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Twitter buys company from 21-year-old Austrian

A start-up company founded by a 21-year-old Austrian has been bought by Twitter, which has also hired the young technology entrepreneur to work for them in San Francisco.

Published: 13 November 2015 15:33 CET

Twitter buys company from 21-year-old Austrian

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Computer scientist Felix Krause developed his first app for bicycle routes when he was 16-years-old. After completing HTL training at a higher education institute in Wiener Neustadt he went on to study software engineering at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, which was where he started his company Fastlane.

After recognising problems with releasing and updating iPhone apps, Krause developed software that made testing and releasing app updates as simple as a click of a button.

Following the release of the first version of the software a year ago, he made it open source and then went on to earn money by developing special modifications tailored for different companies.

His programme ended up with around 15,000 daily users, which led to interest from Twitter who offered to collaborate with Krause. Since October, Fastlane has been part of Twitter's mobile development platform Fabric and Krause has relocated to San Francisco to work on his project full time.

Speaking to APA, Krause said: “I'm enjoying it very much, making my project even bigger here in San Francisco.”

Presenting Fastlane at the developer conference Twitter Flight a few weeks ago, Kraus spoke about some of the benefits his software offers for app developers as well as announcing that the software is now available for Android as well as Apple.

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Where are Austria's big international companies located?

Here’s where each of the ten largest companies in Austria, by revenue generated last year, are located, both within Vienna and outside of the capital.

One of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest insurance firms, the Vienna Insurance Group is headquartered in the capital. Their main offices are directly north of the Innere Stadt on Schottenring, close to the Rossau district.

A fellow insurance firm, the Uniqa Group, is located close by. Owning over fifteen significant insurance providers across Europe, they are market leaders alongside Vienna Insurance Group. Their headquarters can be found in the eponymous Uniqa Tower, on Ferdinandstraße close to the Karmeliterviertel.

Erste Group, one of the continent’s biggest providers of financial services, was founded just over two hundred years ago in Leopoldstadt, a suburb adjoining Vienna’s centre to the east. Today, the group is headquartered in the Erste Campus, less than a five-minute walk from Vienna’s central train station.

Founded in the fifties, OMV is the country’s largest oil and gas company. The company owns three European refineries, including one at Schwechat in Lower Austria, near the capital. The company is based in the Hoch Zwei building in the Second District, near the banks of the Danube.

Construction company Strabag, responsible for massive infrastructure projects across Europe and South East Asia, is located across the Danube from OMW, near the Austria Centre and the expansive Donaupark.

Banking giant Raiffeisen International is headquartered in the Weissgerberviertel, north of Vienna’s city centre. Other divisions, including their software development teams, are based throughout the city centre.

Construction company Porr Group, which has many subsidiaries in Austria and involvement in significant railway building projects throughout Europe, has headquarters in Vienna’s south, five kilometres away, in the Favoriten district.

Verbund AG, Austria’s largest energy provider, can also be found outside Vienna’s centre. It is based to the south-west, close to the Mariahilf district and the city’s Westbahnhof, or western train station.

Steel and technology group Voestalpine is located away from Vienna in Linz, Upper Austria, roughly equidistant between Salzburg and Vienna. The company’s headquarters can be found between the Spallerhof district and the Industriegebeit, or industrial area.

Finally, international metals and technology firm Andritz AG is also based outside Vienna, in Graz in Styria. Their headquarters is some distance from the city centre, in the district which gave the company its name: Graz-Andritz.

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