228 START-UPS: These are the "Green Tech Startups Austria 2026"

GRAZ, Austria, March 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- This year's survey of "Green Tech Startups Austria 2026" counts 228 young tech companies specializing in environmental and climate protection. This represents an increase of six percent compared to 2025. The university cities of Vienna, Graz, and Leoben once again lead the ranking of newly added startups. As in previous years, the most important factors for startups are cooperation with industry and access to financing.

Coordinated by Green Tech Valley, the AplusB centers, Austrian Startups, aws, Climate Lab, ECN, EY, Impact Hub Vienna, invest.austria, and the Climate and Energy Fund have identified 228 red-white-red "Green Tech Startups 2026." Once again, the survey focused on companies specializing in sustainability technologies that are less than ten years old. Sixteen companies were eliminated, mainly due to their age, and 29 new ones were added. "This represents an increase of six percent compared to last year's survey, which included 215 startups," explains Green Tech Valley Managing Director Bernhard Puttinger. 

Energy & Digital are the top areas for young green tech companies

What is striking in a direct comparison with the previous year: "Among the new companies, there was a switch between Digital, now in first place with 35 percent, and the Energy sector, in second place for the first time with 31 percent." The other areas, Building (14 percent) and Circular and Biotech & Food (ten percent each), complete the picture.

Tech hubs Vienna, Graz, and Leoben are the home bases of tech startups

Regionally, the 29 green tech startups are distributed across Styria with 12 "newcomers," followed by Vienna with ten, Lower Austria and Carinthia with two each, and Upper Austria, Vorarlberg, and Burgenland with one newcomer each. As in previous years, the regions around the technical universities of Vienna, Graz, and Leoben proved to be strong drivers of green tech entrepreneurship. "The area around the Montanuniversität Leoben in particular has proven to be a turbocharger here," says Puttinger. "The Green Startupmark initiative, which is run jointly with the Center for Applied Technologies (ZAT) and Green KAIT, is already bearing fruit in its second year, with four of these highly specialized young companies based here."

Cooperation with industry is essential for the "young wild ones"

The survey of the "young wild ones" shows that 52 percent of them want networking with industry partners, followed by financing (24 percent). "Compared to last year, there has been a significant shift away from pure financing offers – in 2025, this figure was still 46 percent – towards active support," says Puttinger. And this is provided by the partners of the Green Tech Startups Austria survey. "The startups thus benefit from direct matchmaking with industry, access to subsidies and financing.

Wide range of sustainable technology innovations

What sets the young green tech businesses on the Landscape 2026 apart is the breadth of fresh ideas. BauBlocks, for example, presents a reusable all-in-one building block that integrates all essential wall layers, while Duramea supplies hydrogen membranes (MEAs) for electrolysers and fuel cells. PulpStack offers a novel 3D printing technology that enables cellulose to be used industrially in 3D printing for the first time, while HASHLYNK focuses on intelligent energy utilization solutions that convert excess renewable energy into computing power and usable heat. PureSurf, in turn, is working on "green" chemistry and bio-based high-performance surfactants, while Yflavour uses natural flavors to refine vegan alternatives with a "meaty" taste. And existing green tech startups are succeeding with their high-tech innovations. Most recently, for example, Fiber Elements, which extracts fibers from volcanic basalt rock and processes them into reinforcing rods or so-called non-crimp fabrics for the construction industry. An achievement for which a private investor was recently secured with €2.6 million.

All startups can be clicked through interactively and the landscape can be downloaded from the website.

Press Contact:
Veronika Pranger- Green Tech Valley
T. +43 316 40 77 44-16
M. +43 676 75 08 780
[email protected]

SOURCE Green Tech Valley Cluster GmbH