33 recently arrived companies create hundreds of jobs in the Basel region
Basel, 28.03.2019
The efforts of BaselArea.swiss to promote innovation and the region as a business location proved extremely successful in 2018. 33 companies – seven more than in the previous year – were persuaded to move to the Basel economic region. These companies plan to create over 430 jobs over the coming years. The promotion of inward investment and innovation also produced highly promising results. BaselArea.swiss supported the establishment of 72 companies over the past year and more than tripled the number of consultations it provided to companies.
The efforts of BaselArea.swiss in jointly promoting innovation and inward investment of the cantons Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft and Jura are continuing to pay off. Over the past year, BaselArea.swiss helped ensure the relocation of 33 companies to the Basel economic region. That is seven more than in the previous year. 16 companies arrived from Europe, nine of which came from Germany. BaselArea.swiss also supported six Swiss companies in the search for a suitable business location in the Basel region.
Of the newly arrived companies, 19 operate in the life sciences and chemicals sectors. Particularly worthy of mention are Skyhawk Therapeutics from the USA and BeiGene from China. The latter is a global pharmaceutical company from Beijing that has opened its regional headquarters in Basel. The companies most recently relocated to the Basel economic region have already created 139 jobs and plan to add 296 more over the coming years. The huge interest in the Basel region as a business location was also reflected in the over 400 consultation sessions in Switzerland and abroad and the 69 visits to Basel made by investors and company delegations that were organized by BaselArea.swiss in 2018.
Strong commitment to innovation
As well as promoting the location, BaselArea.swiss also achieved extremely impressive results in its second key activity: fostering innovation. 72 startups received support from BaselArea.swiss in founding their companies and the number of companies established increased by nine compared to the previous year. The startups were mainly companies operating in the life sciences and ICT sectors.
There was also a sharp rise in the demand for consulting and mentoring for startups. Companies used this service provided by BaselArea.swiss 556 times, which represents a more than three-fold increase compared to the previous year. The events organised by BaselArea.swiss also proved extremely popular and provided around 6,000 participants with an opportunity for networking and generating new ideas.
BaselArea.swiss also further expanded its three key initiatives. In the field of Healthcare Innovation, “DayOne” helps highly promising startups to develop quickly and is helping Basel to establish itself as a world-leading hub for healthcare innovation. In Therapeutic Innovation, “BaseLaunch” is accelerating the development of innovative startups by providing financial support, among others, and – as part of Industrial Transformation – the “Industry 4.0 Challenge” is providing new firms and SMEs with a platform to drive digital solutions in production technology.
About Basel Area Business & Innovation
Basel Area Business & Innovation is the investment and innovation promotion agency dedicated to helping companies, institutions, and startups find business success in the Basel Area. The organization targets and attracts companies to settle supports founders of innovative ventures, and drives high growth initiatives in order to establish the region as the Swiss business and innovation hub of the future. The non-profit agency focuses on growing the area’s cutting-edge industries life sciences, healthcare, and production technologies and manages the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area, which houses the organization’s accelerator programs. The agency serves the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, and Jura.
