In 2021 we …

… gained 12 new members

… held 4 workshops

… hosted 6 AVCO Deep Dives

… published 2 concepts

… hosted 1 flagship event

… yearly budget of EUR 200.000

ABOUT US

AVCO is the national association for Austria’s Venture Capital and Private Equity industry.

The umbrella organisation covers most active players of the Austrian VC/PE market and is supported by its 118 members – VC/PE funds, advisors, service providers, banks, investors, portfolio companies, professionals and other institutions which are interested in developing the VC/PE industry in Austria as well as a functioning and growing capital market.

AVCO strives for understanding, visibility and acceptance of the economic importance of private growth capital and aims to foster the VC/PE ecosystem in all its facets.

INSIDE OUR ORGANISATION

After a successful transition year 2021, Thomas Tiroch is handing over his Managing Director agenda toArnaud Béasse as of January 2022 and returning to AVCO’s Board of Directors. 

Thomas has been an active member of AVCO’s board for 4 years and is managing his holding company INEO Beteiligungs GmbH. In February 2021, Rudolf Kinsky, who has served as AVCO Chairman and Managing Director for the past four years, has handed over his duties to the next generation: Nina Wöss (Female Founders) as Chairwoman, Stefan Haubner (APEX Ventures) as Deputy Chairman and Thomas Tiroch as Managing Director. Rudolf still actively supports the endeavours of the association as a member of the AVCO board, which was transformed, as well: Berthold Baurek-Karlic, Alexander Hohendanner, Heinrich Prokop and Harald Schürz left the board and Felix Faltin (Speedinvest) joined.

In 2021, Thomas gave a new impulse to the organisation and together with Anna Lanzendorfer (Senior Operations Manager), they developed new service offers for AVCO members and organised the new flagship event invest austria in partnership with aaia.

With Arnaud, AVCO has gained an internationally experienced manager with a broad understanding of the industry. Prior to joining AVCO, he ran a fund-raising advisory structure out of Switzerland, Singapore and Netherlands specializing in FinTech, Med/BioTech. Previously, he led the Energy Trading structured origination in France and Switzerland for Essent and RWE. He has been in charge of developing Multinational Corporates Relationships for Unicredit C&M in Paris for six years and started his career in Vienna, heading the Asset Finance commercial activities of Société Générale for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Arnaud graduated from ESCE with a Master in International Trade and Finance and earned his MBA from ESSEC & Mannheim. He recently specialized in Sustainable Finance at RSM and IMD to promote ESG and impact as a top priority in the financial services sector.

CONCEPTS

FUND OF FUNDS CONCEPTS

To stimulate the pre-trading capital market, appropriate investment concepts are required, such as the fund of funds designed by AVCO. A fund of funds – fed with funds from institutional investors – could serve as an anchor investor in other Austrian investment funds that finance the early phase, growth phase as well as turnarounds and succession solutions. This would support the capital market and, above all, benefit medium-sized companies in order to be able to finance their projects.

POSITION PAPER

Together with the Austrian Angel Investors Association (aaia), the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the Junge Wirtschaft and more than 40 other supporters, AVCO has drawn up a position paper to inform the government on the necessary political measures to strengthen the startup and SME ecosystem in Austria. It contains five core requirements: 

• Employee participation
• New legal form
• Participation allowance
• Measures to strengthen equity
• The capital market (including the fund of funds concept)

WORKSHOPS

Throughout the year, we have hosted a digital 4-part workshop series for founders with AVCO members BDO Austria and CERHA HEMPEL. The experts covered topics ranging from protecting IP, contract law, corporate law to forms of financing and developing business models and business plans.

DEEP DIVES

In 2021, we have launched a new event format designed for AVCO members and the community to easily exchange ideas on current topics and trends in online meetings. We call it the AVCO DEEP DIVE.

Six editions took place over the year where we discussed:

– The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation with FMA
– The Investment Control Act (“Investitionskontrollgesetz”) with Binder Grösswang
– ESG & Sustainable Finance with Arthur D. Little Austria and Invest Unternehmensbeteiligungs AG
– Growth Investing in SEE with BlackPeak Capital
– Investing in CEE with UNIQA Ventures and 3TS Capital Partners
– Challenges in Supply Chain Management with Erste Intermarket and Kloepfel Consulting

VIENNA UP

Together with Austrian Business Agency (ABA) and aaia we kicked off the Investors Summit at ViennaUp 2021. The investors summit was focused on connecting investors from all over the world and was a part of ViennaUP’21, the largest decentralized and community-driven virtual startup festival. More than 100 international investors joined!

We are already looking forward to ViennaUP’22 where we’ll host the a networking breakfast for investors!

INVEST AUSTRIA

In 2021, the Austrian Angel Investors Association (aaia) and AVCO merged their strengths and their main events aaia Investors Day and AVCO Annual Conference in order to host the flagship event for Angel Investing, Venture Capital & Private Equity. 

Our goal was to connect the entire private funding lifecycle and to promote investments in innovative companies, together. The conference was held in English in order to reach a broad audience from DACH, CEE and beyond.

Over 50 speakers and more than 300 guests attended. We hosted 15 panels, fireside chats and roundtables and offered participants various chances for networking. 

We have received great feedback after the event and will continue our path with invest austria 2022!

NEW MEMBERS

We were more than happy to welcome twelve new members in the course of 2021: AustrianStartups, Female Founders, A.B.S. Factoring AG (Austria), Arthur D. Little Austria, Bregal Unternehmerkapital, BlackPeak Capital, Robin Knöbl, Epoona Impact Invest, Dieter Tschemernjak, Scytale Ventures, Richard Hirschhuber and Moonfare are now part of the AVCO community.

We are delighted to have 118 members on our side – an all time high for AVCO!

We are very much looking forward to supporting and working with all of our members in 2022!