Green Tech Valley once again joined forces to bring the red-white-red “Green Tech Startups 2024” to the fore. Together with 10 partners – AplusB Centers, Austrian Startups, aws, Climate Lab, ECN, EY, Glacier, Impact Hub Vienna, invest.austria, Climate and Energy Fund – 193 young environmental technology companies were identified, setting a new record. “This is an increase of 15 percent compared to the previous year’s survey. With 68 young green tech companies in Vienna and 72 in Styria & Carinthia, these two regions are once again home to more than two thirds of all green tech start-ups,” explains Bernhard Puttinger, Managing Director of Green Tech Valley. Looking at the 29 start-ups that have been founded since January 2023, Styria ranks first with around one third – overtaking Vienna for the first time.
Strong innovation ecosystem promotes start-ups
Puttinger adds that it is probably the strong innovation ecosystems of research, education and companies that give start-ups this boost.
The cities with technical universities in Vienna, Graz and Leoben account for around 70 percent of all start-ups.More than half of these young companies focus on the fields of energy and digital solutions.Puttinger: “In recent years, Green Tech Valley has established itself as particularly fertile ground for green entrepreneurs thanks to dedicated cooperation.Recently, for example, another new ecosystem for green start-ups was launched in the industrial core zone of Upper Styria with the Green Startupmark.”In focus: networking instead of financingAccording to the needs survey, networking with sparring partners from industry is at the top of the list for green startups at 77%, followed by a focus on financing.
Innovations for the green transformation
An excerpt from the start-ups shows how innovative the approaches for a green future are:
Revitalyze (Tyrol), EnerCube (Salzburg), 2nd Cycle FexCo (Lower Austria), Redeem & NetCero (Styria), money:care (Vienna), BergWindEnergy (Upper Austria) and Solution Zero (Carinthia)
Statements from the start-ups:
David Kirchengast (NetCero, Styria): “As a partner of the University of Graz, we offer user-friendly software for comprehensive sustainability management. The strong network of Green Tech Valley is particularly important for us as a start-up.”
Katharina Herzog (money:care, Vienna): “money:care is a platform for sustainable investing. In 2024, we are expanding our data coverage and starting to build up the community. The network offered here is perfect for us.”
Nicolas Mühlberger (Stromstrudler, Burgenland): “With Wendy, we are offering the first smart small wind turbine to generate sustainable energy. The Green Tech Startups Austria platform helps us to gain more visibility.”
