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Innovation policy, start-ups and fintech in Ticino

The cantonal innovation system

The canton organizes its support for start-ups and innovative small and medium enterprises through the foundation AGIRE (Fondazione AGIRE), established in 2011 by the canton's Department of Finance and Economy together with USI, SUPSI, the Association of Ticino Industries (AITI) and the Chamber of Commerce of the Canton of Ticino.1 AGIRE's statutory mission is to promote and spread innovation "nel rispetto dei valori della sostenibilità e della responsabilità d'impresa", with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of the regional economy and creating highly qualified jobs.2 It coordinates the regional innovation system (Sistema regionale dell'innovazione), runs the Tecnopolo Ticino, a network of offices and co-working spaces for young companies, and manages the Boldbrain Startup Challenge, an accelerator programme that selects about twenty innovative ideas each year and offers free coaching over three months together with the USI Startup Centre.3 AGIRE also manages the operations of TiVentures, a seed investment vehicle for early-stage companies in deep technology, health, digital and clean technology.4 Chapter H.II describes the tax and economic promotion instruments that accompany this system, among them the temporary tax relief under the cantonal law on economic innovation and the patent box introduced by the federal tax reform of 2020.

In a presentation for start-ups of November 2025 the canton described Ticino as "the second innovation ecosystem in Switzerland". It listed the tax measures available: an exemption from gift tax for start-ups, a reduction of the capital tax to 0.01 per mille, separate taxation of certain investor income at a rate of 1 per cent and a patent box with relief of up to 90 per cent of qualifying profits.5 The claim to second place among Swiss innovation ecosystems is the canton's own and depends on the indicators chosen. It should be read as a statement of ambition. What is not in doubt is the density of public institutions working on innovation in a canton of fewer than 400,000 inhabitants.

The Switzerland Innovation Park Ticino

The Switzerland Innovation Park Ticino forms part of the national network of innovation parks created under the Federal Act on the Promotion of Research and Innovation, which allows the Confederation to support innovation parks with guarantees and land.6 Ticino joined the network in 2021. The park was formally inaugurated in Bellinzona in November 2024, with locations in Bellinzona, Lugano and the Riviera airport at Lodrino, as described in Chapter H.II.7 The park's own website now gives an address in Lugano, describes Ticino as "a site of Park Zurich" and states that 2025 "marks the transition from vision to operational reality". It is organized in thematic competence centres for drones, life sciences and fashion, and lists among its fields of activity information technology and data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics.8 Finance does not appear among the competence centres. The omission is telling. The cantonal innovation policy concentrates on industry, life sciences and the fashion and logistics cluster of the Mendrisiotto described in Chapter F.III, while financial technology has been left largely to private initiative and to the City of Lugano's Plan ₿.

Notes

  1. Fondazione AGIRE, "Chi siamo", https://www.agire.ch/chi-siamo. ↩
  2. Fondazione AGIRE, "Chi siamo" (above). ↩
  3. Fondazione AGIRE, "Chi siamo" (above); Repubblica e Cantone Ticino, Dipartimento delle finanze e dell'economia, presentation for start-ups (English version), 5 November 2025, https://www4.ti.ch/fileadmin/DFE/DE-PORTALE-IMPRESA/documenti/20251105_slide_startup _sito_ENG.pdf ("Free 3-month coaching for selected projects"). ↩
  4. Presentation for start-ups, 5 November 2025 (above). ↩
  5. Presentation for start-ups, 5 November 2025 (above). ↩
  6. Federal Act on the Promotion of Research and Innovation of 14 December 2012 (RIPA), SR 420.1 (title and date confirmed at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/4/42/420.1-index.html), Art. 32– 33 (Swiss Innovation Park). ↩
  7. Greater Zurich Area, "Switzerland Innovation Park Ticino open" (14 November 2024), https://www.greaterzuricharea.com/en/news/switzerland-innovation-park-ticino-open (integration into the network begun in 2021; official opening in Bellinzona in November 2024; competence centres in Bellinzona, Lugano and at the Riviera airport in Lodrino). ↩
  8. Switzerland Innovation Park Ticino, website, https://ti-switzerland-innovation.com/ (consulted 5 October 2026). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.

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