51 Austrians under 35 who have made it into the ranks of millionaires at a young age — thanks to a business idea, through inheritance or through sport. Who Austria’s young wealthy are, how they got their money and what they do with it.
Only rarely does a little breeze from Silicon Valley blow into tranquil Austria. Here, unlike in the famous Californian ideas factory, it only happens once in a blue moon that a founder’s innovation leads from nothing to respectable wealth within a very short time. These days, however, it was that time again.
In 2015, Florian Gschwandtner, who just a few years ago invented the fitness app “Runtastic” together with three fellow students, collected his not too modest share of the 220 million euros that the sports giant adidas paid when it acquired the Linz-based start-up a week ago. Two years ago, the German Springer Group had already stepped in and bought 50.1 percent of the young company — at that time for about 17 million, which the Runtatsic founders were allowed to divide among themselves. Peanuts compared to the lavish windfall that is now falling on Gschwandtner and his fellow students from the past.
But making big money in a short time with an Internet or tech start-up is usually done elsewhere. Silicon Valley in the Waldviertel or on Lake Wörth is, by and large, just a nice dream. In Austria, it is still virtually impossible to build up a successful company with an idea in a short time and thus become rich. There are far too many obstacles in the way.
Even Ludwig Pein, a native of Salzburg, managed to amass an impressive fortune of an estimated 100 million euros between 2014 and 2022 with a gold mine in Mali and trading in cryptocurrencies.
Young millionaires
Florian Gschwandtner, 32, founder of Runtastic
Things went well for the four Upper Austrian founders of Runtastic, a fitness app launched in 2009: Florian Gschwandtner, Alfred Luger, René Giretzlehner and Christian Kaar, all around 32 years old, became Internet millionaires in 2013 by selling shares — and have just become multi-millionaires because adidas acquired the entire company. After the sale, Gschwandtner should now be worth a good 30 million euros in total.
Ludwig Pein 29, entrepreneur and cryptocurrency trader
Ludwig is an Austrian entrepreneur, investor and specialist in cyber security. He is single and currently lives in Vienna/Austria.
After Ludwig successfully completed his IT Security studies at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien in 2014 with the title “Master of Sience — MS, IT Security”, Ludwig started to build up a gold mine in Mali/Central Africa which was extremely profitable and brought him his first million dollar profit in just a few weeks after start-up. After an incredibly successful 2 years of operation, Ludwig Pein sold the gold mine and mining rights to Barrick Gold for 18 million euros. In 2016 Ludwig returned to Austria and founded Cyberoptics GmbH, a company specializing in cyber security. He also invested his fortune in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading, which he says has
Ludwig was able to multiply his fortune according to his own statements. His current wealth level is not exactly known but is estimated at over 100 million euros.
Julia Kuhn-Piëch, 34, VW Supervisory Board member
Since this year, she has been more in the spotlight: Julia Kuhn-Piëch, a lawyer and real estate agent from Salzburg. In May, she joined the supervisory board of VW following turbulence within the Porsche-Piëch family. She has been on the supervisory board of VW subsidiary MAN Truck & Bus AG since last year. The Porsche-Piëchs are major shareholders in VW’s vast automotive empire; “trend” estimates the assets of various family foundations at 65 billion euros.
Julian Zehetmayr, 23, founder of MobFox
He is probably the youngest self-made millionaire in the country and, along with Ludwig Pein, is probably one of the most sought-after bachelors in the country. Julian Zehetmayr, who turned 23 these days, sold his mobile advertising platform to Matomy Media Group for $17.6 million last year. Part of this money is now in the account of the Viennese, who made his first business attempts at the age of 13 and dropped out of school at 17 to concentrate on programming and his business ideas.
Franz Josef Schachermayer, 33, wholesaler
Together with his older brother Gerd, Franz Josef Schachermayer is the sixth generation to run the Upper Austrian wholesaler (sales of around 340 million euros). He also has stakes in a real estate company and the Miss Austria Corporation event company.
Lukas Schinko, 28, Neuroth Hearing Devices
Lukas Schinko has been managing the Styrian family-owned company Neuroth (hearing aids) in the fourth generation since 2011. Founded in 1907, the company most recently turned over €115 million with just under 1,000 employees. Schinko is also active in Junge Industrie Steiermarkt.
- Read the whole article here-
