World Champion Austria Vienna
„Heaven, Vienna mine. I’m in the spell of your charms divine“ With or without pandemic: Vienna flies high with business settlements and local founders.
Founding boom But not only new business settlements are a cause for optimism; the economic recovery is mirrored by the number of new business establishments in Austria’s capital. The first half of 2021 saw 4.856 new businesses registered, which is 19 percent more than during the first Covid year 2020. This founding boom has been coming: “We already noticed last year that there is a huge interest in establishing a business in Vienna. Enquiries at the Business Establishment Service of the Vienna Economic Chamber rose by 2.600 in 2020 up to 57.800,” says Barbara Havel, CEO of Junge Wirtschaft Wien and representative of Vienna’s founders. Due to the pandemic many founders postponed their plans and are starting their businesses only now though, says Havel. The sectors business consultancy, IT, advertising and online re-
tail saw the most new establishments in the first half of 2021 in Vienna. “We want to help founders as well as we can as the economic situation is still highly volatile,” Havel says. “An entrepreneur needs support, particularly in the beginning, to master unpleasant stumbling blocks. There is a lot that founders need to pay attention to, to prepare and to plan – not only having an idea first, but deciding the legal form of the company, registering your business and dealing with legal and fiscal matters, which often confuse people particularly in the beginning.” The experts at the Vienna Economic Chamber give founders a hand – for free.
© Adrian Almasan
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he City of Vienna and the Austrian Business Agency recorded a solid number of new settlements from international companies: Despite the Covid pandemic and all its restrictions, 218 companies from abroad settled in Austria’s capital. “The investments made by foreign businesses during the pandemic show that entrepreneurs believe in Vienna as a business location. In spite of the Covid pandemic we recorded the third-best year in settlements since 2012,” Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig says. Economic councillor Peter Hanke adds: “These 218 new settlements resulted in 263 million euros of investment, creating 1.718 new jobs.” 44 of these 218 companies come from Germany. For the first time ever, the United Kingdom was second with 16 new businesses. The increase in interest from British companies surely stems from the Brexit in late 2020, when Britain left the European Union. Italy ranks third with 14 businesses, followed by Switzerland, Slovakia and Russia. The United States comes in eighth as the first non-European country.
Barbara Havel, CEO of Junge Wirtschaft Wien and representative of Vienna’s founders
