Infineon Austria Challenge brings 13 tech startups from Europe to Villach

Villach, October 3, 2024 - This year's Infineon Startup Challenge was a complete success - not only because of the quality of the presentations, but above all because of the product innovations in the field of artificial intelligence. 13 tech startups from nine European countries took up the challenge of having their technological applications evaluated by a panel of experts. The winner was the startup Granevo from Slovenia with an AI powered hatching monitoring system for chicken rearing. It has the opportunity to work with Infineon Austria in the long term and will take part in the Infineon Startup Night conference on October 22 at Infineon's headquarters in Munich.

Stefan Rohringer, Country Research & Development Officer (CRO) Infineon Austria: "To achieve our clear goal of driving decarbonization and digitalization with semiconductor solutions, we need innovative approaches. Our experience in recent years has shown that collaboration with startups opens up promising opportunities for this. We therefore congratulate not only the winners, but all the young companies that have pitched their promising innovations."

The response to this year's Startup Challenge was overwhelming

The number of applications for the Startup Challenge 2024 increased six-fold compared to the previous year, with 45 startups. After careful consideration, 13 European deep tech startups from the fields of AI and machine learning, the Internet of Things and sensor technology as well as health and wellness qualified. Specific applications included an AI-powered medical monitoring system that takes into account patients' vital signs as well as their environmental conditions. Furthermore, a networked, self-learning sensor system that specializes in the prevention of natural hazards such as rockfalls and flooding in order to make environmental events more predictable. They were invited to the Infineon Startup Demo Day in Villach, including from:

• Austria the three startups, GMD, MuscleMAInd and e-nnovation better life solutions,
• Estonia the three startups e-Slasher, Nexiio and e-Litmus,
• Germany the startup bitteiler,
• Croatia the startup Calirad,
• Great Britain the startup Flappa,
• Slovenia the startup Granevo,
• Cyprus the startup Intellectra Technologies,
• Poland the startup Uhura Bionics,
• Czech Republic the startup Neuron Soundware

Exciting presentations, promising AI applications

The teams were provided in advance with Infineon hardware - the "Artificial Intelligence Evaluation Kit" - from which they were to create AI models and integrate them into their applications. After long days and short nights and the support of the build! Gründerzentrum Kärnten and Bridgio Tech Accelarator, they presented their impressive prototypes to a selected jury of experts at the Infineon Startup Demo Day.

Startup partnerships are part of the Infineon innovation culture

The Startup Challenge is part of the global Infineon Startup Co-Innovation Program, for which startups from various fields such as energy efficiency, mobility, security, IoT and big data can apply. The aim is to drive forward innovative solutions together with Infineon. Infineon does not act as an investor, but rather as a co-innovator, technology and business partner. This type of cooperation makes it possible to work together on innovative solutions for new areas of application at an early stage. Ultimately, it is not only the startups that benefit from Infineon as a customer, supplier or business partner, but also vice versa.

Andreas Mühlberger, Strategic Partner Management Infineon Austria: "Cooperation with startups is important for Infineon because, on the one hand, we support young companies and, on the other, we can learn a lot from them. By working with innovative minds, we get to know new approaches and requirements in order to better adapt and integrate semiconductor systems for new applications. This in turn strengthens our innovation capabilities and enables us to optimize our own product roadmap."

Infineon Austria and VesnaCapital are going on a joint startup search

The Startup Challenge also offered the opportunity to network with investors. Infineon Austria also recently signed a letter of intent with VesnaCapital - a deep-tech fund for Slovenia and Croatia. The aim is to jointly identify and support startups in the up-and-coming regions of Slovenia and Croatia. VesnaCapital will act as an investment partner and Infineon as a technology and business partner.

Infineon Technologies Austria AG is a subsidiary of Infineon Technologies AG, a global semiconductor leader in power systems and IoT. Semiconductors are essential for mastering the energy-related challenges of our time and helping to shape the digital transformation. Infineon's microelectronics drive decarbonization and digitalization and enable groundbreaking solutions for green and efficient energy, clean and safe mobility as well as a smart and secure IoT.

Infineon Austria pools competencies for research and development, production as well as global business responsibility. The head office is in Villach, with further branches in Graz, Klagenfurt, Linz, Innsbruck and Vienna. With 5,886 employees (including around 2,500 in research and development) from 79 nations, the company generated revenue of EUR 5.6 billion in the 2023 fiscal year (ending 30 September). With research expenditure of 672 million euros, Infineon Austria is the strongest research company in Austria.