First Swiss SportsTech Report maps a CHF 8 billion sector with Vaud and Bern among its main hubs

Switzerland’s sports tech sector counts 402 companies, an estimated CHF 8 billion in revenue and about 17,000 jobs, according to the first Swiss SportsTech Report. Vaud and Bern are among the three cantons that concentrate about half of the companies.

The first Swiss SportsTech Report was commissioned by Swiss Olympic and prepared with PwC Switzerland and generis, together with a broad alliance of sport, industry, and business and location promotion bodies. It is the first systematic survey of the sector’s size, players and needs. Published in October 2026, it finds 402 companies, nearly two-thirds of them start-ups or scale-ups, generating an estimated CHF 8 billion in revenue and employing about 17,000 full-time equivalents. The sector is about the size of Switzerland’s biotech industry.

Switzerland also counts about 45 sports tech companies per million inhabitants, an international top value, as well as more than 4,600 active sport-related patents and around 60 international sports federations. The sector’s core is physical products such as equipment, apparel, materials and instrumented products, with focus areas in advanced materials, information and communication technologies, sensors and devices, and medicine, health and biotech. Market leaders include On and Sportradar.

An early-stage sector with international ambitions

The sector is concentrated in early maturity stages : start-ups make up 34% of companies, scale-ups 28%, SMEs 34% and large enterprises 3%. About 10% of companies generate more than 90% of sector revenue, 61% have ten or fewer employees, and three quarters earn less than CHF 1 million in sport-related revenue, while a fifth have no revenue yet. At least 29% of companies also earn revenue outside sport, for example in medtech or mobility.

Companies look abroad: 43% earn more than half of their sport-related revenue outside Switzerland, and 88% of surveyed companies expect their revenue to rise over the next two years. The report notes that the domestic market is too small for most of these business models to reach scale on its own.

Vaud and Bern among the main hubs

Companies are active in all 26 cantons, but about half are concentrated in three of them. Zurich is the commercial hub for media, sports data and fan engagement. Vaud is a research-intensive cluster with many start-ups, focused on medtech and wearables and anchored by EPFL, UNIL and the sports bodies based in Lausanne. Bern is the industrial center, where 41% of firms manufacture equipment such as cycling, timing and nutrition products. The region’s sports tech ecosystem is presented in our overview of Western Switzerland’s sports tech players.

A financing gap to close

Financing is among the three most important needs for 58% of companies, together with commercialization (53%), pilot projects (47%) and visibility (46%). Disclosed transactions average roughly USD 50 million per year. Swiss investors take part in about half of the transactions but account for only about 12% of the disclosed volume, growth-stage capital comes mostly from abroad, and foreign buyers have made all the major acquisitions. No dedicated sports tech fund exists in Switzerland.

The authors recommend exploring a national sports tech organization to connect industry and sport, improve networking, raise the sector’s international profile and mobilize capital. Co-author Mike Kurt says the sector can open up new markets and drive innovation.

The global sports economy is projected by the World Economic Forum to grow from about USD 2.3 trillion today to USD 8.8 trillion by 2050.