Austrian VC Firm AWS Grunderfonds Is Changing The Tech World

AWS Grunderfonds is a VC fund investing in later seed, high-growth, high-tech startups. More specifically, the company prefers investments in deep tech, digital, infrastructure, and life science technologies. The Austrian firm’s portfolio includes more than 25 companies. Meanwhile the firm manages investments worth more than EUR 68.5 million. AWS Grunderfonds’s high-tech investment branch, called High-Tech Grunderfonds (HTGF), has invested in more than 600 startup companies since 2005. Over time, this has helped to draw in further external investments, now totaling over EUR 2.4 billion.
About AWS Grunderfonds
Location
AWS Grunderfonds is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and mainly prioritizes investing in Austrian high-tech startups that are in series A/B funding rounds. The types of investments vary, although there is a strong reliance on mezzanine financing and equity investing. The company has refined its techniques over time and now has specific rules for partner organizations if an investment is going to be made. First and foremost, AWS Grunderfonds requires its potential partners to show proof of concept before pursuing any technology investments. It is also very strict about only investing in companies with a well-organized and passionate team of founders. However, the team at AWS Grunderfonds is also characteristically helpful in preparing and assisting with future financing rounds once a startup has been accepted into its portfolio.
Remarkable Investments
AWS Grunderfonds manages investments in a number of sectors, including green technologies. Two of the company’s largest current investments in the green space are in goUrban, and GreenPass, SaaS organizations focused on minimizing pollution in urban spaces. AWS Grunderfonds also invests in a number of companies that are making it easier for Europeans to conduct business. One such business is Cashy, a fintech company with lifetime fundraising around EUR 2 million, which uses complex algorithms to quickly calculate the value of used items. In the medical sector, AWS Grunderfonds invests in a number of companies that are already changing patients’ lives for the better. One such company, IB Lab, helps with the early detection and diagnosis of bone diseases. Another, Breath ILO (formerly Carbomed Medical Solutions), helps easily determine a woman’s ovulation period and has achieved over EUR 7 million of funding.
AWS Grunderfonds in the News
In January of 2022, AWS Grunderfonds contributed to two major funding rounds in the Austrian startup environment. The first, a follow-up investment with PlanRadar, helped Europe’s largest digital field management platform achieve $69 million of fundraising. This funding will support PlanRadar’s international expansion. AWS Grunderfonds’s second major contribution to start 2022 was a joint investment with Austrian VC firm eQventure into an app store marketing platform called App Radar. This latest round of funding achieved EUR 2 million, which brought investments in the organization up to EUR 5 million lifetime since App Radar was founded in 2015. In February of 2020, AWS Grunderfonds, together with investment partner MAD, injected seven figures worth of growth financing into a life science technology company called Innerspace, which uses virtual reality to conduct DeepTraining. Innerspace will use this investment to improve their technology, and to further infiltrate the pharmaceutical training space.
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