EIF IN
AUSTRIA
Investing in the future of Austrian SMEs
Small and medium-size enterprises are the heart of the Austrian economy.
Representing 99% of all businesses and more than two thirds of the workforce, Austria's 319,000 SMEs are responsible for driving innovation as well as spurring on growth, and their daily routine is what ensures the competitiveness of the Austrian economy. But to do that, they often need finance.
At the same time, as the smallest actors in the economy, they are often the hardest hit when the economy encounters turbulence, which is why it is so crucial for them to have financial options in order to maintain and eventually grow their businesses.
At the EIF, our mission is to improve access to finance for small businesses across the EU. In Austria, we have been supporting SMEs using a broad range of instruments, including many tailored to the needs of the Austrian market and designed with the Austrian government and local authorities.
As a result, we've been able to support more than 14,000 Austrian businesses, ranging from companies specialising in emergency power supply, AI-driven biotech, and translating text to sign language, making sure they have the financial fuel they need to pursue their ambitions.
Our intention is to continue to extend this type of support to the Austrian market, making access to finance easier as we collectively move towards a greener, digital and more inclusive Europe.
Success stories
Sapotec
Success stories
Sapotec
“We offer a comprehensive approach, and that’s our unique selling point,” explains Alexander Sautner, CEO of Salzburg-based SAPOTEC, an emergency power supply provider. “From study to delivery, commissioning, and after-sales, we cover the complete product lifetime. And we are committed to our customers’ needs: we’ll analyse situations and adapt our product offering accordingly, tailoring our approach as necessary.” This tailored approach serves clients in a range of industries, from data centres and medical institutions to critical infrastructure such as tunnels.
SAPOTEC, which derives from the first letters of Sautner Power Technology, is a family business with a global outlook (projects include building 50 medical stations in Ghana). Their first prototype was tested in Vienna in 2022, and future offerings will centre on sustainability. “Storage is key. With renewables especially, batteries and storage technologies still need to be improved. We’re constantly looking for solutions, to find alternative battery systems. But on the positive side, politicians are now finally pushing harder, and we are seeing more dedication from their side.”
Celeris
"It's about benefiting people, about contributing to alleviating incurable diseases—that's the reason we all get up every morning," says Jakob Hohenberger, co-founder of Celeris Therapeutics, a global acting biotech company that uses AI-driven technologies to design molecules to degrade the proteins that cause various cancers and diseases such as Parkinson's.
"Currently, very few pathogenic proteins are 'druggable'," says Jakob. "The main approach, occupancy-driven inhibitors, de-activates such 'bad proteins', but only around 10-20% can be effectively de-activated. We target the other 80-90%, aiming to degrade rather than de-activate them." Using machine learning, CelerisTx designs and develops molecules that will eventually evolve into medicines that, in turn, will cure these debilitating diseases by degrading the proteins that cause them.
Sign Time
Sign languages use visual signs to communicate, and they’re as complex and nuanced as any spoken language. Headquartered in Vienna, Sign Time is on a mission to make the digital world barrier-free for the deaf. “Sign Time specializes in translating text to sign language,” explains Dr. Georg Tschare, CEO. “We did translations for various websites, as well as content for museums, translating their audio guides and smartphone apps. We also perform dubbing services through the traditional sign language box featured on the screen.”
Although demand for sign language translation is growing, translations into sign language are currently only possible with the help of videos pre-recorded with human actors in a studio, which is expensive and time consuming. Sign Time currently focuses on the German market, but over the next two years they plan to expand their services to include the other five main sign languages in Europe, and they’re also developing projects to implement its live-time translation services in new contexts, such as public transportation, where announcements are often inaccessible to the Deaf.
Eversports
“In team sports, you can have great players but still lose against an inferior team if they have strong team spirit. I’ve been on both sides in my career, and I can tell you it’s magical when you can get players aligned towards the same goal in an atmosphere of trust. Our company values strongly reflect this spirit,” says Hanno Lippitsch, a former professional volleyball player and current CEO and co-founder of Eversports.
Founded in 2013, the company have developed a marketplace app enabling users to find sports offers, book them and pay for them. “Our platform gives you an overview of the activities and facilities available in your city, covering more than 100 different sports, from yoga to tennis, football, squash or kitesurfing,” says Hanno. “It’s a bit like booking.com for sport. You can find out where to join a pilates class at 7am if that’s what you’re looking for, book and pay all in one go.”
TecSense
TecSense design and manufacture optical sensors that measure oxygen concentration in gases or liquids, guaranteeing accurate real-time results even in complex processes at laboratories or production plants. “We have three product lines with a number of different sensors applicable across a variety of industries ranging from food production to electronics and medical research,” explains CEO and co-founder Johannes Krottmaier.
“They are all based on the same physical principle: opto-chemical oxygen detection, in which a luminescent dye molecule is irradiated with light,” adds co-founder Volker Ribitsch. “Our sensors can interpret the result to determine the concentration of oxygen.” Aspiring to be a world-leader in opto-chemical sensor systems, TecSense now plans to expand the use of this technology to the measurement of CO2 levels as well as pH levels in liquids, relying heavily on further research. “We have to continually invest in R&D”, explains Johannes, “if we don’t innovate constantly, I doubt we will survive five years in this field.”
Key figures
Over
of EIF financing
Transactions with financial intermediaries
Equity investments since inception
Guarantees support since inception
made available for
Austrian businesses
Mandates in focus
The EIF continues to deploy capital in Austria under a wide range of strategic programmes and mandates. Below are brief summaries of our main initiatives in Austria.
InvestEU
The InvestEU programme provides the EU with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It is helping to mobilise private investments for the EU’s policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU Programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the EU, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
RCR
The EIB’s Risk Capital Resources (RCR) is the core pillar of the EIF’s equity activity. It has enabled us to pursue our equity strategy in the venture capital and growth segments for more than 25 years. In 2023, RCR accounted for 25% of our equity activity, committing €1.4bn to financial intermediaries.
EFSI
The European Fund for Strategic Investments formed part of the EU's Investment Plan for Europe, launched by the European Commission in 2015. EFSI addressed market gaps in financing – whether in infrastructure, research, energy efficiency or risk finance for SMEs – and mobilised private investment into these areas. Through EFSI the EIF deployed €10.5bn in resources of the European Commission, the EIB and the EIF to improve access to finance for SMEs and small midcaps.
EGF
The European Guarantee Fund was created by the EIB Group with contributions from Austria and other Member States to protect companies struggling in the crisis caused by COVID-19. With almost €25bn in guarantees, the EGF allowed the EIB and EIF to swiftly offer companies, mostly SMEs and mid-caps, access to loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, capital and other financial instruments. The EGF forms part of the package of recovery measures put in place by the EU, with the objective of providing a total of €540bn to support the hardest hit sectors of the European economy.
REPowerEU
The EU launched REPowerEU in 2022 to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel imports and accelerate the green transition. To support the plan, in October 2022, the EIB Group developed a package of measures focussing on renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity networks and on deepening its engagement in green innovation and breakthrough technologies. Under REPowerEU, the EIF will invest €4.5bn by 2027 through EIF equity products.
EAF Austria
European Angels Fund - aws Business Angel Fonds (EAF Austria) is a €32.5m initiative funded by EIF and Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) - the Austrian government promotional bank financing companies based in the country - on behalf of both the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth and the Federal Ministry of Finance. EAF Austria was established in 2013 with a fund size of €22.5m and later increased to €32.5m. EAF Austria provided equity to Business Angels and other non-institutional investors to finance innovative companies in the form of co-investments.
CEFoF
The Central Europe Fund of Funds (CEFoF) is a €97m fund-of-funds initiative created in close co-operation with the governments and national agencies of Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia to boost equity investments into SMEs and small mid-caps across the region, establishing a sound market-based risk financing infrastructure, implementing the best market standards for equity investments in businesses and attracting institutional investors and investment managers to Central Europe.
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