The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Markus Wanko, head, IST Cube

As head of the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria’s technology transfer unit, Markus Wanko was the natural choice to manage the organisation’s seed fund – the €5m ($6.5m) IST Cube – when it was set up in summer last year.

IST Cube is being run in conjunction with investment management firm Lansdowne Partners and has been structured as an open investment vehicle with the potential for additional investors to participate.

The fund was set up to help Austria plug the gap in early-stage and seed funding, in particular for spinouts in the country, although Wanko said it would also invest internationally in certain circumstances.

Among IST Cube’s initial investments were Prewave, an artificial intelligence spinout from TU Wien, and Contextflow, a medical imaging analysis startup. Both companies closed seed rounds of undisclosed size in spring 2018. Co-investors in these deals were Pioneer Ventures and Apex Ventures respectively.