Three Graz Universities Found Joint Transfer Center for Academic Start-ups

"We want to use our merger to make successful start-ups investor-ready," said Rector Harald Kainz, also referred to in reporting as the "Host Bishop" of TU Graz. For future investors, this offers above all "a clearly visible external interface." The iHub should function as a central point of contact according to the one-stop-shop principle, Kainz added: "We offer investors a joint point of contact on the one-stop-shop principle. Our benchmark is results, not responsibilities."

Scouts and Millions for Spin-offs

University of Graz Rector Peter Riedler pointed to existing offerings at his institution in knowledge and technology transfer. "The Graz universities have been offering supporting services in the area of knowledge and technology transfer for years; the iHub Graz then brings the start-ups to investment maturity." With the joint appearance, the three universities want to "avoid parallel worlds" and think about "the Graz innovation ecosystem together," according to Riedler.

Vice-Rector Alexander Rosenkranz of the Medical University of Graz announced that the management of the transfer company will be advertised internationally in the coming days. As soon as venture capital "ghosts" come on board, the transfer company wants to withdraw again and remain on board only as a passive shareholder.

At the universities, so-called scouts are to identify the most promising projects and spin-offs at an early stage going forward. They are primarily to filter out those start-ups that bring a sufficiently large market potential for a later financing round with venture capital.

Previous Successes from Graz

Over the past ten years, several well-known start-ups have emerged from the three Graz universities according to their own information, including Innophore, BRAVE Analytics, Leftshift One, Easelink, and TACEO. These companies cover sectors such as life sciences and medtech, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, as well as green tech.

With the iHub, the three universities want to increase the visibility of these spin-offs and lead them in a targeted manner into the next financing phase. The rectors see the Graz location as better positioned in competition with other European innovation centers as a result.

According to the rectors, the transfer company will operate without duplicate structures and bundle existing transfer offerings from the individual universities. Who will take over the management is to be decided after the international advertisement.

Overall, the three universities are pursuing the goal with the iHub Graz of increasing the share of academic spin-offs that make the leap into professional growth financing. The pooling of efforts is intended to create "efficiencies" and avoid "parallel worlds" between the institutions, according to Riedler.