Austrian Startup Monitor 2024 (AIT / AustrianStartups / WU)

Summary

• The report is based on an autumn 2024 survey of 665 founders and managing directors of Austrian start-ups.p.11
• The share of female founders rose to 22% in 2024 from 17% the previous year, and 37% of start-ups have at least one woman on the founding team.p.11
• Austrian start-ups employ 9.5 people on average, excluding founders, and the sector accounts for just under 30,000 jobs.p.11
• Deep tech ventures make up 17% of the scene.p.12
• The share of start-ups that have raised external equity capital dipped from 56% to 53%, while 20% raised over €500,000, rising to 36% among deep tech start-ups.p.12
• 79% of start-ups plan to hire in the next 12 months, and 86% among deep tech start-ups.p.12
• The share of revenue generated abroad increased from 38% to 41%, and reaches 59% for deep tech start-ups.p.12

Key insights

1. Tax relief, especially lower payroll taxes, is the top political demand, mentioned by 62% of founders.p.12
2. Faster and less bureaucratic processing of public funding is the second demand at 56%, and better incentives for private venture capital are cited by 49%.p.12
3. Just 39% of start-ups rate current business conditions as good or very good, down from 41%, while 15% describe them as poor or very poor, the highest figure recorded.p.11
4. Start-up valuations over €5 million fell from 44% to 37% of start-ups, the first decline in several years.p.12
5. Green and social start-ups now represent 56% of the Austrian ecosystem.p.11
6. The number of new start-ups each year has stabilised at around 370.p.11
7. Almost every second start-up (47%) is founded in Vienna.p.15
8. Half of all start-ups have three or fewer employees.p.11