BLKB, the cantonal bank for the canton of Basel-Landschaft, is expanding its support program for innovative SMEs and startups. In future, BLKB will offer companies regarded as particularly promising from the “100 fürs Baselbiet” promotional program the opportunity to convert their loan into equity financing, further details of which can be found in a press release. BLKB cites a high degree of innovation, strong scalability and a successful due diligence check as prerequisites for this.

At the start of 2020, BLKB launched the “100 fürs Baselbiet” initiative in conjunction with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and Economic Development Baselland. The aim of this project is to enable 100 companies with a link to the canton of Basel-Landschaft, colloquially referred to as the Baselland or Baselbiet, to take a decisive step forward in their further development.

Already 37 companies supported

BLKB board member Beat Röthlisberger is “very proud that after three years we can already support 37 innovative companies in their next development step”. As a result, these companies have been able to create 120 new jobs. Currently, the 37 companies are supported with a total amount of 13.7 million Swiss francs as well as extensive consulting services. In order to reinforce the positive effect, BLKB is now scaling up its commitment.

Together with the Baselland Chamber of Commerce and FHNW, the BLKB also organizes the Swiss Innovation Challenge. According to Arie Verkuil, who heads up the FHNW Institute of Management, a total of 850 applications with business concepts have been submitted in eight years. This shows that “the potential for further interested companies is definitely there”.