The Green Tech Valley Cluster together with 10 partners – aaia, AplusB Centers, Austrian Startups, aws, Climate Lab, ECN, EY, Glacier, Impact Hub Vienna, Climate and Energy Fund – has brought the “Green Tech Startups 2023” before the curtain. These technology-focused startups “younger” than ten years and with a focus on environmental technologies represent an increase of 30% compared to the previous year’s survey. Since January 2022, 27 green tech startups have been registered.
Strong ecosystems strengthen green tech startups
Two-thirds of the startups are located in Vienna (40%) and Styria (30%). Measured against all startups, Styria, Carinthia and Lower Austria are home to particularly high numbers of environmental technology startups. It is thus once again evident that strong innovation ecosystems consisting of research, education and companies push more startups. “Green Tech Valley, the south of Austria, is particularly good ground for innovative, green entrepreneurs,” says Bernhard Puttinger, managing director of the Green Tech Valley cluster.
Funding & networking now bundled across Austria
The needs of the startups were also surveyed: “For almost all startups surveyed, external support in financing the establishment of the company is needed, for 85% networking with industry partners and for 70% project mediation,” says project manager Greta Ziegler of the Green Tech Valley Cluster. Together with the 10 national partners, these services for green startups are now being bundled for the first time.
New solutions for CO2 recycling, facade photovoltaics & networked energy transition
22% of entrepreneurs are active in the food/agriculture sector, followed by energy (20%), mobility (17%), circular economy (16%), “digital” (13%) and buildings/construction (11%). And as diverse as these green tech startups are, their solutions for a green future are equally innovative, as these three new additions show:
Statements
Verena Schwab, Econutri (Graz, www.econutri.com): “We are developing a technology that recycles CO2 and converts it into valuable proteins. We are happy to be part of the Green Tech Valley and thus take advantage of synergies with relevant partners.”
Wolfgang Plösch, Habemax (Vienna, www.habemax.com): “With our worldwide smallest photovoltaic junction box, our customers build solar modules in facades with particularly high aesthetic demands. For us, the informal exchange between industry and research is particularly important.”
Matthias Nadrag, enixi (Klagenfurt, www.enixi.io): “We bring together renewable energy producers and local consumers in energy communities and tenant power projects with our first smart meter app for all of Austria and the enixi energy platform.”
About Green Tech Valley
Green Tech Valley in southern Austria is considered the #1 technology hotspot for climate protection and circular economy with 20 global technology leaders as well as 2,300 university researchers. Styria and Carinthia stand for concentrated innovative power in the biomass, solar, hydropower and recycling sectors. 300 companies and research institutions work together in the cluster on green solutions for the future.
