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ViennaUp is confirmed as Europe’s most creative tech event, on the strength of its unique organizational model that involves for many days (the 2024 edition took place between June 3 and 9, next year’s edition will be somewhat earlier and is scheduled between May 8 and 16, 2025) different places in the city that are ‘occupied’ by events organized independently by various organizations that are part of the initiative.
The Austrian capital thus becomes the city of the Startup Festival with attendance from all over the world, literally, and with growth, in terms especially of quality that has made significant strides since the first post-pandemic edition in 2021.
The event that somewhat pivots the entire program, in addition to the so-called Home Base that welcomes participants every evening in the middle of Karlsplatz Park, is the Connect Day hosted by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and a collector of investors, startups, and businesses that come from all over the world to seek opportunities because opportunity creation is the common thread running through the events that, under the umbrella of ViennaUp and the Vienna Business Agency, unfold during the week.
Connect Day, organized in collaboration with Austrian Business Agency, the federal government agency responsible for facilitating entrepreneurs, including startups, who wish to explore the possibilities Austria offers in terms of internationalization, possibilities that come in the form of arriving in a market that is very sensitive to innovation and issues such as environmental impact and social inclusiveness, in establishing a solid presence in a German-speaking country that becomes a starting point for later expanding business to the rest of the so-called DACH area (thus Germany and Switzerland) and an outpost also for having a preferential vantage point to all Eastern European markets and beyond.
The ecosystem
Connect Day opens with the investor event and from here we begin to understand how successful the Viennese Startup Week will be and the presence of international investors this year was quite large and not only because of the desire to learn more about the local ecosystem and also to meet international entrepreneurs present at the festival but also because there is a significant growth in the level of collaboration between Austrian and non-Austrian investors, especially European (but we will come back to this point because rumors anticipate that there will be interesting announcements on the topic soon ). He makes no secret of his satisfaction Arnaud Béasse(whom we spoke to back in 2022 ) who is the managing director of Invest Austria, the Austrian private capital association of investors and investment vehicles: from business angels to private equity via venture capital: “2023 was a golden year for the performance of investments in innovative companies in Austria,” he tells Startupbusiness, “and 2024 is off to a good start as well with the launch of FlexCo (the new corporate formula launched by the Austrian government designed for startups which we wrote about here ) and with the fact that in view of the upcoming general elections to be held in Austria in the fall, work is being done on a seven-point proposal to be submitted to the new government, a proposal that we are finalizing in recent weeks and will of course make public soon aimed at further boosting investment in innovative companies in Austria and supporting their establishment and growth also in terms of market development and internationalization.”
What is the scenario of the current startup ecosystem? According to data from ABA and the Austrian Startup Monitor 2023 today. there are 30 thousand people working at startups, 41% of Austrian startups are already profitable, 30% of Austrian startups have founder teams with both men and women, 17% of Austrian startups have founders from abroad. The main sectors are information technology and software weighing in at 30 percent, lifescience worth 14 percent of the total, consumer good at 10 percent, industrial technologies at 9 percent, energy and mobility at 7 percent, of these 13 percent have green impact projects, 14 percent social impact, and 26 percent both green and social impact, this is also due to the increasing focus of investors on the development of environmental and social impact innovations, in fact it is recorded that at least 25 percent of investments in 2023 went to startups of this type, compared to only 3 percent in 2022. Another figure is the type of funds that have invested in Austrian startups, here the role of public investment vehicles appears to be key, participating in more than half (52 percent) of the rounds with VCs appearing in 13 percent, business angels in 28 percent, and European funds in 18 percent.
This scenario is also confirmed by Markus Raunig, chairman of AustriaStartup, the association that also produces the Austrian Startup Monitor, who says, “Things are growing well in Austria today, but we still have a cultural problem, startups are still not seen flatly as a phenomenon capable of creating real value whether economic, social, or environmental, there needs to be an acceleration of awareness in this regard, I often make a comparison with what happened when the country decided to become a global power in the sport of skiing, that’s when it was decided to take the winter sports activity into schools to make it widespread and help train those who later became the champions of the sport, we should do the same now with startups.” AustriaStartup is a nonprofit association that works year-round to make the ecosystem stronger and stronger: “we notice that investors are increasingly paying attention to deeptech and social and environmental impact issues, and the numbers confirm this, and we are also aware that although there is still much to be done, the direction taken, including with the involvement of politics, is the right one.”
A direction that also pleases international startups, there are now many that arrived from abroad and have taken root in Austria precisely thanks to the Austrian Business Agency and Vienna Business Agency programs, we already wrote about it last years in reports from ViennaUp in 2022 and in 2023, and the trend is confirmed, for example. Nicolas Borrero Pabon who is in charge of the international activities of the Italian startup Fybra that has developed a system to improve indoor air quality took advantage of the Vienna Business Agency’s startup package to develop business here since it already has a presence in Germany as well, and Go Suzui, co-founder of the Japanese Godot that innovates in the area of health data management and access to health services and has already raised 4.5 million euros of investment and employs 31 people in Japan, also chose Vienna as its European base.
Inclusion and impact
Just in the direction of social and environmental impact two other events that enlivened ViennaUp week: one organized by Female Founders and entitled Lead today. Shape tomorrow that took place at MAK, Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, and the one called Impact Days that took place at the Hofburg complex just a stone’s throw from the Sissi Museum, the Rathaus, the seat of Vienna’s municipality, and the federal parliament.
Lead today. Shape tomorrow had a great merit, it was an event organized to empower female entrepreneurship and it succeeded in doing so, at least 80% of the participants were women with female investors, entrepreneurs, experts, managers, and academics from all over the world: Austria, Italy, Latvia, the United States, France, Germany, and Poland just to name a few of the most heavily represented countries. The program of this event also had another merit: it was not designed for experts in the field, for those who already know about startups, for those who know how an investor works, what incubators and accelerators are, know all about artificial intelligence and how to access public funds, no it was designed to be accessible to all, or rather to all, precisely with the aim of empowering the spread of that culture that Raunig also mentioned. Impact Days pura focused a lot on the cultural aspect of innovation, this was a more cross-cultural event but with great content value, there were also the sections on startups and how investors are increasingly paying attention to impact investment but there were also completely surprising sessions such as the one on innovation and financing journalism. Here for the first time journalism was treated as if it were an area of innovation, because journalism is for all intents and purposes social impact. Journalism is a fundamental element of the democratic system and how it should be considered and supported. The event featured Sebastian Klein, co-founder of Berlin-based Neue Narrative, Blinkist and Karma Capital; Maribel Königer, director of communications, journalism and media at the Vienna-based ERSTE Foundation; Sameer Padania of London-based Macroscope; and Martin Kotynek director and founder of Vienna-based Media Forward Fund.
Two additional events are worth mentioning among the many that enliven the program of the Vienna startup festival: the one that actually opens the proceedings on the first day, the Startup World Cup, which in its local chapter aims to select and award the winner of the pitch competition who takes home 50 thousand euros and the chance to compete at the global finals of the competition, a title that this year went to lifescience startup Cellectric Biosciences, which aims to innovate precision medicine through a technology for electromagnetic manipulation of cells.
Assai Association
The second event, on the other hand, happened during ViennaUp almost by chance but it is significant that it took place during those very days and is the event that sanctioned the birth of Assai, the Association for Scientific Exchanges Austria Italy. The initiative, presented in the premises of the Italian Embassy in the Austrian capital that coincide with those of the historic Metternich Palace. Assai brings together Italian academics and researchers living and working in Austria, who in fact represent the largest community after the Austrian and German communities, and was born out of the work ofEmbassy scientific attaché Amedeo Staiano, which began in late 2022 on the initiative of the previous head of mission, Ambassador Stefano Beltrame, and continued with identical determination by Ambassador Giovanni Pugliese who, according to the Association’s Statute, holds in his institutional capacity the role of Honorary President.
Austria, a country with research investment exceeding 3 percent of GDP and growing steadily, is an attractive scientific ecosystem for Italian researchers. T he Italian research community in Austria is the third largest after the Austrian and German communities, making it the first non-German-speaking scientific community in the country. There are therefore very good conditions, as the Ambassador said, for the Assai Association to be a high-impact asset in scientific diplomacy between the two countries. Assai will therefore play a key role in the promotion of inter-university cooperation and scientific exchanges between Italy and Austria, operating in particular as a platform/think-tank to foster spillovers into the Italian and Austrian scientific systems of the experiences and good practices implemented and promoted by members.
The event was attended by representatives from three Italian research institutions overseen by the MUR: Maria Chiara Carrozza, president of the National Research Council (CNR); Antonio Zoccoli, president of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN); and Caterina Petrillo, president of Area Science Park.
“Austria is a strategic partner for Italy and, in particular, for scientific and innovation institutions in Friuli Venezia Giulia,” Park Caterina Petrillo said in a note. The Assai Association will be a useful tool to strengthen the already numerous collaborations between the two countries, particularly in the field of large research infrastructures for the study of materials. Relevant examples include the Horizon Europe, Impress and Riana projects in the field of microscopy, as well as the long-standing and well-established collaboration with Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and the Ceric-Eric infrastructure.”
The community of Italian researchers in attendance was very large and well represented, about 150, and there were also numerous representatives from the world of research and academia for Austria, including: the director general for Scientific Research and International Affairs of the Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Barbara Weitgruber, the president of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Christof Gattringer, the Magnificent Rectors of Technische Universität Wien Jens Schneider and Wien Universität Sebastian Schütze, the president of the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the vice president of the Academy of Sciences of Austria (ÖAW) Ulriche Diebold, the director of the Institute for Subatomic Physics (SMI) Stefan Meyer, Eberhard Widmann, and the director of the Institute for High Energy Physics (HEPHY), Jochen Schieck.
Italians in attendance who work in Austria and spoke during the proceedings included. Saverio Carpentieri of the University of Innsbruck, Roberto Cerbino of the University of Vienna, Silvia Dallabrida who is in charge of research funding, Maria Teresa Ferretti of Syntropic Medical, Angelo Nuzzo of the FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency, Caterina Vizzardelli of the Medical University of Vienna, Alberta Bonanni pro-rector of the J.Kepler University of Linz, Gaia Novarino, vice president of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria ISTA (who is also co-founder of two startups ), Maria Sibilia director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna, Alfredo Soldati, director of the Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics at TU Wien, Giulio Superti-Furga, director of the Center for Molecular Medicine CeMM Vienna. (photo Vienna Business Agency)
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