Helmut Marko invests in Austrian AI start-up after Red Bull exit

Helmut Marko has invested in an Austrian AI start-up developing a digital service for people to leave messages for loved ones after their deaths. The 83-year-old former Red Bull motorsport adviser was unveiled as a backer of Lebensstimmen GmbH at a launch event at Vienna's Mandarin Oriental hotel on 20 October.

Marko stepped down from his role at Red Bull at the end of last season, after more than two decades with the company. He linked the investment to his career in racing, saying motorsport had improved through the courage to use new technologies consistently for people's benefit. "That is exactly the attitude I recognise in Lebensstimmen," he said in a press release.

Lebensstimmen describes its planned platform as a form of digital end-of-life planning. Users would record or write messages during their lifetime for chosen recipients to receive after their death. The Graz-based company, founded by Philipp Berkessy, Markus Pinter and Lukas Stern, plans a full launch in Austria and internationally in the first quarter of 2027; it will operate internationally as Words That Remain.

The company also offers a tool to help grieving families put their own words together. It has launched Fabertar, an AI eulogist developed with Toni Faber, the cathedral pastor of St Stephen's in Vienna. Lebensstimmen says Fabertar is clearly labelled as AI and is intended to help where no priest or speaker is available, rather than replace them.