Following a fifteen-year career in investing and strategy consulting and upon returning to Austria, Markus joined IST to start TWIST, IST’s tech transfer organisation, and has been driving the development of IST PARK, the technology park adjacent to IST Austria, and IST cube. His background is in venture capital investing with Safeguard Scientifics and the European Investment Fund, strategy consulting with the Boston Consulting Group, and principal investment with QIA, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. He has supported a broad range of startups in the process, energy and tech industries.

He holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School, an MSc from TU Vienna, and an MIM from WU Vienna and HEC Paris.

Alexander joined IST cube in 2018 as Partner. He has more than 15 years of experience in management consulting, eight of which with McKinsey & Company in Vienna and Chicago. His focus has been on strategy, innovation, and M&A in chemicals, materials, agriculture and life science related industries.

By education and heart Alexander is a scientist: He studied chemistry at TU Graz, ETH Zurich and the University of Vienna before moving on to become a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. From 2013-2015 he was a part time research fellow at IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), a leading European Thinktank.

Florian is a seasoned venture capital professional with experience throughout the lifecycle from sourcing to exits. Before joining IST cube, Florian was an Investment Manager with aws Gründerfonds, a 70m VC Fund focused on Seed and Series A tech investments. Florian invested ~10m EUR in the startup ecosystem during that time and was responsible for managing 2 exits. Prior to that, he gained experience in operational roles as co-founder and Business Development Manager at software companies and worked in M&A Advisory for 4 years.

Florian holds an LL.M. degree in Business & Law from the University of Vienna and was a Visiting Research Fellow at Stanford University.

Ingrid joined the IST Tech Transfer team in October 2018 after spending a number of years at the University of Vienna, where she was responsible for managing the life sciences technology portfolio and supporting spin-out companies. Ingrid worked as a patent attorney in and for the pharma industry for more than a decade in different countries before moving into technology transfer. At IST cube she will primarily be involved with biotech, pharma and chemistry startups, with a particular emphasis on intellectual property and legal matters.

Ingrid holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Cambridge. She is a qualified European patent attorney with RTTP (registered technology transfer professional) certification.

Kavita cares deeply about science that addresses societal challenges, especially climate change, energy, and sustainability. Kavita holds a B.Sc. in physics and a M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering with experiences at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Université Grenoble Alpes, University of Paul Sabatier Toulouse, TU Delft, St. Stephen’s College and several other universities. She developed interdisciplinary expertise linking science with societal challenges as a postdoctoral fellow in Science, Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University and as faculty at the Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland. Kavita has led multiple grant-funded projects and published in top tier academic journals. She has also worked as a consultant at the World Bank and in the energy and power markets advisory team at ICF International.

Bernhard is an entrepreneur at heart with a record of accomplishments in the science as well as in the business world. Before joining IST cube, Bernhard co-founded a computer science spin-out from research of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and served as the company’s CEO. Prior to that, Bernhard was appointed to lead the Technology Pioneers program of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and their Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He also worked for ABB both as a scientist and as a technology expert in their Venture Capital fund.

Bernhard holds a PhD in mechatronics from Vienna University of Technology, an MBA from INSEAD, and an Executive Master in Global Leadership from WEF, where he is also a Global Leadership Fellow.

As a fund controller, Valentina is our senior expert for diligently ensuring the accuracy of our fund’s and our portfolio companies’ financials. She is familiar with high tech startups, working previously as a finance manager for the Viennese health tech company HappyMed. Further, she has worked as a junior consultant with KPMG, and later as a senior consultant with PwC in Milan. Last but not least, she has worked as a financial consultant for the New York-based accounting firm Funaro & Co.

Valentina has a Bachelor in Business Administration as well as a Master in Administration Finance and Controlling from the Bocconi University Milan.

Sonja is an analyst in the Life Sciences sector and joined the team in September 2022. She provides research and analysis on individual companies in the healthcare industry and supports the team with her medical knowledge and clinical experience.

Prior to joining IST cube, she worked as an intern at IST cube from April 2021 alongside her medical studies in Austria, supporting the team with a focus on life sciences and the healthcare sector.

Sonja holds a BSc in Health Sciences and graduated with an M.D. (Dr. med. univ.) in Human Sciences from Karl Landsteiner University in June 2022.

Alex is supporting IST’s Tech Transfer team, with a focus on computer science. At IST cube, he scouts for IT startups and acts as an advisor for business development, startup financing, and public grants. After working for 8 years as a Senior Marketing and Product Manager in Austria’s B2B telco industry, he studied Business Informatics and founded his own IT consultancy. Through his consulting, he became deeply immersed in the local startup ecosystem, successfully acquiring numerous research and go-to market project grants for several of Austria’s top-ranked IT startups.

Alex holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Informatics from the Vienna University of Technology, as well as an Innovation diploma supplement from the Informatics Innovation Center (i2c).