January Foundation Report: Over 4'000 New Foundings Kick Off the New Year

Growth in French-speaking Switzerland

In January, French-speaking Switzerland recorded 1'278 commercial registry entries. This represents a reduction of 15.36% compared to the record month of December. Compared to January of the previous year, however, there was an increase of 6.86 percentage points. The Canton of Vaud was particularly prominent with an increase of 11.64% over the previous month and 15.88% compared to the previous year.

Ticino also saw an increase of 2.12% compared to the previous month, which corresponds to 193 new companies in the region.

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Cautious Start in Northwestern Switzerland

The start in Northwestern Switzerland was more subdued, with 970 new companies. This corresponds to a decrease of 5.83 percentage points from the previous year and 15.21 percentage points from December 2024. Most of the foundings were registered in the Canton of Bern, which counted 380 new companies.

Eastern Switzerland recorded an even stronger decline with a total of 501 company foundings, which is a decrease of 23.28% compared to December 2024. The decline was particularly noticeable in St. Gallen, where there were 306 entries in the commercial register last December and only 212 in January 2025, a decrease of 30.72%.

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Stable Results in Zurich

In Zurich, 772 commercial registry entries were counted, which is a slight increase of 0.13% over the previous month's figure. There was also no significant change year-on-year, as 766 new companies were registered in Zurich in January 2024.

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Outlook

The new year started off promisingly by breaking the 4000 new foundings mark right at the beginning. Historically, there has always been an increase in the number of foundings from January to February, a trend that is also expected for this year.

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