EU Business News- European CEO of the Year Awards 2025 European Business Angel of the Year 2025: Silke Greiner Silke Greiner is one of two business angels (otherwise known as angel investors) behind A&S Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a high-innovation investment company in Austria. Having been a business angel for more than a decade now, Silke has helped start-up founders from across the country to create successful businesses on the back of her advice, funding, and access to her network. At the heart of Silke’s approach is a focus on creating sustainable value through tried-andtested support products. We caught up with Silke on the back of this win for more on her work. Co-founding A&S in 2013 to invest in high-tech start-ups with clear potential, Silke Grenier operates atop a deep knowledge of both the legal and business worlds. Beginning her journey in this space by studying law, Silke graduated from the esteemed Heidelberg University in 1996. Getting her start as financial advisor and mentor, Silke would quickly go on to establish herself as one of Austria’s best and brightest CEOs, initially co-founding a real estate business before becoming a business angel 12 years ago. Using these experiences to share real-life success stories and ensure the same mistake is never made twice, Silke specialises in businessmodel innovation, design thinking, and agile methods across her business advice. She explained: “I see problems as challenges to show my skills to push ideas through, if they are innovative and the market untapped.” She continued: “The goal is to build successful businesses that make an impact, meaning they make a profit and have a positive influence on society and the environment.” Taking us through her strategy, Silke commented: “If the evaluation of the investment opportunity is positive, I invest in a very early stage and get shares from the start-up. When I am on board, I get regular reports from the CEO – usually once a month or every three months – and also hold video calls and personal meetings with them.” From here, Silke, occasionally alongside the support of reliable co-investors sourced from an established network, delivers the necessary advice to help the start-up scale. “I built a huge professional network over more than 20 years in an entrepreneurial environment, where I attend a lot of business-related events. People from this network ask me to co-invest if they have an interesting investment opportunity.” From the beginning of her career in the start-up environment, Silke told us how accepted and supported she was made to feel by the community, many members of which are today part of her trusted network – and vice versa. However, building this network is an ongoing task, and Silke maintains her visibility by attending as many events as possible and being on the jury in pitching contests. Both of these are great ways to meet new founders and contacts, all whilst positioning Silke as a trusted figure in the field of high-tech start-ups. Another way in which Silke maintains her frontrunner status is by delivering results. To achieve this, Silke focuses on value alignment across her investments, ensuring that a common culture can be built and maintained. This feeds into her approach as a leader, which sees Silke become both a role model and a champion of the particular startup business in question, working with its teams to outline risks and opportunities before giving them the tools and sense of empowerment they need to believe in themselves. Often, this process is relatively straightforward, as Silke has already done the hard work by seeking out highly skilled teams behind highly innovative products. In essence, this reflects the high standards she strives for across every investment. Although she is not investing in any new start-ups this year, this due to her plans to invest heavily in an art-technology company she has been working with now since last year, Silke’s commitment to supporting those already comprising her innovation-centred portfolio remains. Finally, touching on her future plans, Silke told us: “If my start-up investments are successful, make an exit, or develop into successful businesses, I want to reinvest the returns.” She continued: “I also aim to maintain the individual and personalised approaches in the relationships with my customers – the start-up entrepreneurs – but automate the processes even more, using digitalisation to boost the efficiency of my work. One of the leading high-innovation business angels in Austria, Silke Greiner’s focus on nurturing start-up scalability in technology-driven environments makes her more than deserving of being recognised in this programme as the European Business Angel of the Year 2025. Further information about her work can be found using the address below for the A&S Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH website. Contact: Silke Greiner Company: A&S Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH Web Address: http://www.asbeteiligung.at/ AIM-May25094
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