ETH transfer — ETH Zurich's University-Wide Technology Transfer Office

ETH transfer is ETH Zurich's central technology-transfer office, responsible for clearing intellectual property, negotiating licences and supporting the creation of spin-off companies from research generated across the university's departments.
Since 1973, ETH Zurich has produced 620 spin-off companies, including a record-adjacent 37 new spin-offs in 2024 (after an all-time high of 43 in 2023). In 2024 alone, 42 ETH spin-offs raised CHF 425 million from private investors — a year-on-year increase of about 25% — and the cumulative valuation of all ETH spin-offs is estimated at roughly CHF 10 billion. Independent tracking puts the five-year survival rate of ETH spin-offs at 93%, well above the 68% benchmark reported for comparable US university spin-offs.
The pipeline skews toward biotechnology/pharma and, increasingly, artificial intelligence (ten new AI spin-offs in 2024). Founder diversity is only partly disclosed: 45% of founders are Swiss and 18% German, and women co-founded 11 of the 43 spin-offs launched in 2023. No public breakdown of aggregate patent-licensing royalty revenue was found, so the office's income model is less transparent than its output figures.

Read the full analysis: https://capiwell.ch/university-spin-offs-how-eth-epfl-and-basel-create-investment-opportunities/