Tl;dr The Startup Promotion Act and the Flexible Corporations Act (FlexKapGG) became effective from January 1, 2024. These laws aim to enhance Austria’s appeal as a startup and venture capital hub. No material changes were made from their initial drafts. So far, around 35 FlexCos were registered in the Austrian companies register, whereby most of them seem to be shell entities incorporated by law firms. Start-Up Promotion Act and Corporate Law Amendment Act Enacted The Austrian parliament passed two pieces of legislation at the end of December 2023, which came into effect on January 1, 2024 ..read more

Tl;dr After reading this blog post, you will know more about these topics: Understand the commercial drivers of venture capital term sheets. Understand the math behind valuations, investment amounts and how they shape your startup’s future. Get to grips with of ESOP/VSOP/PSOP pools and their impact on founders, investors, and employees. Know about different share classes, and learn how ordinary and preferred differ from each other. Get started with cap tables and know how to model them. Introduction Term sheets are a a vital part of most venture capital financing processes. They outline the ..read more

Tl;dr After two years of ongoing discussions, the Austrian government has just introduced two major draft laws, the Startup Promotion Act (Start-Up-Förderungsgesetz) and the Flexible Corporation Act (FlexKapGG), with the goal of fostering a robust startup ecosystem in the country. The Startup Promotion Act primarily addresses the issue of employee participation in startups. The new law aims to make share schemes more attractive by adjusting tax rates and conditions for their issuance. In the future, taxes on proceeds from employee share incentive schemes will only be due upon their sale, with ..read more

Tl;dr Blog articles and scientific papers in professional journals are inherently different formats. While scientific articles tend to lay the theoretical base for legal concepts or envisage to expand on them, blog articles put these concepts into action and are particularly useful for giving practical hands-on guidance on specific legal questions. Both can be valuable and both formats are suitable to mutually benefit from each other. This article dives into the reasons why I found blog articles more useful for my practice. Introduction Welcome to the espresso.legal blog, your one-stop destina ..read more