Start-ups: Three Vienna Universities in Top 25

The study was recently presented. It examined which universities in the DACH region have produced the most founders. Among the top 25 are three Austrian universities, with TU Vienna ranking 14th. Since 2023, the annually conducted "Entrepreneurial Impact Study" aims to analyze the impact of academic institutions on the economy as part of their "Third Mission." Previously limited to Germany, it was expanded to the DACH region for the first time this year.

Most Start-ups in Germany

The study authors from the Technical University (TU) Munich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, and the University of Innsbruck evaluated databases such as StartupDetector (Germany), Austrian Startup Monitor (Austria), and Startupticker (Switzerland) and identified a total of 51,287 start-ups in the period from 2014 to 2024. They then used databases like LinkedIn, Dealroom, or Crunchbase, as well as company websites, to gather information on which universities the founders studied or worked at.

Of the approximately 51,000 recorded start-ups, 78 percent are in Germany, 14 percent in Switzerland, and eight percent in Austria. The number of start-ups in the three countries rose from 3,183 in 2014 to a peak of around 6,196 in 2021. Since then, the number has steadily decreased, with 4,043 in 2024.

Austria Three Times in Top 25

Most start-ups were founded by students, employees, and graduates of TU Munich (1,116), ETH Zurich (1,022), and the University of St. Gallen (845). TU Vienna ranks 14th (338), the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) ranks 20th (223), and the University of Vienna ranks 23rd (214). These numbers include start-ups not only in the respective country but throughout the DACH region. Half of the ten most successful universities are technical universities.

"There is certainly room for improvement," said Johann Füller, one of the study authors, regarding the performance of Austrian universities. In addition to universities, a strong ecosystem with high financial power, international players, and strong markets is needed. "In this regard, there are disadvantages compared to Germany and Switzerland," explained the professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Innsbruck to APA.

When the number of start-ups from a university is related to the number of its students, private universities are at the top: The German WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management ranks first (350 start-ups per 1,000 students), alongside eight other German private universities in the top ten. From Austria, the MCI - Management Center Innsbruck (24) made it into the top 20 in this ranking. A similar picture emerges when the number of start-ups is related to the number of university employees. No Austrian university is among the top 20 in this regard.

Health, Business Software, Financial Technology

When it comes to industries, most start-ups in the DACH region are founded in the fields of health, enterprise software, and financial technology. In Austria, health and enterprise software are also the industries with the most start-ups (each 17 percent), followed by financial technology (10 percent), energy and transport (each 8 percent), food (7), marketing (6), media (5), as well as real estate and security (each 4 percent).

Among start-ups in the deep tech sector, which are founded on groundbreaking technologies with the potential to revolutionize industries, ETH Zurich (160 supported start-ups), TU Munich (140), and ETH Lausanne (67) are at the top, with TU Vienna (25) ranking eleventh.

TU Vienna Leader in Austria

Looking only at start-ups founded in Austria, TU Vienna is by far the leader with 257, followed by the University of Vienna (119), WU Vienna (117), University of Graz (90), TU Graz (76), University of Innsbruck (67), the universities of applied sciences Technikum Wien (53), and Upper Austria (51), the Medical University of Vienna (38), and the University of Linz (36). Start-ups in the other two countries are not included in these figures.

In Germany, it is evidently difficult for start-ups to find investors: only 16 percent of start-ups received seed funding there. In Austria, however, 22 percent receive such funding, and in Switzerland, 36 percent. Austria has a quite good funding landscape, especially for the early stages, says Füller, "but when it comes to larger financings, there is a lack of appropriate funders and venture capital."

Switzerland, on the other hand, has many investors and has long established a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. "This is reinforced by large support programs for young start-ups, which support both founding and subsequent growth financing," says study co-author Philipp Lemanczyk. The universities and colleges are also closely linked with the economy.

How to Increase the Number of Start-ups?

To bring more start-ups from the academic sector in this country, Füller believes "a stronger anchoring of entrepreneurship at universities would be helpful." As examples of measures, he mentions a clear strategy for start-ups, entrepreneurship courses for students of all faculties, additional incentives for scientists, closer connections with successful founders as mentors and business angels, and setting up own funds after successful start-ups. It is not just about individual measures, but about strengthening and expanding all these activities, says the expert.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.