2021 has been an eventful year for AVCO with internal changes, new connections made and co-hosting the flagship event for the VC/PE community in Austria and beyond. This year was also AVCO’s 20th anniversary.
The year began during an ongoing lockdown. This led us to some internal changes but also to the launch of a new event format designed for AVCO members and the community to easily exchange ideas on current topics and trends in online meetings: AVCO DEEP DIVE. Six editions took place over the year; we have discussed topics like the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation with FMA, the “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, and Challenges in Supply Chain Management with Erste Intermarket, Kloepfel Consulting.
Additionally, we hosted a digital 4-part workshop series for founders with AVCO members BDO Austria and CERHA HEMPEL throughout the year. The experts covered topics ranging from protecting IP, contract law, corporate law to forms of financing and developing business models and business plans.
In February, Rudolf Kinsky, who has served as AVCO Chairman and Managing Director for the past four years, handed over his duties to the next generation: Nina Wöss (Female Founders) as Chairwoman and Thomas Tiroch (INEO Beteiligungs GmbH) 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.
AVCO also partnered up with aaia again to collaborate on several projects and a mutual political agenda. In May, together with aaia, the Austrian Chamber of Economics (WKO), Junge Wirtschaft and the support of 40 other stakeholders we have published a position paper with five measures to be taken by the Austrian government in order to strengthen the startup ecosystem, the capital market and the crisis-shaken economy. It contains AVCO’s Fund-of-funds concept, as well.
Another huge project with aaia was invest austria. In spring, we have decided to merge the strengths of both organisations and our main events AVCO Annual Conference and aaia Investors Day 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 promote investments in innovative companies, together. In October, invest austria took place for the first time and it was a great success. You can watch the livestream of the morning sessions and the after movie on YouTube. invest austria will be back in 2022 so stay tuned for what we are creating next year and make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and join our newsletter!
Last but not least, 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.
All in all, we can look back on a successful year, and we are looking forward to an exciting new one. Stay tuned!
In this spirit we wish you and your families a peaceful Christmas time and a prospering 2022! Stay safe and healthy!
Your AVCO Team
