Home » Business » Wien Energie relies on startups

Wien Energie relies on startups

With its subsidiary Smartworks Innovation, Wien Energie is stepping up its cooperation with start-ups. This should enter into cooperations with startups and accelerate the company’s processes. Diggers Research is the first external partner that promises to be climate-friendly.

With the newly founded Smartworks Innovation, the energy service provider Wien Energie wants to secure start-up partnerships in the long term and, as a venture capital investor, to help shape the energy market in the long term. Innovations around the topics of energy, digitalization and smart city services are being pushed. In the first two years, a capital stock of five million euros is initially available for startups, with a participation of up to 500,000 euros per startup project being planned.

“We don’t want innovation to be just a fig leaf,” explains Wien Energie Managing Director Michael Strebl, explaining the company’s first financial participation in startups. “We want to invest, scale and make new products and business ideas usable and marketable with interesting partners.”

The company has been offering so-called innovation challenges on the energy market for several years. Since then, hundreds of startups from Austria and around the world have come up with ideas in these competitions in Vienna. “It is only a logical step that we, as investors, will now get involved in this area,” said Strebl.

Smart Inspection and Diggers as the first startups

The “Smart Inspections” drone inspection program that Wien Energie has been building for two years and Diggers Research GmbH are the first companies in the new investment portfolio. Diggers deals with decarbonization in a decentralized server network environment in order to use waste heat effectively and sustainably. As a second startup, Smart Inspection GmbH is now 100 percent transferred from Wien Energie to Smartworks. The in-house startup offers drone services in combination with artificial intelligence. For example, wind turbines, district heating pipes or facades can be inspected without gaps. Smart Inspection has meanwhile carried out numerous orders and in addition to Wien Energie also customers such as the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), Vienna Airport or Voestalpine.

Up to 500,000 euros per company

New, interesting business ideas await with a participation of up to half a million euros in start-up capital. Each cooperation is individually checked for development potential, relevance and innovative strength. Smartworks focuses on early stage investments. Startups that have already built up a significant market share and are already profitable are of less interest for Smartworks. The aim is to identify the game changers in the industry and to develop business models and products together as part of a partnership.

“With Smartworks, we will have a speedboat at Wien Energie’s side that will speed up our processes. At the same time, however, we value long-term and sustainable cooperation and not quick profit, ”explains Strebl. “We serve a dynamic market of two million customers in Vienna, which is why we are interesting for young, innovative companies. We provide market access, have expertise in the energy sector and take our commitment seriously. ”

In addition to financial support, the startups have all the expertise and infrastructure – from corporate development, innovation management to power plants and test customers – available from Wien Energie.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.