Record investment in Austrian start-ups

The total amount invested in Austrian start-ups rose sharply in the first half of the year.

After breaking all global records for start-up financing in 2021, the market environment has deteriorated significantly due to rising interest rates, the threat of recession, inflation and economic uncertainty. Listed technology companies and scale-ups or unicorns with a focus on fast, aggressive growth would be particularly affected. Due to the challenging market conditions for financing rounds, unicorns around the world have recently laid off employees, according to a recent report by Erste Bank Austria.

However, the data for the first half of 2022 would not yet show any signs of a decline in the financing market for Austrian start-ups. On the contrary: in the first half of 2022, more money flowed into start-ups than ever before. The volume of financing exceeded that of the same period last year by 67%, reaching a total of 881 million euros. However, the two major financing rounds of TTTech Auto and Gostudent accounted for around 62% of the total investment capital with 300 million euros and 250 million euros respectively. This is shown by figures from the Start-up Investment Barometer published by the consulting organization EY in collaboration with the Austrian Angel Investors Association (AAIA) and the Austrian Private Equity and Venture Capital Organization (AVCO).

"In Austria, the start-up boom continued in the first half of 2022 despite the already turbulent environment. Never before has so much capital been invested in start-ups in a half-year period as this year," says Florian Haas, Head of Start-up at the management consultancy EY Austria. "However, these figures should not lead to the misconception that the boom of the record year 2021 will continue unabated in Austria. Many financing rounds were already launched in 2021 or in the still strong first months of 2022 and have now been completed. Growth financing in particular, which is still almost exclusively provided by international investor groups in Austria, will reflect the strong reluctance of venture capitalists in the coming months," says the expert.