Accelerating from 0 to 100 – The Million Euro Deals of Austrian Startups
It was purchased by the career network Xing in July for EUR 17 million as a means of expanding its leading position in e-recruiting. If Prescreen achieves specified targets by 2020, the price for the provider of cloud-based job applicant management software could even increase by another EUR 5-10 million. Prescreen was founded in 2013, when the first version of the job applicant management system was launched on the marketplace. With the help of seed financing two years later, the startup showed substantial growth by expanding its sales, development and market departments and opening a second office in Berlin.
The takeover of Prescreen is not the first acquisition of Xing in Austria. In 2013, the career network already purchased the review platform kununu. The startup was first established in Vienna in the year 2007, and evolved into the market-leading platform for employer reviews in German-speaking Europe.
Top exits in Austria
Another example of a successful takeover this year is the diabetes app mySugr. The founders of the company set up in 2012 first had to rely on external funding. They were initially provided with seed financing by the federal funding bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws). They subsequently secured support from a business angel, and concluded a Series A round of financing with various investors. The investments have paid off. In 2017, the Viennese startup already boasts one million customers, and was acquired by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche for a reported price of up to EUR 200 million. As a result, mySugr ranks as one of the biggest exits ever in the Austrian startup scene.
The exit of mySugr was only surpassed by the two other startups of runtastic and Shpock. Adidas, the producer of sporting goods, acquired the young fitness company in the year 2015 for an impressive EUR 220 million. Since then, runtastic, which now has more than 110 million users and 210 million app downloads, is considered to be the showcase company in the Austrian startup scene.
Another notable acquisition took place a short time later. In September 2015, the Norwegian media group Schibsted purchased a 91% majority stake in the Viennese startup behind the flea market app Shpock, which was launched only three years later. At that time, the valuation of the company was about EUR 200 million. The previous investors included the risk capital company SpeedInvest, the business angel Hansi Hansmann, Austria Wirtschaftsservice and the university startup service INiTS.
