I.E.C.T. – Connect to Cambridge
From 11th to 13th of November the I.E.C.T. team travelled with selected guests to Cambridge and gave national and international investors, corporates and scale-ups access to know-how, networks, key persons and companies from Cambridge.
The focus of this year’s networking trip was on the transfer of scaling know-how from Cambridge, which will be placed in Austria in the form of scale-up programmes in the coming years. In an intensive two-day programme, a great variety of educational and corporate institutions such as the Kings College of the University of Cambridge, the VC Fund Amadeus Capital, which was founded by Anne Glover and Hermann Hauser, and one of the most interesting companies in the field of autonomous driving, FiveAI, have been visited. The guests were thus able to share their biggest challenges in the entrepreneurial context with people like Alex van Someren (Managing Partner of Amadeus Capital), Stan Boland (CEO and Founder of FiveAI) or Shailendra Vyakarnam (Professor of the University of Cranflie, Scale-up and DeepTech Mentor as well as Key-Figure of the Cambridge Phenomenon).
It is consciously ensured that the maximum number of participants is 20. Experience has shown that this is the most suitable group size to give all guests a sustainable insight into the Cambridge ecosystem during an intensive 2-day programme.
“The I.E.C.T. Networking Journey was intended to give our guests a sense of active, bi-directional relationships between British and Austrian ecosystems.
For the first time we tried to merge the three fundamental pillars of the I.E.C.T. such as educational programme, investments and network in a common journey. We are anxious to present the essential development steps beginning with the promotion of the researchers up to the successful founding and establishment to domestic educational institutions, enterprises and investors”.
LUCAS HAUSER, INVESTMENT MANAGER
“Travelling in Cambridge, on the tracks of Hermann Hauser, you immediately feel the great passion of entrepreneurship. An absolutely special city, where perfectly educated students, talents from tech companies, scientists and researchers from the University of Cambridge live together. One of the largest ecosystems of unconventional thinkers in the world has emerged here. I got a very credible impression that in Cambridge with a lot of courage by the founders, expertise by science and the existing venture capital the biggest problems of the world are solved very successfully.
Growth potential through new thinking is key here. A big thank you to Team Hauser for these very instructive days in a city where unicorns are born”.
MICHAELA ROTHLEITNER, UNIQA VENTURES
“The I.E.C.T. trip to Cambridge was, as always, an inspiring experience. The visit to Amadeus Capital allowed us to understand the way of thinking and decision making at a premier VC fund. At FiveAI, we got a close look at a Start-up financed by Amadeus and the Cambridge community and run by a seasoned entrepreneur. All in all, I very much enjoyed the trip.“
GERALD HÖRHAN, INVESTMENTPUNK
