When partnering with young tech firms the question of financial return is an over stressed one. The real question comes much earlier: do you work with the right startup and team?” This was the core topic of the Innovation Talk featuring  i5invest’s Herwig Springer and Henry James Morley on opportunities in energy tech and how to materialize them.

I5 Invest, a key player within the Austrian startup ecosystem, provides seed funding, corporate development, advisory and strategic business development for tech start-ups depending on their development stage. Out of more than 100 corporate development and co-investment projects, i5invest has an overall hit rate of 75% on investments, with 6 exits only this year. But based on which criteria does the company select the most promising opportunities? “Decision criteria centering on expected business contribution are much overvalued”, says Herwig Springer, CEO of i5invest. In fact it is the personal fit of the founding team which plays a detrimental role in realizing successful outcomes. Other criteria i5invest looks for when initiating a cooperation are strategic fit, physical proximity and scalability of the startup.