VI Partners, the longest-established VC team in Switzerland, welcomes Gaetano Zanon as new Venture Partner. Gaetano joins the Technology Investment team where he will work together with Joe Neale, Cyrill Osterwalder, Olivier Laplace and Alain Nicod to select, invest in, and support promising Swiss and European start-ups in B2B Enterprise Software / SaaS, FinTech, Blockchain and Machine Learning. 

Gaetano brings 20 years of experience as an investor and entrepreneur. Prior to joining VI Partners, Gaetano spent 15 years in London in Mergers and Acquisitions and as the founder of an alternative asset manager focused on environmental assets. He has worked with a wide range of blue-chip European corporations, sovereign wealth funds and leading private equity franchises, advising them on acquisition strategy, strategic financing and divestiture programs. More recently, Gaetano has held C-level positions for leading Swiss financial institutions, with responsibilities across strategy, business development and asset management. 

Gaetano holds an MBA from IMD Business School and is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. 

Alain Nicod, Managing Partner, Technology, commented: "We look forward to working with Gaetano as a new Venture Partner within our firm where he will be working in tandem with Olivier Laplace, Joe Neale and Cyrill Osterwalder. As a former entrepreneur, Gaetano’s transactional experience and deep knowledge of the Swiss financial ecosystem will be a perfect addition to the team and very relevant to our LPs. With Gaetano joining our firm, we now have an even stronger top-tier tech VC team”. 

VI Partner’s team also includes Arnd Kaltofen and Diego Braguglia (Managing Partners, Healthcare), Simon Meyer (Partner, Healthcare) as well as Christoph Bieri (Partner Operations). The Managing Partners of VI Partners have worked together for 20 years and thus constitute the longest-standing and most experienced VC team in Switzerland. In June 2021, VI Partners announced the second closing of a new fund currently being deployed in healthcare and technology startups.