Even more startups: Significant growth in new registrations in the first half 2016
In the first half 2016, a total of 21,153 business types were registered in the Swiss commercial register. This amounts to 2.01 % more registrations than in the first semester of 2015. These figures come from the results of the latest survey by STARTUPS.CH, the Swiss specialists in online business start-ups.
(Source: Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, SOGC)
Significant growth in the first half 2016
A total of 21,153 new entries were registered in the Swiss commercial register in the first half 2016. This corresponds to a relative increase of 2.01 % compared to the first half of 2015 (total of 20,737). An increase of 4.22 % was also recorded compared to the second half of the 2015 (July to December). This significant growth shows that the Swiss economy has recovered well after the Euro-Franc minimum exchange rate was lifted on January 15, 2015.
Strong second quarter
The only time more new entries were registered than in this semester was in the record year of 2014 (January-June: 21,235 new registrations). The first quarter of 2016 showed a small increase in new registrations recorded of around 1 % (cf. blog post). In contrast, very strong growth of 3.12 % was recorded in the second quarter. The two strongest months in this half of the year were March (3,613) and June (4,074).
Most popular form of company start-up is the GmbH
A snapshot of the legal forms shows that the limited liability company (GmbH) made up the largest share of start-ups at 37.84 %. This was followed by sole proprietorships with a share of 34.08 %. Corporations came in at 3rd place with a share of 19.39 %. The advantage of the GmbH for young entrepreneurs lies in its limited liability, which extends to the share capital alone. The registered capital amount of CHF 20,000 is also much lower than for corporations.
The advantage of a sole proprietorship lies in the fact that it can be set up quickly and easily and no minimum capital is required. This disadvantage is that the sole proprietor is held liable for the company’s debts with all his assets.
French-speaking Switzerland shows significant growth
Almost all cantons were able to show an increase in new registrations. The canton of Zurich is very strongly positioned here with a total of 3,788 new company entries being made in the register. This represents a relative growth of 1.94 %. With a share of 17.91 %, by far most new registrations were recorded in Zurich. The French-speaking cantons of Vaud, with a share of 10.38 %, and Geneva, with a share of 8.24 % of all start-ups, follow. French-speaking Switzerland with 6.18 % shows stronger growth here than German-speaking Switzerland with 2.34 %. 6.04 % of all new business registrations come from the canton of Ticino.
Additional growth figures from the various cantons can be sourced from the following table.
