Austria’s ClimateLaunchpad Bootcamp

From the 25-26 April in Vienna nine early-stage climate startups gathered for the Austrian ClimateLaunchpad bootcamp.

Organised by Thinkubator, Austria’s national lead for ClimateLaunchpad, the bootcamp is part of the world’s largest sustainable business competition, which supports startups to turn into scalable businesses in more than 40 countries. STaR has closely collaborated with Thinkubator to provide support for CLP and we are delighted to be involved again this year. Led by facilitator Hira Wajahat Malik, the sessions focused on strengthening business models, refining pitches, and understanding market dynamics. The teams displayed a strong focus on technological innovation to tackle sustainability problems in industries such as textiles, shipping, electronics, fashion, and construction. Furthermore, 8 out of the nine teams had female founders or co-founders, and the participants represented 10 different nationalities, highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusion in achieving sustainability.

The first day of the bootcamp centred on aligning vision with strategy. Founders began with reflective exercises, including defining their long-term ambitions, before moving toward more practical considerations such as scalability and market fit. A key component was peer feedback. Participants re-pitched their ideas in smaller groups, receiving targeted input from fellow founders. “This is the whole point of the bootcamp,” Malik said. Such exchanges, she noted, can help startups identify new applications and refine their customer focus.

The second day shifted attention to climate impact how startups define, measure, and communicate the environmental value of their solutions. For many teams, this was a new but essential perspective.“It was very beneficial to understand how to measure climate impacts from a business perspective and accordingly pitch the product to customers,” said a co-founder of a startup developing robotic systems for maintaining solar farms. Participants also expressed some of the key challenges they faced in building a start-up, such as accessing lab space for developing hardware and securing funding. “There are not enough lab spaces for hardware production in Vienna,” said a team building technology for ships to reduce pollution. Overall, the founders found that the bootcamp helped them pause and realign their ambitions, and great for networking.

This two-day bootcamp marks an important step in the startups’ ClimateLaunchpad journey. On June 9, 2026, they will present at the national finals in the SPEAKOUT Festival in Vienna’s Museumsquartier. Each team will have five minutes to deliver its pitch, followed by questions from the jury. The winning team will advance to the global finals set to take place in Singapore.