Icon of the Swiss start-up scene trembles for her life's work

In Germany, Lea-Sophie Cramer is the flagship of the start-up scene, in Switzerland it is Lea von Bidder: With Ava, the 33-year-old has built up one of the most innovative and best-financed young companies in the country. With her product, a light blue bracelet, women can identify their fertile days - and thus increase their chances of becoming pregnant.

Founded in 2014, von Bidder managed to raise around $45 million from investors. While the idea for the bracelet may have come from one of her co-founders, she has always been the face of the company.

Von Bidder gave interviews, appeared at tech conferences. To this day, she is present on the start-up's website as the leading mind. "I'm very vision-oriented," said Lea von Bidder in 2016 in an interview with "Gründerszene" when asked how she would describe herself.

In the summer of last year, her vision seemed complete: Femtec Health, a US provider of products for women's health, took over Ava completely. “Exit successful” was the headline in the “Handelzeitung”. Both companies did not provide any information about the purchase price. In view of the previously received investor money, however, the newspaper assumed a “considerable” sum.

Six months later, the picture is different. According to media reports, the once celebrated start-up is threatened with extinction. There is talk of money worries and layoffs, of the fact that the sale of Ava to the USA was only due to necessity.

And: The new owner Femtec Health now has problems of its own, no longer pays suppliers and employees. A dispute between the companies has even escalated to such an extent that the former Ava boss is threatened by Bidder.

According to media reports, the problems at Ava began long before the exit, in March 2020, as the business newspaper “Bilanz” wrote last year. At that time, a planned round of financing collapsed due to the corona pandemic.

Only with the help of a convertible loan - which can be organized quickly and unbureaucratically - was the start-up able to avert bankruptcy. 40 of the 100 employees at the time would have had to leave anyway. According to the newspaper, Ava never made a profit.

Despite financial bridging, the crisis could apparently not be averted. When money ran out again in April 2022, investors are said to have once again refused a financing injection. The reason this time: Collapsing tech stocks as a result of the Ukraine war and inflation.

A face-saving exit seemed to be the last remaining option for all sides. And as such, founder Lea von Bidder later sold the takeover by the US company Femtec Health: "The synergies between our businesses are huge," said von Bidder of the NZZ.

While Femtec already offered women's cosmetics and telemedicine, the company still lacked fertility tracking. Since she had also known CEO Kimon Angelides for years, the step was only logical. On the investor side, however, the euphoria about the exit was limited. "He wasn't great, but he wasn't terrible either," quoted "Bilanz" from an investor who wanted to remain anonymous.

Another told the newspaper that the entire company around founder Lea von Bidder "certainly hoped for something else". This is also supported by the fact that no money is said to have flowed during the takeover. It was an exchange of company shares, so the balance sheet.

However, it is questionable whether the shares will retain their value for long. As the US news portal Axios has now reported, the new Ava owner has now got into financial difficulties himself. Femtec Health recently laid off at least ten percent of its employees, according to Linkedin data the number has even fallen by half from almost 80 (June) to 42 now.

As affected employees of Femtec Health reported to Axios, CEO Kimon Angelides is said to have taken on numerous company acquisitions recently. Angelides misrepresented information about the financial and operational status of his company to investors.

Since July last year - i.e. at the time of the Ava takeover - Femtec Health is said to have paid neither invoices from suppliers nor the wages of employees.

Apparently, former Ava employees are also affected. According to Axios, several ex-executives - including founder Lea von Bidder - have brought an enforcement action against a Swiss branch of the new owner. Axios relies on e-mails and other documents that the news portal was able to view.

Kimon Angelides, the CEO of Femtec Health, reacted to the procedure. “If this goes through, the value of shares and holdings in the company will be down to zero. I don't think you, as a former CEO, want that result," he reportedly wrote in an email from Bidder.

Angelides also warned the founder of irreparable image damage: If she accelerates the company's decline through personal demands, this could have "consequences for personal reputation" and be seen as "unfortunate personal failure".

It remains to be seen whether the new Ava owner would let his company and Bidder's former start-up go bankrupt. In any case, it would be an inglorious end for the icon of the Swiss start-up scene. Bidder has not yet responded to a request from "Gründerszene".

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