AI Landscape Austria
The Austrian AI Landscape: An overview of the entire ecosystem covering startups, companies, research institutions as well as their geographic distribution and growth.
Welcome to the 2025 edition
This is our ninth AI landscape and “state of the union” of the Austrian AI ecosystem.
Since starting this activity in 2017 the AI space has never been as fast moving, diverse and exciting as today. What started as an overview of mostly niche players in a nascent field is nowadays covering almost all verticals and company functions.
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Summary & Key Findings
The 2025 edition of the AI Landscape Austria marks a turning point. We are observing not just growth, but a fundamental technology shift driven by Generative AI. This "Reset Button" moment has reshaped the ecosystem, leading to dynamic changes in the composition of players and business models.
The GenAI Reset: The most significant trend this year is the transition from the "old" Machine Learning stack to a GenAI-native ecosystem. We see the emergence of a new "Core Tech" layer—companies building the infrastructure and tools for the global AI stack—alongside specialized industry solutions.
High Dynamics: Growth vs. Churn: While the net number of companies grew by approx. 10% year-over-year, this figure hides a massive underlying rotation. We observed an "attrition rate" of roughly 30%, meaning nearly a third of older entries have been replaced by new, agile players. This indicates a highly active and evolving market rather than stagnation.
Bootstrapping & Efficiency: The era of "growth at all costs" is fading. We see a strong trend towards smaller, highly efficient teams that are bootstrapped and profitable early on. Founders are leveraging AI tools to build products with fewer resources, reducing the dependency on large early-stage VC rounds.
Sovereignty as a Business Model: "Tech & Data Sovereignty" and the adoption of Open Source models have evolved from niche concerns to valid, profitable business strategies. Austrian companies are increasingly favoring solutions that offer control and independence over data and infrastructure.
Vienna’s Dominance Continues: The concentration in the capital has intensified further. Vienna now accounts for approximately 65% of all AI startups and companies, followed by strong hubs in Upper Austria and Styria (specifically in HealthTech).
A New Structure for 2025
Due to the explosion of activity and the sheer number of companies, it is no longer feasible to fit the entire ecosystem onto a single graphic. For the 2025 edition, we have split the Landscape into four distinct views:
- Startups & Specialized Companies (Released now)
- Corporate Early Adopters
- Service Providers & Consulting
- Ecosystem (Investors, Education, Public)
Note: The current release focuses on the Startups & Companies view. The other sections will follow in the subsequent updates.
By the Numbers
The Startups & Companies view alone now features nearly 300 logos.
The "Donut" Split: Despite the technological shifts, the functional distribution remains consistent with previous years:
- 50% Industry Verticals: Half of all Austrian AI companies specialize in specific sectors (e.g., Health, Manufacturing, Energy).
- Core Tech & Enterprise Functions: The other half is split between building horizontal technology (Core Tech) and cross-industry solutions (Enterprise Functions).
Major Funding Rounds: Despite the trend towards bootstrapping, several companies secured significant capital:
- Enspired (Series B+)
- Emmi AI (Large Seed Round)
- Chatlyn (Series A)
- Xund (Pre-Series A)
- DaphOS (Seed)
Notable Exits & M&A: The ecosystem saw healthy consolidation activity, including:
- Finmatics (acquired by Visma)
- Detect (acquired by Cyclomedia)
- Powerbot (acquired by Volue)
- 7Lytix (acquired by Keba)
Categorization & Methodology
With the rise of GenAI, the "Core Tech" category has expanded significantly. We continue to categorize companies based on their primary value proposition to avoid clutter.
- Industry Verticals: Companies solving specific problems for a defined industry (e.g., MedTech, PropTech).
- Enterprise Functions: Solutions that serve departments across all industries (e.g., HR, Accounting, Sales).
- Core Tech: Companies building the underlying infrastructure, models, or developer tools.
This year we recorded a deepdive session as well. Rewatch it on youtube:
About the project
Last but not least, this is a 100% non-profit undertaking, we neither accept sponsorships, nor can you “buy” yourself a slot on the landscape. Furthermore, no tax money was ever used to create this landscape means we als don’t apply for grants or similar public funding. If you still want to support the project to cover the hosting cost just head over here and make a small donation. (so far we raised the breathtaking amount of EUR 25 over the last 8 years)
Here are the prior versions: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
We also did regional deepdives in’24 for Carinthia, Styria and Vienna, as well as a spotlight on international companies choosing Austria as the base for their AI operations.
Missing something? Head over to our self-service form and describe which companies we should consider in the next update.