Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) is Austria’s federal promotional bank, owned by the Republic of Austria and headquartered in Vienna. It finances and supports companies—especially startups and small and medium-sized enterprises—through grants, low-interest loans, guarantees, and equity investments. Its mandate is to strengthen Austria’s innovation capacity and competitiveness by improving access to capital and advisory services across all stages of growth.
aws administers national and EU‑cofinanced programs for research, technology and innovation, digitalization, and sustainability, and operates instruments such as the aws Gründerfonds and technology transfer initiatives. For the chemical and process industries, aws funding can support R&D, pilot and scale‑up facilities, industrial modernization, and decarbonization projects, including energy‑efficiency and circular‑economy measures. Established in 2002 through the merger of several predecessor institutions, aws operates under the supervision of Austria’s federal ministries responsible for economic affairs and finance.