The EY Scale-up Award, opens an external URL in a new window has become an integral part of the ecosystem, yet it is not a traditional pitch competition. At its core is the Growth Maturity Assessment developed by EY, which evaluates startups and scale-ups across six dimensions, ranging from business model and scalability to team, financing, and governance. An independent, 87-member expert jury analyzes, benchmarks, and evaluates the participating companies in a multi-stage process that culminates in in-person interviews and final pitch presentations.

This year’s event took place at the Gartenpalais Liechtenstein, a fitting setting for a lavish celebration, and served as a prelude to the Entrepreneur of the Year event at the Hofburg. For the first time, the awards were organized around four future clusters (Planet, People, Technology, and Innovation) and 13 categories. The fact that the TU Wien community received awards in all four clusters is exactly what a university innovation ecosystem strives for: excellence that isn’t limited to a single subject area, but spans from GreenTech to DeepTech to software.

Scale-up of the Year: fiskaly

The evening’s top individual award, Scale-up of the Year, went to fiskaly, opens an external URL in a new window, co-founded by TU Wien alumnus Simon Tragatschnig. Today, the company is one of Europe’s leading providers of cloud-based solutions that enable point-of-sale transactions to be stored securely, in compliance with regulations, and tamper-proof.

Rising Star of the Year: factorymaker

If there was one name that came up particularly often that evening, it was this one: factorymaker, opens an external URL in a new window, a spin-off of TU Wien. Using AI-powered design agents and a proprietary database of real-world projects, the Vienna-based team automates planning work that would otherwise take weeks—thereby giving companies back a degree of autonomy. Co-founder Julia Reisinger sums up the idea: “Companies should be able to make effective decisions independently and based on their own in-house data.”

The jury recognized this achievement in multiple ways: factorymaker was named Rising Star in the “Disruption & Innovation” category, Rising Star in the special category “Spin-off of the Year,” and finally, as the crowning achievement, Rising Star of the Year 2026.

Founder of the Year: Denise Hirner

For the first time in the award’s history, an individual—rather than a company—was honored in 2026. The new “Founder of the Year” category spotlights those individuals who shape an entire ecosystem through their vision, leadership, and lasting impact. The winner was Denise Hirner, a TU Wien alumna and co-founder and COO of the TU Wien spin-off UpNano, opens an external URL in a new window. She impressed both the jury and the audience with her clear technological vision, the establishment of a leading international deep tech company, and a consistently scalable growth strategy.

Spin-off of the Year: UpNano and factorymaker

In the special category “Spin-off of the Year,” awarded in collaboration with aws, opens an external URL in a new window (Austria Wirtschaftsservice), two TU Wien spin-offs came out on top. UpNano—a global leader in high-precision 3D printing technologies for micro- and nanostructures—was named Scale-up of the Year and also won the “Industry & DeepTech” category. factorymaker secured the title of Rising Star. The fact that both spin-off awards went to spin-offs from TU Wien sends a strong signal about the quality of the transfer from research to the market.

Two More Rising Stars from the Community

The TUW community was also successfully represented beyond the major awards: joulzen, opens an external URL in a new window was named a Rising Star in the Planet cluster (in the “Energy” category). The company transforms existing oil tanks into smart thermal energy storage systems, turning existing infrastructure into a building block of the energy transition.

phine.tech, opens an external URL in a new window won the Rising Star award in the “Software & Digital Transformation” category with a virtual test environment for 5G and 6G applications. Also worth mentioning is usePAT, opens an external URL in a new window which was nominated as a Rising Star in the “Industry & DeepTech” category. 

Making it into the top ranks at Austria’s largest scale-up event is an honor in itself and further proof of the depth of our community. The evening also served as yet another testament to the outstanding support provided by the Innovation Incubation Center i²c at TU Wien which was underscored by four spin-offs and a total of five awards.

Making it into the top ranks at Austria’s largest scale-up event is an honor in itself and further proof of the depth of our community. The evening also served as yet another testament to the outstanding support provided by the Innovation Incubation Center i²c, opens an external URL in a new window at TU Wien which was underscored by four spin-offs and a total of five awards.