Foundation Report April 2023: In the shadow of the strong previous month
In April, 3725 new companies were founded in Switzerland. This figure represents a decrease of 26.03% compared to the strong previous month of March. The previous year’s figures were exceeded by 5.6% this month.
Zurich in the lead
With 808 new companies, Zurich recorded the most start-ups among the cantons, losing only 2.18 percentage points compared to March. Particularly impressive is the clear lead of 14.29% compared to April 2022, in which 707 new companies were created.
Northwestern Switzerland, with 800 startups, posted a loss of 29.58% from last month, but was able to show a year-over-year growth of 1.78%. This result was achieved by the strong increase in the canton of Aargau, with 238 startups resulting in an increase of 15.53% compared to April 2022. The highest number for this region was 299 startups, was achieved in Bern and was 32.66% lower than March’s result.
March makes April look old
April could not hold a candle to the previous month, which was evident in all regions. In Eastern Switzerland, for example, a total of 450 new companies were founded, which meant that the region achieved 30.02% fewer start-ups than in March. St.Gallen was the region’s winner with 188 start-ups, but was clearly overshadowed by last month with a decrease of 35.17%.
A similar trend could be observed in Central Switzerland, where the number of start-ups was 494, 31.58% lower than the month before. Compared to last year, however, only a decrease of 3.25% could be observed, which was supported by the increase of 36% in Schwyz and 33.3% in Nidwalden.
Top performer Romandie suffers losses
With 1004 start-ups, French-speaking Switzerland achieved the highest number of all regions. However, even with this performance, it lost 31.00% compared to March and performed 6.34% worse than in the previous year. Geneva had the highest number of startups with 306 new companies, creating 6.99% more than in April last year. Vaud came in second with 302 startups and a loss of 14.69% in direct comparison to last year.
The clouds also reached the sunny Ticino this month, pushing the results 33.46% lower than in March, leaving the canton with a total of 169 foundations. However, the decrease was less drastic in relation to last year, amounting to 6.11%.
Outlook
Despite the clouds that April brought, there is no reason to be depressed, as only a minimal decrease was observed compared to last year. Thus, we look forward to May with confidence and hope that the positive trend will continue after this brief dip.
