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The Venture Codex

aws Gruenderfonds

Rechte Wienzeile 225, Vienna, 1120, Austria

Overview

aws Gründerfonds is Austria's 140m venture capital fund. We invest in Austrian high-growth start-ups in their later seed and (pre-)series-A stages.

Total investments
3
Lead investments
0
Investments · 12mo
1
Active investors
0

Sector focus

  • Finance
  • Venture Capital
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Investment portfolio

  • Optimuse

    Participated · Seed · Oct 2025

    Founded in Vienna in 2021, Optimuse provides an AI-driven simulation platform that ingests existing building plans to create realistic digital models and evaluate thousands of system variants. The software recommends the most economical and climate-friendly combinations for heating, cooling, ventilation, and envelope solutions, giving users data-driven, technically reliable cost-benefit analyses. Customers typically achieve 70 % faster preliminary engineering, 10 % lower construction costs, and 20 % additional emission savings. The product is used across residential, commercial, and industrial projects, helping builders, developers, and planners avoid oversized or undersized equipment and accelerate CO₂ reductions. Optimuse quantifies impacts on CAPEX, OPEX, CO₂, and comfort, supporting prioritised action plans with transparent assumptions and sensitivity analyses. With fresh capital, the company plans to speed up international expansion and broaden distribution of its AI solutions. The startup’s existing investor base and new backers see it addressing the massive global demand for sustainable building transformation.

  • Themis Bioscience

    Participated · Series D · Sep 2019

    Themis develops vaccines and immunomodulatory therapies using a proprietary measles vaccine vector platform. Its lead program, MV-CHIK, is Phase 3-ready and the company plans to initiate a pivotal global Phase 3 trial within months. The company is advancing other infectious-disease programs—Zika and Lassa Fever in Phase 1, and RSV, CMV, Norovirus and MERS in preclinical studies—and has an immuno-oncology portfolio launched in 2018 with the first therapeutic candidate entering clinical studies this year. Themis recently announced a collaboration with MSD to develop undisclosed vaccine candidates. The company has been funded to date by leading venture capital firms and prestigious non-dilutive grants. Themis closed a Series D financing totaling €40 million (USD 44 million) to support its clinical and pipeline expansion plans. Themis Bioscience develops vaccines and immunomodulating therapies for infectious diseases and cancer using a versatile technology platform for discovery, development and production. Its lead program, MV-CHIK, is a Chikungunya vaccine that received FDA fast track and EMA PRIME designations and produced compelling Phase 2 results published in The Lancet. The company planned a pivotal multi-center Phase 3 trial in Europe, the US and the Americas and will test a single-shot regimen, with clinical trial applications submitted in the second half of 2019 and initiation expected shortly thereafter. CEPI is providing up to US$21 million of non-dilutive capital with support from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme to underwrite a significant portion of the Phase 3 trial and accelerate regulatory approval and access. Themis says the non-dilutive funding will extend resources for its earlier-stage vaccine and oncology programs. The company also highlights commercial manufacturing capabilities and intends to apply its platform to high-market-potential diseases both alone and with partners. Themis develops vaccines on a versatile platform, with programs targeting chikungunya, Zika, RSV, norovirus and CMV. Its most advanced candidate is a chikungunya vaccine that reported positive Phase 2 results and is being studied in 600 patients across the US, EU and South and Central America. The company presented favorable interim European study results at the ASTMH 2017 Annual Meeting. Themis intends to use recent financing to advance both clinical and pre-clinical vaccine development programs. Leadership emphasizes the platform’s potential to address major public‑health challenges and to move multiple candidates toward commercialization. The company highlights experience navigating complex clinical, regulatory and manufacturing issues as it advances its pipeline. Themis Bioscience is a Vienna, Austria-based biotechnology start-up focused on developing vaccines to prevent infectious diseases. Its lead product candidates are Dengue and Chikungunya fever vaccines built on a novel vaccine vector technology called Themaxyn™, which was initially developed at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. The company intends to use the funds from its recent financing to advance pre-clinical and clinical development activities for these candidates. Themis completed a €5m Series A financing to support these programs. Founded in 2009 and led by CEO Erich Tauber, the company previously received seed financing from the academic incubator INiTS, austria wirtschaftsservice (aws) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).

Team

No current team members are available.