At the Austrian Association's Annual Summit in Vienna

At the Austrian Association’s Annual Summit in Vienna

BVCA with a special place in the Austrian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association’s – AVCO – Annual Conference.

AVCO’s Annual Summit in Vienna took place on 3 October. BVCA was a partner at the event and its Director, Maria Marinova, participated as a speaker in a panel discussion, named “Equity Capital for Growth and Competitiveness of SMEs” together with Mathias Weidner, DPE Deutsche Private Equity; Fritz Schweiger, QC Ventures; Raffael Rupprechter, Cross Equity Partners AG; and Roman Rericha, Brandl & Talos Rechtsanwälte GmbH.

As an interesting takeaway from the high-level meeting was the fact that even though the Austrian economic country overview generally differs from the Bulgarian reality, its venture capital (VC) and start-up ecosystem is very similar.

They have almost the same amount of funds investing in the country with a stronger angel investment representation. Bulgaria had a positive image among the ecosystem representatives in the spheres of entrepreneurship and investment. However, problems such as red tape and Governmental policies were named to be among the impediments in both countries. Find out more about similarities and differences between the Austrian and Bulgarian ecosystems in an interview for the Austrian media, der brutkasten, by Maria Marinova, BVCA and Pekka Maki, 3TS Capital, via this link.

A very pleasant welcoming from the Austrian association and mainly its Chairman, Rudolf Kinsky, was overwhelmingly present. Bringing VC representatives from different parts of Europe, as well as institutional investors and Government representatives, AVCO’s Chairman recognised the importance of regional cooperation in the CEE region during the event, which was emphasized in both its official and unofficial part.