Erste Group
Am Belvedere 1, Vienna, 1100, Austria
Overview
Erste Group provides a range of banking and other financial services in Austria, Central and Eastern Europe, and internationally. The company operates through nine segments: retail, SME, ALM, and local CC, savings banks, large corporates, commercial real estate, other corporate, group markets, and group corporate center. The company offers savings accounts, asset management, consumer credit and mortgage lending, investment banking, securities and derivatives trading, portfolio management, project finance, foreign trade financing, corporate finance, capital market, and money market services, foreign exchange trading, and leasing and factoring services. It also provides current accounts, credit cards, and insurance products. In addition, its corporate banking services include transaction banking services, such as cash management, payments, and account management, and international desk services; financing services comprise working capital, investment, trade and supply chain, leveraged, and syndicated loan finance; investment banking services consist of mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt capital markets, and specialized finance; real estate lending, leasing, and investment services; project development and construction services; and infrastructure financing services. Further, the company provides private banking as well as securities services. Erste Group was founded in 1819 and is based in Vienna, Austria.
- Total investments
- 2
- Lead investments
- 2
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 8
Sector focus
- Banking
- Finance
- Financial Services
- Foreign Exchange Trading
Investment portfolio
- SALZSTROM
Led · Seed · Apr 2025
SALZSTROM is an Austrian cleantech firm developing sodium-ion battery technology as a European alternative to lithium-ion energy storage. The company has brought CE-certified sodium-ion battery modules to market. It secured over $1 million in a pre-seed round backed by Erste Bank and other partners. SALZSTROM will consolidate its R&D activities into a new entity named FlexCo to accelerate core technological breakthroughs while keeping a commercial focus through SALZSTROM. The firm’s longer-term vision is to help Europe reduce dependency on lithium, cobalt, and nickel by leveraging abundant sodium for safer, high-thermal-resilience batteries. Management describes the funding as an essential milestone and a strong signal of investor support amid growing interest in next-generation battery chemistries.
- Born Digital
Led · Seed · Dec 2023
Born Digital provides an AI omni-channel platform that helps companies transform and enhance their contact centers by covering all channels with AI-driven virtual assistants. Founded in 2019 and based in Prague, the company focuses on digitalizing overall customer care, experience, and interaction. Its virtual assistants have processed over 9.5 million interactions, and Born Digital serves more than 100 B2B clients. Clients span Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The company says it will use new funding to support expansion of its platform beyond the region. Born Digital is categorized in conversational AI and publishes its product information at borndigital.ai.