The ViennaUP Festival

What The ViennaUP Festival does

The ViennaUP Festival is a city-wide festival of entrepreneurship and innovation organized by the Vienna Business Agency (Wirtschaftsagentur Wien), a public fund of the City of Vienna. Founded in 2021 and now in its sixth edition (2026), the festival operates on a decentralized model where events are hosted by 45+ programme partners across five tracks: Tech, Founders, Investment, Impact, and Exploration. The 2026 edition spans 9 days (WarmUP weekend 15-17 May plus main festival 18-22 May) with 69 events across 54 venues in Vienna, serving founders, investors, technology professionals, and impact-focused organizations.

The festival's core technology is a ticketing platform operated in collaboration with Flave GmbH, supporting per-event registration, RSVP, and paid ticketing. Most events are free with RSVP; a subset are paid with ticket prices visible after one-time free registration. Participants receive a ViennaUP wristband at their first event that unlocks perks at Homebase (Karlsplatz) and Café Spaces. As a publicly funded initiative, ViennaUP is not a commercial entity: it has no shareholders, no funding rounds, and no disclosed revenue. The strategic role is to consolidate Vienna's startup ecosystem under a single annual brand and to position Vienna as a Central European startup hub.

The business model is effectively a public-sector sponsored platform play. The Vienna Business Agency provides institutional backing, funding, and infrastructure, while programme partners (Austria Wirtschaftsservice, AustrianStartups, The Recursive, invest.austria, and others) contribute event content and contribute to marketing reach. Customer segments are diversified across early-stage founders, venture capital investors, technology and innovation professionals, and impact-focused social entrepreneurs. Pricing is freemium at the event level with no single all-access pass, and the festival's value proposition is anchored on networking, deal flow facilitation, and ecosystem visibility rather than direct monetization.

Name

The ViennaUP Festival

Legal name

Wirtschaftsagentur Wien. Ein Fonds der Stadt Wien. Vienna Business Agency

Website

https://viennaup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Short description

ViennaUP is a publicly-funded, decentralized startup festival organized by the Vienna Business Agency that hosts 69 events across 54 Vienna venues over 9 days, serving founders, investors, tech professionals, and impact organizations from 95 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Startup and Innovation Events

NAICS

Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events with Facilities (711310), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Technology & Innovation Expos Organizers (THAHABAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Festival & Event Producers/Organizers (MPAIAFAC)

Keywords

• Startup festival
• Entrepreneurship events
• Innovation conference
• Venture networking
• Ecosystem gathering

Headquarters

HQ city

Vienna

HQ country

Austria

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Event Ticketing: Decentralised festival where each event is ticketed separately. Many events are free—just RSVP and attend. Some events are paid with ticket prices visible after one-time free registration on the ViennaUP ticketing platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The ViennaUP Festival is a decentralised, city-wide annual festival of entrepreneurship and innovation held across Vienna, Austria. It runs for 9 days (WarmUP weekend plus main festival) and bundles 60+ independently hosted events from 45+ programme partners into a single coordinated programme structured around five tracks: Tech, Founders, Investment, Impact, and Exploration. Access is granted through per-event ticketing on a dedicated platform, with most events free via RSVP and some paid.

Product overview

ViennaUP is a city-wide festival of entrepreneurship and innovation, created by the Vienna Business Agency. It is a decentralised festival where events are hosted by various local and international startup organizations throughout Vienna. The festival offers a programme of conferences, pitch sessions, networking opportunities, and hackathons across five tracks: Tech (AI, deeptech, health innovation), Founders (startup stories and learnings), Investment (startup-investor connections), Impact (social/environmental solutions), and Exploration (culture and creativity). Events include Connect Day, Startup World Cup Austria, {founders only}, The Recursive CEE Forum, ViennaUP Coffee House Sessions, INSIDEOUT Summit, European Tech Hackathon, and more. Tickets are managed through a third-party ticketing platform (Flave GmbH), with most events free to attend.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ViennaUP Festival

Quantifiable outcome

• 15,000 participants from 95 countries attend annually
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.

• Austria WirtschaftsservicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAustria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) is a key programme partner hosting Connect Day at ViennaUP. As Austria's federal promotional bank, aws supports innovative companies with financing, funding, and advice, making them a strategic partner for connecting startups with resources.
• invest.austria (AWS Gründungs serviço)coreStrategic or Co-development Partnerinvest.austria hosts Startup World Cup Austria at ViennaUP, providing a platform for startups to pitch and compete. This partnership brings global startup competition format to the Viennese ecosystem.
• AustrianStartupscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAustrianStartups hosts the {founders only} event at ViennaUP, a dedicated founder-focused track providing exclusive networking and learning opportunities for startup founders.
• The RecursivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Recursive, a CEE-focused startup media outlet, organizes the Recursive CEE Forum at ViennaUP, bringing regional startup coverage and connections to the festival.
• KonsultoriminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKonsultori hosts Lab to Leader: Building Science Ventures That Last at ViennaUP, providing expertise on science-based startup development.
• Flave GmbHcoreTechnology or IntegrationFlave GmbH provides the ticketing platform technology for ViennaUP, enabling online event registration, ticketing, and participant management. Ticketing system is managed by Vienna Business Agency in collaboration with Flave.
• Vienna Business AgencyflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Vienna Business Agency (Wirtschaftsagentur Wien) is the organizing force behind ViennaUP. As an initiative of and fund of the City of Vienna, it provides the institutional backing, funding, and infrastructure for the festival. All press and organizational inquiries route through this entity.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Bits & Pretzels: Bits & Pretzels is a Munich-based founders' festival combining a startup conference with networking; a regional European peer with very similar audience mix to ViennaUP.
• TechCrunch Disrupt: TechCrunch Disrupt is a flagship startup conference featuring pitching, investor programming, and tech tracks — directly overlapping ViennaUP's Tech, Founders, and Investment tracks.
• South Summit: South Summit is a Madrid-based startup/investment event covering innovation, investment, and founders; comparable in format, audience, and European positioning to ViennaUP.
• Web Summit: Web Summit is one of the world's largest technology conferences (Lisbon, plus global editions), directly comparable to ViennaUP as a multi-track startup/tech festival hosting founders, investors, and policymakers.
• The Next Web Conference: TNW Conference is an Amsterdam-rooted tech and startup event with multiple tracks (tech, growth, investment); directly comparable to ViennaUP's track structure and audience composition.
• Slush: Slush is a Helsinki-based annual startup and tech event with strong founder/investor participation; directly comparable to ViennaUP in scale, audience, and European startup-festival positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Consumer Electronics Show (CES): CES is the dominant global consumer/innovation tech expo with deeptech, AI, and health innovation tracks that overlap ViennaUP's Tech and Founders programming, though on a much larger, trade-show scale.
• SXSW: SXSW is a large-scale, multi-track conference/festival spanning tech, founders, culture, and impact — comparable to ViennaUP's broad track mix but operating at vastly greater scale and commercial intensity.

Emerging players

• How to Web: How to Web is a Bucharest-based emerging startup/tech conference; a smaller but structurally similar Eastern European peer targeting founders, investors, and tech professionals.

Regional players

• Pioneers Festival: Pioneers was an Austrian-rooted (Vienna-based) deeptech/startup festival, making it a historically direct regional peer to ViennaUP for founder/investor audiences in the DACH region.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The ViennaUP Festival