SISAT (Swiss Investment Syndicate Agreement Template)

The SISAT (Swiss Investment Syndicate Agreement Template) is a free template agreement, jointly created by business angel clubs, law firms and Swiss venture capital funds, to let several investors pool into a single deal as a simple partnership (einfache Gesellschaft).

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This template directly answers earlier investor-pooling structures ruled illegal by FINMA and dissolved, with losses for participants. By structuring the syndicate as a simple partnership rather than an unauthorised collective vehicle, the SISAT legally secures the pooling of tickets from several Business Angel investors around a single Lead investor.

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A simple partnership has no legal personality of its own: each SISAT signatory remains personally party to the investment, unlike a venture capital fund structured as an Limited Partnership (LP), which interposes a distinct legal vehicle between the investor and the target. This choice lowers structuring costs for smaller tickets pooled on an ad hoc basis, at the price of more direct personal liability for each signatory.

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For a Swiss fundraising round bringing together several smaller private investors, using such a structured template is a matter of prudent financial structuring, documented as part of a fundraising advisory engagement, which keeps the syndication vehicle from being requalified as an unauthorised collective scheme.