Prospecting in Romandie: A Field Guide
This guide covers prospecting across Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, Fribourg, and Valais. Fribourg and Valais are bilingual. French-speaking Bern sits outside the dataset used below.
The national registers work across all six cantons, but notices and job postings are often in French. This guide shows where to find recent company activity and which French register terms matter. It also explains how to choose the language for first contact.
Reading a French FOSC notice
The Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce has different names by language. German pages refer to the SHAB (Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt), while French pages use FOSC (Feuille officielle suisse du commerce). Both names refer to the publication available at shab.ch. Notices concerning Romandie companies are generally published in French.
The event types and fields are consistent across language versions. To recognise a capital increase or a change of purpose in a French notice, learn the terms below. The same terms help identify a new signatory.
| Concept | German (SHAB) | French (FOSC) |
|---|---|---|
| Share capital | Aktienkapital | Capital-actions |
| Registered shares | Namenaktien | Actions nominatives |
| Sole signing authority | Einzelunterschrift | Signature individuelle |
| Joint signing authority | Kollektivunterschrift zu zweien | Signature collective à deux |
| Corporation | Aktiengesellschaft (AG) | Société anonyme (SA) |
| Limited liability company | GmbH | Sàrl |
| Capital paid in | Liberiert | Libéré |
| Purpose clause | Zweck | But |
A notice containing "signature collective à deux" records joint signing authority. Two authorised people must sign together. "Augmentation ordinaire du capital-actions" identifies an ordinary share-capital increase. Read the complete notice before deciding why the change matters.
Where to find companies and signals
Start with Zefix for the official company entry and FOSC for published changes. Cantonal registers can provide additional search options, while job boards and company websites show more current operating activity.
Cantonal registers
Each canton maintains its commercial register. Geneva's public search (ge.ch) supports free-text searches across purpose clauses, which can help with early sector research. Vaud offers fewer search options. Use Zefix to confirm the entity, then open the cantonal result when its search fields or extract add useful detail.
Job postings
jobs.ch and LinkedIn carry many roles from Romandie employers. Search in French as well as English, then open the original posting to see the language and team named by the company. Job Room is useful when a role falls under the Swiss job-registration requirement.
For venture-backed companies, StartupTicker can supplement a commercial-register notice with funding and launch context.
How to build and qualify a list
- Filter the events to the industries and cantons you cover.
- Read the original notice and identify exactly what changed.
- Check the company's website and current hiring activity.
- Contact the relevant person in the language their organisation uses.
Define the target market by industry and company type first. Use canton and language to refine the source searches and adapt the outreach.
A Geneva commodity trader and a Vaud medtech manufacturer may sit in the same language region, but their relevant events and buyers will differ, as will the opening message.
Choosing the language for first contact
Use the language the company uses with its customers. A French website or job posting is a clear cue to open in French. The same applies when the contact writes to you in French. English may be appropriate for an international team that publishes and recruits in English.
When the available signals are mixed, French is a reasonable default for an initial message in Romandie. Have the copy reviewed by a fluent speaker and be clear about the languages you can use in a call.
In a first French message, use "vous" and the recipient's title or surname unless their own communication suggests a more informal tone. Follow their lead after they reply.
The six cantons
Use the table to choose an initial sector and canton combination. Confirm the fit against current company activity before adding an organisation to a prospect list.
| Canton | Capital | Selected industry concentrations |
|---|---|---|
| Vaud (VD) | Lausanne | Technology and life sciences around Lausanne and the EPFL area. Food production and business services elsewhere in the canton. |
| Geneva (GE) | Geneva | Private banking, commodity trading, luxury, and organisations linked to Geneva's international sector. |
| Valais (VS) | Sion | Tourism and food processing. Energy activity includes hydropower. Bilingual (French and German in Upper Valais). |
| Fribourg (FR) | Fribourg | Food industry (Gruyère region), services. Officially bilingual (French and German). |
| Neuchâtel (NE) | Neuchâtel | Watchmaking and precision engineering. The medtech sector is also present. |
| Jura (JU) | Delémont | Watchmaking, micro-mechanics. |
Geneva and Vaud contain many of the region's larger business centres. They are sensible starting points when the target market is broad. Sector-specific campaigns may start with Neuchâtel, Jura, Fribourg, or Valais.
What the Prospex archive shows
In the 24 months ending 24 September 2026, Prospex recorded 1,813 events across the six cantons covered here. The table breaks down the count by canton.
| Canton | Events, 24 months to Sep 2026 |
|---|---|
| VD | 782 |
| GE | 534 |
| FR | 166 |
| VS | 160 |
| NE | 107 |
| JU | 64 |
Method: The count includes publicly citable capital increases, mergers, funding rounds, and trademark filings. Other event categories cannot be republished, and the archive captures only about 1% of new incorporations, so both sit outside the count. The figures describe the Prospex archive. They are lower than total registry activity. Measured 24 September 2026.
During the same period, Prospex recorded an average of 9.4 capital increases per month in Vaud and 11.0 in Geneva. A capital increase gives a salesperson a dated reason to investigate the company. The notice still needs to be checked against the company's industry and current activity before it belongs on a call list.
How Prospex covers Romandie
Prospex monitors all six cantons covered in this guide and delivers a filtered feed each morning. Filters let you narrow the feed by canton and sector, then choose event types. Each item retains the language of its source, so a FOSC notice may be in French while a job posting appears in the language chosen by the company.
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