potential to help Swiss companies and the Swiss economy to grow. In Switzerland, Swisscom Ventures supports promising startups in order to further advance Switzerland’s digital transformation and strengthen the country’s innovative power. This means that companies like Sophia Genetics, Ecorobotix and Yokoy have been able to develop and grow.
Isa Müller-Wegner, who took over as Head of Group Strategy & Business Development at Swisscom in June 2023, has various reasons to be pleased regarding the change in management at Swisscom Ventures: “It’s wonderful that Dominique Mégret is the new CEO of Ecorobotix, a company in which Swisscom Ventures has invested in recent years. And I’m also delighted that the appointment of Alexander, Pär and Stefan ensures the continuity within the team. After all, strong partnerships, trust and having good connections in the start-up ecosystem are key success factors at Ventures. All three have been working side by side for years, have access to a large network and have supported companies such as ANYbotics, Kandou and Scandit. They recognise challenges, opportunities,trends and companies that are developing in Switzerland and abroad through digitisation and new technology.”
Swisscom Ventures focuses on continuity
Swisscom Ventures relies on a team with different professional, cultural and functional backgrounds and is committed to a diverse portfolio. And the new management team brings also varying knowledge and a range of expertise to the table.
Alexander Schläpfer, MSc in Finance
Before joining Swisscom Ventures in June 2016, Alexander was the co-founder and partner at Aster Capital in Paris, the corporate venture platform of Schneider Electric, Alstom and Solvay, where he managed investments in the areas of renewable energies, industrial IT and IoT. Before becoming VC, he headed the strategy, M&A and S&M departments at Alstom’s Power Service division, and had previously held several operational management positions in the Middle East with ABB. He also co-founded and chaired a robotics start-up at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.
His areas of focus are: robotics, Industry 4.0, edtech, fintech.
Pär Lange, MSc in Physics, MBA INSEAD
Before helping to set up Swisscom Ventures in 2007, Pär was co-founder and chief executive of a Stockholm-based consultancy firm focusing on early-stage investments in the ICT sector. Before that he co-founded a mobile phone operator, which successfully obtained a 3G licence in Sweden. He started his career in Sweden by developing RF and microwave transmission solutions and then worked in sales and marketing for Ericsson in Japan.
His areas of focus are: communication, semiconductor and sensor technologies.
Stefan Kuentz, MSc in Computer Science
Stefan has been with Swisscom since 2003. In 2011, he joined Swisscom Ventures where his focus has been on international investments in the cloud, SaaS and cybersecurity. Stefan has held various management positions at Swisscom, including running the company’s US outpost in Silicon Valley and establishing new solution units for the B2B sector. Before joining Swisscom, Stefan was employed for many years at IBM, where he was Associate Partner in charge of IT strategy consulting.
His areas of focus are: IT, cloud, enterprise software, cybersecurity, USA ecosystem
About Swisscom Ventures
Swisscom Ventures advises investment funds for Swisscom and institutional investors totalling USD 650 million. These funds invest in minority stakes in Swiss and international start-ups. Since 2007, Swisscom Ventures has invested in over 80 such start-up companies and has managed to sell almost 40 investments at a profit after an average of six years. The investment team works closely with its Swisscom colleagues in the various divisions, relying on Swisscom’s market-leading expertise in digital transformation.