KISS (Keep It Simple Security)

The KISS (Keep It Simple Security) is a financing instrument created in 2014 by the US accelerator 500 Startups, designed as an alternative to the SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). Unlike a SAFE, a KISS carries a defined maturity, information rights for the investor, and bears interest.

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These features bring it closer to a classic convertible note than to a SAFE, whose deliberate simplicity excludes both maturity and interest by design. In a Swiss context, the instrument is not widely used, with local players preferring the BSA Air (French SAFE equivalent) or convertible notes adapted to Swiss law.

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A KISS's contractual maturity creates a concrete practical difficulty for a pre-revenue startup: if no new financing round occurs before that date, the investor can in principle demand repayment, exposing the company to a cash risk that a SAFE, with no maturity by construction, does not carry.

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The generally discouraged use of the KISS in Switzerland owes more to market practice than to any specific legal objection: Swiss investors and founders are more familiar with instruments better established locally, a point to clarify upfront in any financial structuring of a seed round.