Thomas
Dübendorfer

Startups

I have co-founded these nine Swiss startups: 9T Labs, Agrinorm, Contovista, Frontify, Get More Brain, precisionED, Spontacts, threatray and yes.com.

Angel Investor

I am an angel investor since 2010 and the president and co-founder of SICTIC, the leading angel investor club in Switzerland. I invest into technology startups with my Datartis Ventures AG and have received the award SECA Business Angel of the Year 2024. Bilanz named me three times as one of the top 100 Digital Shapers of Switzerland.

Jury, Panel, Board Member and Speaker

As jury, panel, and board member I add value with my management strategy, technology startup, computer science and cyber security expertise. I also teach at universities and give talks.

Personal

Welcome to my virtual home! Here you can learn about my startup portfolio, myself, and how to engage with me. You can watch a video of me or read some posts.

Thomas Dübendorfer holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from ETH Zurich. He is president and co-founder of SICTIC, the leading angel investor club in Switzerland with a focus on Swiss early-stage technology product startups. He has worked in Silicon Valley and at Google in Zurich as tech lead and security software engineer. He is an angel investor, co-founder and board member in several startups, and has had several successful startup exits. He is CEO of Datartis AG and Datartis Ventures AG.

Play the video

I invest my time, network and money into passionate tech startup founders to create the future together.

Startups

Highlights as Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor

Adjoint

Real-time payments and settlement platform for corporate treasury.

Beekeeper

Team communication platform and essential tool for frontline workers.

Carbon Delta

Climate solutions for investment professionals and assessments of climate related risks and opportunities in investment portfolios. Exit to MSCI Inc.

Legartis

Contract intelligence AI solution for legal counsels.

Locatee

Workplace analytics solution for fact-based decisions to increase workplace experience and utilisation of office buildings.

nexoya
nexoya

Marketing intelligence and online advertising campaign optimisation solution.

Procsea

Online B2B fish market.

Veezoo

Artificial intelligence solution for sales teams in insurance companies.

Media

Press mentions, articles and video resources. See my LinkedIn Posts for recent updates.

 

Article
Riskwolf raises CHF750K to turbocharge its B2B insurance platform

June 4th, 2021, I led the pre-seed round of Riskwolf. Zurich-based InsurTech Riskwolf enables insurers to offer connectivity insurance. Read the article here.

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Article
1,4 Millionen für KI-Marketing Startup nexoya

May 18th, 2021, I led the investment round of my portfolio startup nexoya. Nexoya optimizes marketing campaigns with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Read the article here (in German).

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Podcast
Swisspreneur Podcast Episode #135

February 25th, 2021, I have been a guest at the Swisspreneur podcast EP #135 – Thomas Dübendorfer: The Business Angels of Switzerland. Listen here to the episode.

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Podcast
Swisspreneur Podcast Episode #133

February 18th, 2021, I have been a guest at the Swisspreneur podcast EP #133 – Thomas Dübendorfer: Leaving Google For The Startup World. Listen here to the episode.

Link
Panel Discussion
Panel on Diversity @Swiss Startup DAYS 2020

October 6th, 2020, I have been part of a panel on diversity @Swiss Startup DAYS, Berne.

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Portrait
Top 100 Digital Shapers of Switzerland

October 1st, 2020, I feel very honored having been selected by BILANZ as Investor as one of “Top 100 Digital Shapers of Switzerland” for the third time! Portrait in German.

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Video Panel
Why invest in AI now

September 17th, 2020, I moderated the panel “Why invest in AI now” as part of the conference “shake-down test of AI investments” by SwissCognitive.

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Article
Geld für die eigene Firma

August 20th, 2020, I contributed with an interview to an article on startup funding to raise awareness on how startups find investors (published in Handelszeitung). Article in German.

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Interview
Insider-Einblicke in den Swiss ICT Investor Club

June 3rd, 2020, I gave an interview to STARTUPDATE.ch on how Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC) works and what we look for in startups that apply for funding. Interview in German.

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Book Chapter
After a Financing Round is before a Financing Round

April 6th, 2020, I wrote the chapter “After a Financing Round is before a Financing Round – The Role of the Investor in Venture Governance” for the book “Governance of Ventures“. In this chapter you learn which financing option is the right one for your startup situation and how to always know the the point of no return.

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Video Interview
The Right Kind of Support in ICT with SICTIC

November 3rd, 2019, Interview Global Tech Box – Startups, Tech & Innovation: Thomas Dübendorfer, president and co-founder of SICTIC on angel investing and how to differentiate it from venture capital and some advice on what it really means to invest in startups.

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Interview
"Bei SICTIC erhalten Start-ups eine Anschubfinanzierung von 0,5 bis 1,5 Millionen Franken"

May 7th, 2019, Interview Netzwoche: “Der Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC) ist auch 2019 wieder Scouting Partner des Digital Economy Awards für die Kategorie “Next Global Hot Thing”. SICTIC-Präsident Thomas Dübendorfer sucht in dieser Kategorie gemeinsam mit den weiteren Scouting Partnern diejenigen Tech-Start-ups, die das Zeug dazu haben, die Welt zu verändern. Was es dazu braucht, erklärt er im Interview.”

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Presentation
Angel Investing: An introduction for aspiring tech startup investors.

March 27, 2019, Presentation at Google Zurich: “Angel Investing in Switzerland, an introduction for aspiring tech startup investors”.

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Article
Risikoaversion: Kapital für Pioniere, nein danke?

March, 2019, Article in Schweizer Monat: “Risikoaversion: Kapital für Pioniere, nein danke? Warum die Infrastruktur der Zukunft «Made in Switzerland» sein könnte.”

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Panel Discussion
Opportunities and risks of crowdfunding

March 20, 2019, Panel Discussion at 1. Funders-Award: Opportunities and risks of crowdfunding. Panel: Beat Hodel (LUKB-Geschäftsleitungsmitglied), Dr. Thomas Dübendorfer (Investor and President, SICTIC), Johannes Hartmann (Regisseur von Mad Heidi) und Patrycja Pielaszek (HelloNina.com).

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Article
Business-Angels sind Kapitalisten in Reinform

September 18th, 2018, Article NZZ: “Immer nah an der Innovation, den Totalverlust riskierend: Risikokapital für Startups bereitzustellen, ist eine Jagd für nervenstarke Investoren.”

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Key Note
Contovista: An insider's view on the journey from incorporation to exit in 4 years

November 15, 2017, Keynote on Contovista’s startup journey given at Swiss Fintech Investor Day 2017.

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Press Mention
«Verzweifelte Firmen versuchen, Doktorierende abzuwerben»

April 20th, 2017, Press Mention NZZ: “Nehmen IT-Giganten wie Google der ETH und kleinen Firmen in Zürich die besten Leute weg? Sicher ist: Der Konkurrenzdruck auf dem Zürcher Arbeitsmarkt verschärft sich.”

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Guest Commentary
Paradoxe beim Datenschutz

March 22, 2017, Guest Commentary in NZZ: “Im Extremfall könnten Gesetze, welche die Menschen in ihrer Privatsphäre schützen sollen, sogar Menschenleben kosten.”

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Video Interview
Mindcast - Folge 16: SICTIC

September 22nd, 2016, Video Interview of Thomas Dübendorfer on SICTIC in Mindcast.

Link

Testimonials

How I work with startups.

SICTIC investors were fast to make decisions, from finding a lead investor to conduct due diligence and preparing the term sheet. Furthermore, many are highly involved in helping our company grow.

Renaud Enjalbert

CEO and Co-Founder, Procsea SA

Thomas took the meaning of “smart” money literally and wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He didn’t scare off to dive deeply into various important business topics with us. Specifically, we got great support for building up a top notch software engineering team, get the security of our SaaS solution enterprise ready and we got useful advice on legal topics.

Beekeeper Flavio Pfaffhauser

CTO and Co-Founder, Beekeeper

Thomas helped us extensively with his know-how and business contacts in the ramp-up phase of Contovista. This support was at least as valuable as the in financial investment.

contovista Gian Reto à Porta

CEO and Co-founder, Contovista AG

Mandates

A selection of my board of directors and advisory board mandates.

BOARD MANDATE

nexoya

nexoya AG

VIEW WEBSITE

BOARD MANDATE

Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC)

SICTIC

VIEW WEBSITE

BOARD MANDATE and CO-FOUNDER

Frontify AG

Frontify AG

VIEW WEBSITE

ADVISORY MANDATE

startupdays

startupdays

startupdays

Background

Highlights in academia and my professional life.

Achievements
Domain Expertise
  • Angel investing
  • Scaling up Swiss software startups internationally
  • Digital transformation
  • Information security
Scaling Experience
  • President – Swiss ICT Investor Club
    Grew member base from 0 to more than 400 members in five years.
  • President – Information Security Society Switzerland (ISSS)
    Doubled member base to over 1000 members.
  • Tech Lead – Google
    Experienced growth of Zurich office from around 40 (2006) to 1400 Googlers (2013).
Academia & Corporates
  • ETH Zurich
    PhD, Computer Science (Cyber Security)
  • ETH Zurich
    Lecturer, Network Security (10 years)
  • University of Zurich, University of Liechtenstein, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)
    Guest Lecturer, Angel Investing & Venture Capital
  • HP
    Computer Science Research on Internet of Things IoT (Silicon Valley)
  • Google
    Software Engineer & Tech Lead (Zurich and Silicon Valley)