Founded in 2015, the Entrepreneur Investor Platform.
The Entrepreneur Investor Platform, founded in 2015, builds on more than a decade of direct investment experience, partnering closely with company owners to secure the long-term future of their businesses.
Our Roots
Where we come from.
Our story begins in 2010, when a small team of investment professionals was given a mandate to build something unusual: a portfolio of direct investments in Swiss SMEs, working alongside the companies as active partners rather than passive capital providers.
Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital (2010–2022)
From 2010 to 2022, our team managed the direct investments of Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital, the programme through which one of Switzerland's largest financial institutions made its direct investments. Through this mandate, we reviewed more than 1,000 investment opportunities and supported more than 40 active portfolio companies across Swiss growth firms: precision manufacturers, industrial technology and engineering companies in the German-speaking region. The team held board mandates and provided strategic guidance to management.
Independence in 2015
In August 2015, the team became independent. Helvetica Capital AG was founded in Zürich as a fully autonomous investment firm, carrying forward the operational philosophy, the relationships, and the conviction that entrepreneurial capital, patient, engaged, long-term, is fundamentally different from what the financial industry typically offers.
Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund (2019–2026)
From 2019 to 2026, Helvetica Capital served as investment advisor for the direct investments of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, a CHF 250 million initiative supporting Swiss growth companies. The mandate confirmed the team's standing in the Swiss investment landscape and broadened the platform's reach across the country's growth-stage companies.
What it means today
What remains is the experience of more than a decade of direct investing in Switzerland: institutional discipline, a resilient network for attractive investment opportunities, and trusted relationships with companies — the foundation of our approach today.
The Challenge
The Swiss Mittelstand is at an inflection point.
The Swiss Mittelstand is the country's economic backbone. Yet succession, growth plans, and transformations often require capital solutions that traditional financing addresses only inadequately.
A generational transition underway
Studies estimate that more than 50,000 Swiss SMEs will need a new ownership structure by 2030. Founders who have built successful companies over years and decades are seeking succession partners who preserve continuity, values, and company culture.
Management buyouts and carve-outs
Management teams with deep operational expertise need capital partners who support long-term buyouts. Corporate groups need credible buyers for strong-but-non-core divisions — not financial buyers seeking short-term resale.
Inadequate alternatives
Selling to a foreign industrial buyer risks relocation, loss of know-how, and job losses in Switzerland. Other capital structures operate on fixed five-to-seven-year timelines that force exits regardless of what the company actually needs. Helvetica Capital was built to be the right partner across all of these situations.
Our solution: the EIP model
Not a fund. An entrepreneurial platform.
We do not raise funds with predetermined lifespans, invest under time pressure, or pursue fixed divestment deadlines. Instead, we invest with long-term capital and stay with companies for as long as it serves their development.
Patient capital
We do not divest companies according to a predetermined timeline. If a company is growing successfully and further potential remains, we stay engaged. Our perspective is measured in years of value creation, not quarters.
Entrepreneurial co-investors
Our investors are successful Swiss entrepreneurial families. Their long-standing entrepreneurial experience, strategic know-how, and networks create value that goes far beyond capital alone.
Active partnership, real alignment
We take board seats. We work alongside management on strategy, acquisitions, and operational improvement. We invest our own capital alongside our co-investors; our interests are the same as theirs, and the same as the company's.
Value Creation
What follows our investment.
- 01
Strategic Board Involvement
We appoint experienced board members, which often are entrepreneurs and industry specialists from our network who bring operational insight coupled with Swiss governance.
- 02
Organic Growth
We support management in expanding product lines, entering new markets, and investing in digitalisation and operational efficiency.
- 03
Selective Add-on Acquisitions
Where it strengthens the company's market position, we execute bolt-on acquisitions. Under our ownership, portfolio companies have successfully scaled through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, supporting their market leading position.
- 04
Continuity and Independence
We preserve what is working. Entrepreneurial identity, leadership, and employees stay on board as we shape the next phase of the company's development together.
Thinking about the future of your company?
If you are a business owner considering growth, succession, a management buyout, or a new strategic chapter, we would welcome a conversation. No commitment, no pressure, always confidential.