Crypto Valley Labs open

The Crypto Valley Labs, set up by the Lakeside Partners Investment Group, opened on Tuesday, providing start-up companies involved in blockchain technology with office space conveniently located near the station. The offices themselves are in building used by the Alfred Müller AG property company on the Landis+Gyr site.
 
As Ralf Gabischnig, the founder of Lakeside partners, explained, demand for such premises has been very high, with just a few working spaces left, as Mathias Ruch, the co-founder and chairman of Crypto Valley Labs as well as managing partner of Lakeside Partners, added how the 70 or so blockchain companies operating here needed simple access to appropriate business and residential properties as well as professional and trustable service-providers. As to precisely what such services were, these include those specialising in providing legal and fiscal advice as well as that on the PR and communication fronts.

In addition to co-working spaces and individual offices provided over two floors, there is also a Crypto Café, run by the Finelli family who manage the Widder restaurant in the city. Two more floors will become available in summer once the Biogen pharmaceutical company has moved its headquarters to the new Quadrolith building in Baar. It is hoped that a fifth floor might also become available, which would bring the total space on offer to 1,500 square metres. It is expected that on the four floors definitively designated, some 200 people employed in 20 blockchain businesses will be able to work.
 
These will be joined by employees of the Crypto Valley Association, various tertiary-level educational institutions, and Crypto Funds, including such well-known names as Melonport, Etherisc, Cardano, Confound.it, and Bitmain. Lawyers and fiduciary agents are expected to join them, too.
 
The cost of setting up these Crypto Labs amounted to CHF 1 million, with annual running costs expected to be around this level, too. Income will be generated by rent, though start-up companies will not have to pay any for the first 12 months. It is hoped larger companies will also be involved at a later date. Of note is that the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich is already involved, with blockchain experts from there meeting up with representatives of start-up companies on a monthly basis. Indeed, the first such meeting took place on Tuesday.
 
These Crypto Valley Labs will remain housed on this site until 2023, when the building is due to be demolished, possibly to make way for a Crypto Tower to be built on the same plot.