startup

HungaryTrends – The week in business and finance

See below main business and financial news from the previous week:

Update on the Budapest-Warsaw high speed train!

Earlier this year we reported that a high speed railway service is being planned to link Budapest and Warsaw. New updates on the project were released this week.

Viber and Mastercard bring technological revolution into Hungary

The two major companies used worldwide are introducing a payment system for credit cards that works all day and night. This function can soon be used in Hungary as well, even with the Viber app. Read more HERE.

HUNGEXPO LAUNCHES EUR 165.3m UPGRADE

Budapest fairgrounds Hungexpo started a 55 billion forints (EUR 165.3m) upgrade and expansion in the run-up to hosting the 2020 International Eucharistic Congress and the 2021 World Hunting and Nature Expo. Read details HERE+video.

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES STARTS HUF 32 BN EXPANSION

German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies laid the cornerstone of a 32 billion forint expansion at its base in Cegléd, central Hungary. Hungary’s government is supporting the investment, which will create 275 jobs, with a 6.4 billion forints grant. Production at the plant will start at the end of 2021.

HUNGARIAN STARTUP SHAPR3D GETS USD 6 M IN FUNDING

Shapr3D, a Hungarian startup that makes a 3D modelling app for the Apple iPad, said it has received 6 million dollars from venture capital firms which earlier invested in such innovative companies as Spotify, Revolut and Zendesk. The new investments bring Shapr3D’s funding to 7.5 million.

THYSSENKRUPP BREAKS GROUND FOR HUF 17.4BN CAMSHAFT PLANT

Germany’s thyssenkrupp broke ground for the construction of a 17.4 billion forints camshaft plant in Pécs, southwest Hungary. The government is supporting the investment, which will create 200 jobs, with a 5.57 billion grant. The plant will start operating in 2020 and could reach full capacity in 2022.

SENNEBOGEN LAYS CORNERSTONE OF HUF 10 BN PLANT

Terméles-Logistic-Centrum (TLC), which makes steel parts for the material handling equipment manufactured by German parent Sennebogen, laid the cornerstone of a 10 billion forints plant in Liter, northwest Hungary. The government is supporting the investment, which will create 80 workplaces, with a 1.27 billion grant. Production at the plant is expected to start at the end of next year. Read more HERE.

SANOFI OPENS SSC IN BUDAPEST

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi opened a shared services centre (SSC) in Budapest. Headcount at the SSC stands at 100 but will rise to 350 by 2022.

HUF 145 BN DUAL CARRIAGEWAY OPENS IN SE HUNGARY

Local and central government officials inaugurated a 62km dual carriageway that will cut the travel time between the capital and Békéscsaba, near Hungary’s southeastern border, by 25 minutes. The M44 road – the longest stretch of dual carriageway inaugurated in Hungary since 2002 – was constructed at a net cost of 145 billion forints.

October 7, 2019

More EU tech startups are incorporating in the US according to reports

An increasing number of EU and international startups are either making the move to the US or are deciding to incorporate in the country from day one. Many cite the massive size of the US market as one of the main reasons behind the move, but there are many underlying issues that are responsible for that shift as well. More US investors are also keeping an eye on promising EU and international startups and are trying to lure more to set up shop on US territory.

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EU Startups are Facing Challenges

There have been attempts at creating a better ecosystem for EU tech startups with a sort of European version of Silicon Valley, but regulatory imbalances and the EU’s fragmented telecom market will need to be sorted out before this becomes a reality.

The US with its fiercely anti-regulatory stance towards telecoms does have its detractors, but it can seem like a paradise for any telecom company, especially one in a highly regulated market.

According to the former commissioner for telecoms and digital affairs, Neelie Kroes, the regulatory differences between EU states and the pushback towards technologies like 4G has been a huge issue.

She stated that the US and countries like South Korea are ahead of the European Union in terms of data usage, mainly because of the lack of a single telecom market and dated infrastructure.

EU Companies are Not the Only Ones that are Suffering

European companies are not the only ones moving to the US en masse in search of better opportunities. One country that has been particularly affected is Australia, which is said to be suffering from a tech “brain drain” at the moment.

While many Australian entrepreneurs have mentioned the attractive market and access to capital as one of the reasons they decided to leave, they also state that the attitude towards entrepreneurship is very different and is one of the reasons they made the jump.

One, in particular, stated that the US was the only country in the world where a couple of guys or girls can build a startup from their laptop and be taken seriously.

EU Startups are Attractive to US Investors

There’s also the fact that more US investors are looking at EU companies nowadays. There are many reasons for this. But one of the biggest is that EU startups tend to be much more conservative with their valuations. These companies often keep the same mindset when they come to shore. Acquiring European companies is very difficult, however, which is one of the reasons many US investors tend to shy away from making EU acquisitions unless they agree to move their operations and incorporate in the US.

Benefits of Incorporating in the US for Tech Startups

We shouldn’t overlook how attractive the US market can be for tech startups from abroad. For one, they can incorporate from a distance without ever having to step foot in the country, which is one of the only territories where this is possible. Then there’s the access to investors and venture capital.

Not only are there more venture capital firms in the US than anywhere else, but they tend to be much more adventurous as well. One entrepreneur stated that local investors scoffed at their valuation and that they were able to get double the funding simply by moving to the US.

While major hubs like San Francisco still attract a large number of new tech firms, other cities like Chicago also offers tons of opportunities. Chicago, in particular, is very popular because of its high number of venture capital firms, access to top talent, low cost of living, and great housing market.

Providers like Blueground, for instance, offer a tech living experience to business and leisure travellers looking for apartments in Chicago. All of the apartments are fully equipped and perfect for anyone wanting to get all the luxuries of a hotel room, with the flexibility an apartment offers. They operate units in 6 cities in the US, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC.

Incorporating in the US is also a great option for any company who’s thinking of setting a significant or permanent operational base in the country. There’s also the fact that having legal ties in the country will not only make the startup more attractive to investors in the country but also for certain foreign investors as well. The US also has strong legal protection for enterprises and a fairly favorable tax system.

Conclusion

The US is doing a great job at attracting startups from all over and the EU will have to find solutions to relax its regulatory landscape and provide more opportunities if they want to retain talent. Attitudes from venture capitalists will also have to change.

September 23, 2019

Hungarian start-up company is the new favourite of Apple

Dóra Pálfi’s start-up company called Imagilabs does not just provide electronic devices for young women to learn to program but at the same time builds an active community. To invest in their unique app, the Imagicharm, she not only got money from donations but at the same time co-operates with several multinational companies and a Swedish pop star.

Forbes reported that Dóra lives in Stockholm, Sweden, but visits her home country regularly. She never thought about becoming a start-up owner but soon realised that this is the best way to reach her goal: to earn a voice and with that voice to encourage young women to learn computer science.

Dóra started to learn neurology and computer science in Abu Dhabi and later did her master’s degree in Sweden in computer-human interaction. The idea of her company also came while she was studying: how to encourage women to study computer science using the knowledge she earned.

Imagilabs, company, computer, Hungary — *Photo: www.facebook.com/imagilabs*

Dóra explains that boys usually develope an interest in computers because of different games, but girls rarely play. Still, programming together encouraged them to stay in this field. This also gave her inspiration; she started a start-up company and even started to invest in a brand new app. Of course, Dóra got help from her university friends, who are also the main part of her project. First, they created an application for programming, which is also a social platform where women can share their successes. This comes with a physical device where the actual computing is done.

computer, programing, Hungary — *Photo: www.facebook.com/imagilabs*

Multinational companies like the Swedish Erricson noticed this in 2018 and invited them to their start-up program and became their first partner. This spring, the American company Apple invited the three young women. They could meet the biggest minds of computer science. Moreover, Swedish superstar Robyn even ordered a lighting cube from them which they created immediately. The company received widespread acclaim and also a significant income which will be turned into more portable devices and several other developments.

Technology is the future but there are not enough women in this field. The three young women would like to make this field more inclusive and to raise their voices in the digital world.

computer, science, Hungary — *Photo: www.facebook.com/imagilabs*

Featured image: www.facebook.com/imagilabs

How is Blockchain Changing Computer Gaming in Hungary

One of the most important sectors in the Hungarian economy is the technology sector that has been growing with a large amount of government backing and support from the European Union. The future of the Hungarian technology scene is about more than just the future developments to the PowerPoint rival, Prezi, but has seen startups exploring the options open to them through the creation of the Blockchain.

READ MORE HERE

September 17, 2019

Budapest home to thousands of empty shop premises

Budapest is home to 2,000-3,000 vacant retail premises, business daily Világgazdaság said Tuesday.

Rents on empty retail space range from 20,000 forints to millions of forints each month, depending on the size, condition and location of the street, the paper said.

Start-up businesses generally baulk at paying more than 100,000 forints in rent.

The Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Budapest municipality have begun operating a non-profit database which currently contains information on 150 leaseholds. The purpose of kiberelem.hu is to help start-ups by providing useful information about properties and their surroundings.

Plans are afoot to add analyses, which should make it easier for businesses to make investment decisions.

As we wrote before, although the rise in the prices of apartments has slowed down in the first three months of the year in the EU, Hungary is still on the top of the list concerning the rate of the increase in prices, read more HERE.

Stories to understand the Hungarian real estate market

July 30, 2019

Are you a Hungarian scaleup looking for investment? This is what you should do

Press release – The Hungarian entrepreneurial ecosystem is developing fast and Hungarian startups planning their next round are expanding their search abroad. Take Talentuno, one of Hungary’s success stories. The company is disrupting the recruitment industry with an innovative crowdsourcing model, and has just received EUR 4 million of investment to continue bringing together hidden talent and the best job opportunities.

When it comes to building your pipeline and raising funds, nothing beats international events in terms of ROI. However, exhibiting at large industry events simply doesn’t cut it anymore. With the average person’s attention span down to eight seconds now, getting lost in the noise is more than a risk, it’s a reality. How can you make investors remember you out of hundreds of pitches. Furthermore, global events lose focus of region specifics and having Balkan startups compete on equal ground with startups from San Francisco is not a fair game.

Fortunately, there’s ScaleIT: a platform and a scaleup program connecting South-Eastern European scaleups with international investors and corporates all year long.

“Every year we vett hundreds of applications and select 15 of the highest performing scaleups. After a lean program focused on curation and promotion we invite the finalists to Milan in October to pitch on stage in front of 70+ VC funds and 150 top investors who are interested in the region and ready to invest. We thus create a healthy balance of 10+ investors per scale-up and the results speak for themselves: companies taking the stage at ScaleIT have raised over $230 million in the last 3 years and success stories include BeMyEye, MotorK, Musement, Cuebiq, Buzzoole, Supermercato24, Shopfully and more.”

According to Lorenzo Franchini, founder of ScaleIT,

the 2018 edition had “32 international funds participating and over 100 one-to-one meetings organised between companies and international investors, an average revenue growth of 177% and 48% of international sales of the selected scaleups.”

Now ScaleIT opens its door again for south-eastern European top performing digital and tech scaleups for funding rounds ranging from €3 to €30 million!

Check the eligibility criteria for the ScaleIT 5th edition and register on https://scaleit.biz/#opencall by July 15th 2019 to be one of the 15 scaleups to pitch on stage in front of investment brands such as Accel, Amadeus Capital, Ardian, Cisco Investments, DN Capital, Draper Esprit, EarlyBird VC, Eight Roads, Highland Europe, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Idinvest, Index Ventures, Iris Capital, Partech Ventures and corporates such as Euronext,, AWS, Salesforce, Silverpeak, Orrick, Badenoch & Clark, Poste Italiane, Ludovici & Partners and SisalPay.

Euronext, the leading pan-European exchange in the Eurozone, has again confirmed its role as main partner of ScaleIT in 2019.

July 11, 2019

Hungarian students launched the world’s first online fund-food store – Foodoverflow

The project initiators are only 15 years old; however, they are working on a startup that aims to resolve one of the biggest environmental problems.

The world’s first online fund-food store has been launched, where users can post their redundant food that can be ordered by people in need. As Élőbolygónk.hu describes, the idea of Foodoverflow was created by three Hungarian high school students, and now, the project’s application is also ready.

Thanks to the idea of Hungarian high school students, portions of superfluous food can be saved worldwide. Bence Boér and his partners have already won prestigious international awards for their pioneer idea, but now, the online store has also been launched, which is accessible through an application.

food save — *Image: www.facebook.com/foodoverflow/*

“If someone has excessive amounts of food that would be thrown away, then they can upload it to the website by selecting its category,” explains the designer, Bence Boér, who introduced his project on the show of Kék bolygó (Blue Planet) by M1.

The wide selection of food ranges from prepared meals to different kinds of fruits and several types of pasta. They can be selected by distance, category, and expiration date.

As the Hungarian news portal szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu describes, the idea came spontaneously – the students entered a bakery upon its closing hour and saw that several pastries were still left. They were curious about what happens with the remaining products and were informed that some of them were taken home, but unfortunately, most of them were thrown out.

In addition to the website, a mobile application will also be created soon. Nearly 1,000 users have already registered since its launch in February.

The uploaded foods are awarded by ‘food-coins’. At the moment, it only shows the amount of contribution; however, later, it is planned to give coupons and discounts that can be used in stores.

The problem and its solution

Nowadays, hunger is one of the major problems, along with its paradoxical situation in the developed countries where tonnes of food are thrown out, despite the fact that they would still be edible.

In order to resolve this contradiction, a possible solution is provided by FoodOverflow, a social platform where users can share the food they do not need anymore.

According to a survey of the National Food Safety Office, Hungarians produce 68 kilograms of food waste per person on a yearly basis, and at least half of this amount is wasted.

The interactive interface includes several creative elements; for example, creators designed it in a way that a note is sent when the expiration date of a product is approaching, and an integrated map shows you where you can pick it up.

Users can collect points based on their activity – called ‘food-coins’ – which can be used for a variety of benefits.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/foodoverflow/

July 1, 2019

How to Ensure Your Start-Up Business Grows to Profitability

People start businesses daily. However, only a few of these businesses grow beyond the first year. While there are those that are dogged by financial challenges, others fail because of ineffective management. The competition in the business world is very stiff. For your business to grow to the level of the multinationals, you have to do much work. This guide, therefore, offers tips that can help you grow your business from a start-up to a level where it can compete with other leaders in the industry.

Have an organized plan

No business can move blindly. You need to have a detailed roadmap of where you want to be within a given period. As you write down the objectives to be achieved, ensure that you are organized. With a comprehensive business plan, you know those things that you have to prioritize. Every business day, ensure that you have a list of goals that you want to accomplish. At the end of that day, analyze what you have achieved. Do the same for the months and even a year. For every end of a period assessment, make the necessary assessment so that you can be more effective in achieving business goals. For everything that you have accomplished, strike it off the list.

The overall success of any business depends on what you do daily.

As you put down the plan, ensure that you are precise. For instance, you can specify that you want to hit a revenue value of $5,000 within a week. With such a plan, you have to specify the strategies for achieving your goals. To put it more understandably, do not operate your business with guesswork.

Assess the level of competition

For any product you deal in, there have to be businesses that either produces what is similar to yours or what can be used as a substitute. To be ahead of the competition, you always have to think ahead. The best way to beat them is to learn from them. For example, you can look at their advertisement strategies. Pick what they are doing well and implement it differently in your business. For the areas where the competitors are weak, take advantage, and make improvements. Some students have questions like, how can I write my essay like an expert? In most cases, these students look at what their colleagues have done and get impressed by their work. Even in business, do not fear to emulate what others do.

Record all the business transactions

You need to keep your business formal. You do not want a situation where you do not have an idea of what you spent on transport or advertising. Improper record keeping has led to the collapse of many businesses. When you keep proper records, you can tell how your business fares in terms of finances. If there are chances that the business may not do well, you can initiate the corrective methods. Do not let the collapse of your business come as a surprise to you. As a prudent entrepreneur, you need to be steps ahead.

Consistency is crucial

There is no guarantee that you are going to succeed within a few days.

Accept the few cases where a strategy may not work. It is important not to give up. As a person that is hungry for business success, you have to keep working. Take criticisms positively and always maintain the path to improvement.

You need a high level of creativity

If you do things that the other businesses have always done, you are likely to fail as well. To stand out, you have to do things differently. That calls for creativity. Have innovative ways of solving business problems. For example, you can repackage your goods so that they are different from what the other businesses have. The potential customers should have a reason to ignore what the other people produce and come for yours. Know how to communicate with customers in a way that makes them feel valued.

Make personal sacrifices

Some people fail even before they begin their businesses. The point here is that they already foresee failure instead of thinking of the solutions. That is the wrong way to do things. As you start the business, you need to know that there is nothing that is going to come easy. Sometimes, you have to put in more effort as compared to working for someone.

Moreover, you may have to wake up very early and go to bed late. You have to know that your business is your responsibility. Therefore, do everything possible to ensure it succeeds.

June 22, 2019

Hungarian start up creates the first ever self-learning smart home system

A Hungarian startup developed a unique smart home system for houses and buildings called Chameleon Smart Home, which is based on artificial intelligence (AI). Thus, it is self-learning, and can recognise and adapt to individual needs.

Chameleon Smart Home is the first AI-based smart home system in the world.

The Hungarian startup’s development is the first of its kind in the whole world, as their AI-based heating system is able to learn and adapt to the particular building. The system collects data, and it is able to analyse that data and basically learn the energy needs of a certain building, and it is able to calculate the ideal time for turning on and off the heating. It teaches itself, there is no need for management.

Chameleon Smart Home system has a bunch of basic functions, including: motion sensor, shutter control, remote access, night mode, heating & cooling, lighting control, voice control and music and irrigation.

According to the owner of Chameleon Smart Home Péter Szarvas, there is a growing need for new technological solutions and professionals on the international market, Szeretlekmagyarország.hu reports.

Smart benches, bicycle lockers and schools in one of Pest County’s towns?

A new profession is on the rise, for example, the so-called smart home technician. These professionals need to get to know the new systems and technologies. For this reason, they are starting internship programs and they are teaching electricians and other professionals as well.

Budapest’s City Park to be transformed into a modern smart park

The technology is available through Microsoft’s Azure Cloud-based service.

Here is a short video where the system is briefly introduced in Hungarian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb9Xe98J1G0

Featured image: Youtube.com/Chameleon Okosotthon

May 1, 2019

Hungarian company collaborates with Game of Thrones creators

Hungarian company CraftUnique began as a start-up through crowdfunding. Since its establishment, it has worked on several film productions.

“The life-sized dragon and throne models at the Hungarian premiere of Game of Thrones were made by CraftUnique’s 3D Craftbot printers,” wrote startuponline.hu. In addition to this, guests received figures, customised coat of arms and bookmarks during the event, as reported by szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu.

CraftUnique’s 3D Craftbot printers were also used in the film Blade Runner 2049 to create realistic-looking human beings.

The company, which began life as a start-up in 2014, has worked on other film productions as well. In order to finance the venture, CraftUnique resorted to crowdfunding to kick-start its business. Within a few days, it reached over six times its original target. Since their humble Hungarian beginnings, they have expanded globally; they even have a warehouse in the US.

In their first campaign, they sold 500 3D printers, and since then, they have shifted 2000 of them. They develop the printers’ hardware and software. The software to operate the printers can be downloaded for free from their website.

They are successful in both the domestic and international market. They have won multiple awards, including top prizes in the Plug N’ Play category in 2017 and 2018. One of their printers was also voted “The best budget 3D printer” in 2016.

It will be interesting to see whether CraftUnique will work in the Hungarian film scene. Hungary is not known for producing highly-technical action films. With their growing fame and credibility, ambitious Hungarian production companies might want to collaborate with CraftUnique to push the Hungarian film industry to the next level.

Last month, we reported that film-related expenditure in Hungary reached a record of €349 million. A record number of films were also filmed in Hungary in 2018.

Featured image: https://www.facebook.com/craftunique3D/

April 22, 2019

Startup Safari Budapest: Interview with chief organiser Péter Kovács

Today, for the fourth time, Startup Safari is launched in Budapest, with over 300 programs open for thousands of visitors at over 100 locations at the two-day intensive startup festival.

Behind the success of Startup Safari Budapest is Péter Kovács, co-founder and CEO of the IseeQ headhunting company and xLabs startup, who is also the co-founder of Global Startup Awards, which has been held in 60 countries and three continents since 2012. The exclusive interview is here:

Daily News Hungary: Please, tell me briefly about your life and what started your relationship with startups!

Péter Kovács: Since the age of 16, I’ve been doing business and working constantly, smaller jobs first but then gradually more serious ones. After graduation, I got into the world of recruitment accidentally, more precisely, the world of tech recruitment, where I became successful very quickly. This was mainly because I started this whole profession with a community building attitude.

It was around 2008 when I first started to encounter companies that labelled themselves as “startups”. I instantly sympathised with their mentality of problem-solving, which differed greatly from corporates’ and large companies’. I specialised in recruitment for startups and worked at Prezi for one and a half years as one of the first recruiters.

Not long afterwards, we founded ICQ for the express purpose of international tech recruitment and later, I turned to building the startup ecosystem. This led to the founding of xlabs, the organiser of Startup Safari Budapest.

So, this was my path leading to where I am now, and it all started with the love of startups.

DNH: When was the turning point when you committed yourself entirely to startups?

Kovács: Around 2008, I met a developer who invited me to a community called OpenCoffee Club. It was already an international brand with the sort of “underground” meetup events that brought together like-minded people. I met my first startup clients in this community, of which some don’t even exist anymore, but others became successful. This is where the love began.

DNH: You currently work on a couple of startup projects; can you talk about them?

Kovács: I’m currently working on two main projects. One is the Budapest Startup Safari, of which I’m co-founder. Safari has been running for four years now, and it grew out to be quite a big event. The other project is the Global Startup Awards, the world’s largest independent startup ecosystem competition, and it currently runs on three continents in more than 60 countries, which means we cover 32% of the world.

DNH: Please, tell us more about the Hungarian startup scene. From when can we talk about a serious startup ecosystem here? What are the main strengths of Hungarian startups?

Kovács:

The Hungarian startup scene started to form in the second half of the 2000s.

We’ve seen some success stories before, like Graphisoft, but these were isolated and didn’t have an ecosystem around them or investors backing them. The first big breakthrough came with Prezi, and Budapest became a reference point in the global startup scene. Western investors started to take Hungary into consideration beyond industrial investments. Things started to really kick off around 2012-2013, and development has sped up in the last five years.

And what are our strengths? I would say our strength shows more in our skills than in certain fields or industries. We are quite successful in natural sciences, like Mathematics or Physics; however, we lack around 50-100 years of business experience because Hungary has always been an agricultural country, rather than an industrial one. This backlog, nevertheless, has started to dissolve quickly with the latest generation, who have access to digital information and have the possibility to study abroad. Another advantage, in my opinion, is that for historical reasons, we’ve learned to survive with fewer resources, which is a useful skillset if we talk about an early stage startup where there’s less money, and still a steady background needs to be generated quickly. This is absolutely an advantage, although we lack the confidence to utilise it fully – we need to develop that. If a Hungarian has to cope in the Western startup scene, they will most likely underrate themselves, and that is a problem.

DNH: Let’s have a look at Budapest Startup Safari. Tell us about the beginnings! What was the first festival like and how will this year’s Safari differ from that?

Kovács: Startup Safari was originally the idea of a Polish guy. He lived in Berlin and saw a market opportunity in letting his acquaintances and network connections in his office meet the employees and see the work process of a startup. By the time I first met him, this system worked quite well, and we decided to develop the basic idea from that. In the first year, in 2016, we aimed at 200-300, maximum 500 participants – in the end, 2200 people showed up. The Safari proved to be a market fit, and we had every resource to go on with the project. This year, we’re expecting 6000 people, and both the organisation, the structure of the event and the quality of the programs improved significantly since the first year. Of course, in four years, we hope that Startup Safari will be even better.

Structurally, there haven’t been any big changes. As the number of events increased significantly, we organise thematic routes, so they would be feasible for the visitors. No one would like to read the description of 300 individual events, so these routes can serve as guides for people who already know what their interests are. The system hasn’t changed, but the quality of it did: we’ve learned from the experience of previous years and created a more transparent structure. Another difference is that this year, we were able to bring more big names from the global startup scene than ever. Also, our partners at Central European Startup Awards will be invited to look at the innovative side of Budapest, meet companies and employees.

DNH: What makes Startup Safari different from a job fair in general?

Kovács: Safari shouldn’t be compared to job fairs, even if they share some similarities. Even though it is a recruitment event, so companies who seek to hire might join the event based on that need, it is only a section of the whole experience. A huge percentage of participants joins for other reasons, such as finding an investor or finding a startup to invest in; to introduce products and services to the public; to build a network, etc. Brand building and employer branding are present in almost every program. The benefit of this type of recruitment is that the company is not represented by a simple stand, but they can show the whole atmosphere of their office, their own little world; they are on “home ground”, so they have a higher chance to recruit professionals. This, for sure, is an important difference that makes Startup Safari more efficient than a job fair.

DNH: A part of our readers is foreigners living in Hungary, what would you say to them? Why should they participate in the Startup Safari? Will there be programs in English?

Kovács:

At least 20-30% of the lectures are in English. That means that of 300-350 events, there’s plenty to choose from even for those who don’t speak any Hungarian.

Also, several participants arrive from other countries. For those foreigners that live here, I would say this is a perfect chance for networking and integrating, as those who participate in the Safari are generally very open-minded. Everyone can find interesting workshops and lectures on all topics and meet new people from every field. Nothing can top Startup Safari in terms of networking and innovation in the world of startups.

DNH: Is there a central location for the event?

Actually, we don’t choose the locations. The basic conception of the whole event is that the companies don’t go to some place we rented to promote themselves, but we ask these companies to open their offices to the public and host lectures and workshops there. Almost every thematic route has a central locale, mostly a coworking office connecting somehow to the theme of the route – Budapest is very lucky in this sense, we have many coworking offices, but they are not in fierce competition with each other –, or corporal partners’ head offices. We only ask our partners to keep their event in the inner city: our experience shows that people don’t usually participate in lectures and workshops held in the suburbs, it makes them feel left out of the other events.

Budapest is perfectly fit for a successful Safari, as it is a big city, but not too big, so everything is within a 10-15-minute distance. Some extra locales include the A38 ship, but otherwise, it is mostly our partners’ offices – you could say that Startup Safari is 300 meetups in two days.

[button link=”https://dailynewshungary.com/startup-safari-2019-the-biggest-festival-of-the-startup-scene-in-budapest/” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] STARTUP SAFARI 2019 – THE BIGGEST FESTIVAL OF THE STARTUP SCENE IN BUDAPEST[/button]

DNH: Many foreigners arrive in Budapest for Safari, who are these people?

Kovács: We will have many people from a lot of countries as guests and lecturers, you can take a look at them on our website. Also, as I mentioned previously, our partners from the Central European Startup Awards were invited, and many of them will participate. We’ll also have some special guests, coming from all over the world from California to Dubai. Safari is an opportunity not only to meet locals but also people from around the world.

DNH: So the leaders of the startups will be present, but what about investors and mentors?

Kovács:

Everyone will be there – this means investors and mentors as well as CEOs and employees.

The startup ecosystem consists not only of startups but corporates, nonprofit organisations, investors and even the state with its representatives. An example of this is the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office whose support we’ve won for the second year now. Other partners also back the project, and they are all important, all a part of the ecosystem, and at the end of the day, our goal is to maintain existing connections and also build new ones. This is the interest of every one of us.

DNH: Finally, I would like to ask about Startup Safari’s more exclusive services. What extra services are included in the higher ticket prices?

Kovács: We have three ticket categories: Economy, which is basically the price of a cinema ticket, so most people can afford it; Networking, which is a more special category that allows access to e.g. networking parties; and the Premium, which allows access to workshops where one can gain information that would be worth hundreds or thousands of euros otherwise, and it also includes the opportunity to enter an exclusive dinner with executive and investor special guests and the closing party.

Get tickets and more information here: STARTUP SAFARI BUDAPEST

April 17, 2019

Startup Safari 2019 – the biggest festival of the startup scene in Budapest

This April, Startup Safari festival will be held in Budapest for the fourth time. From 17th to 19th April visitors will have the possibility to meet companies, experts and discover professions from various fields, mainly from the ICT sector, the creative industry, the startup culture and from those business services and social affairs that are clustered around these fields.

Startup Safari was initiated back in 2012 with the aim of introducing the world of startups in a real working environment with the proactive involvement of the audience. The first ever Safari was organized in Berlin and since then many cities in Germany has also organized their own Safari. Globally 25 cities joined in, including Rome, Riga or Sao Paulo – however the event grew out to be the largest in Budapest. This year’s three-days-long Startup Safari Budapest is expected to host more than 300 programmes in over 100 locations with approximately 5000 participants.

Startup Safari offers not only a series of job opportunities for people facing career choices, but the chance to obtain valuable connections and acquaintances in an amount that otherwise would take years: the festival is frequently visited by startup founders, CEOs, freelancers, investors and representatives of scientific fields and the atmosphere of the Safari provides the occasion to have a casual talk over a coffee after an interesting lecture.

The festival offers a real “safari” experience, as participating companies introduce their offices and organize programmes in various topics at their own headquarters, showing a more authentic and detailed picture of themselves than what visitors would see at a job fair or any other employer branding event. Interesting lectures, business brunches and brisk workshops characterize the festival where renowned names of the startup scene have made regular appearances in the previous years.

Such memorable moment was when Prezi founder Péter Halácsy allowed the audiences a peak into his own mind or when the girls of Starschema demonstrated the creation of visual elements from data. Last year, noted companies, such as Prezi, Google, Publishdrive or LogMeIn were represented at the Safari, and in addition to company headquarters, other popular Budapest locales such as the A38 Ship were involved in the programmes.

Year by year, Startup Safari attracts not only Hungarian but many foreign guests and lecturers as well.

Last year, internationally renowned experts such as Eddie Arrita, co-founder of the the colombian PR company Publicize, or Tanya Soman, from Silicon Valley-based angel investor fund 500 Startups, arrived at Budapest for the Safari. This year, of course, will be no different, as Joanna Bakas, managing partner of LHBS Consulting will arrive from Berlin to Budapest to talk about the conditions of agile business operation.

Alex Felman, CEO of the Danish Felman Family Office will expound the important differences between idea men and implementers, which can fundamentally determine the success of a startup. Artificial intelligence will be the topic of the lecture of Daniel Dippold, who, as a leader of Kairos, an English company consisting of 6000 startup entrepreneurs, has a thorough view of the topics and fields of innovation most concerning for upcoming enterprises.

Similar to previous years, thematic routes help visitors navigate the festival’s many programmes, therefore each participant can choose the companies and the workshops according to their own individual interests.

Some of the main topics this year include the future of education, lifestyle, design, the relationship between technology and gastronomy, artificial intelligence, industry 4.0, digital marketing, product development or the effects uf UI/UX and automatization.

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE’S LARGEST STARTUP CENTRE OPENS IN BUDAPEST – PHOTOS

Central and eastern Europe’s largest startup centre was opened in Budapest’s Millenáris Park as the first project in a 5 billion forint (EUR 15.3) programme, on last September. Read more HERE.

March 11, 2019

Hungarian hiking search website to become the new best startup?

Trekhunt is an online trip and activity searcher website, which is available in two languages. After its Hungarian arrival, stepping out to the international market will be taking place in the spring (in English and German speaking areas ) – stands out in the company’s statement.

A Hungarian startup Trekhunt, which was founded last year, is planning on a 1-million-Euros capital increase, reports portfolio.hu. Trekhunt started their services in Hungary first in January 2019 and aims to appear in the international field by spring. The site provides a searching /collecter page to all whom would like an active refreshment

Four men: Kardos László, Gadácsi Péter, Bíró Ákos and Dimitar Dinchev founded Trekhunt. To be more precise, the Bulgarian man, Dimitar joined them in Japan somewhat later, he was working for SoundCloud before. László Kardos, former member of Skyscanner and Prezi, and two of his former university friends: the mountain climber and tour leader Péter Gadácsi, as well as Ákos Bíró who was working in the financial planning department of multinational companies.

Last summer they set up the company with 7 million equity capital, in the autumn they got some more help from an “Angel” – they name it, and now they negotiate with several investors, and venture capital founds about a capital increase in 2019 which will price 1 million euros.

Our long-term goal is building every tour in the world into our search engine so that anyone who desires mountain climbing, biking, rafting, surfing, skiing or even paragliding don’t have to waste hours of their time on looking for the guided program opportunities while comparing them to others. –said László Kardos

hiking boston fall — Photo: www.gacs-veress.com/turaklub/

The trips and other activities’ markets are booming suddenly – written in their statement. According to a Deloitte study, from World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) global summit conference, the value spent on tourism’s hike tours, activities and attractions are the third most significant market segment in the tourism market. For 2020 this total value is predicted to be 183 million USD.

To get to know more about another Hungarian hiking app, click here.

Featured image is illustration: pixabay.com

January 23, 2019

Great news! Hungarian startup might stop planes from delaying all the time

A Hungarian startup called AerinX can now help stop so many planes from being delayed. The company allows engineers responsible for plane check-ups to work faster with the help of smart glasses and augmented reality (AR).

AerinX claims that most plane disasters are caused by human error. This refers to pilots in the first place, but the second biggest problem is that there is negligence when planes go through maintenance and check-ups. This is where the Hungarian startup and their augmented reality-based system comes into play – reports Forbes.

As it turns out, when a plane gets damaged – be it a hit from a bird, going through a hail storm or be it the fact that the catering car reversed into it once again -, they call the aerospace engineer.

“The aerospace engineer feels around the area in question, gets a ruler, marks it with a marker pen, then goes back to the garage and looks through thousands of pages”

– says Antal Bence Kiss, managing director of AerinX.

All the relevant information, from whether the plane was hit in that spot before, what that means or how thick the plate is there, is included in PDF documents that they have to look through.

“With our system, this process can be reduced to minutes.”

All the aerospace engineer has to do is put on the smart glasses, project the data onto the plane and start searching already, as all the information is within reach. Due to the massive size of planes, it causes some problems to find one tiny spot where the damage was caused. At the moment, they use the placement of rivets to identify the area in question. According to the AerinX manager, “Our system gets it done within seconds.”

This means that using the AerinX method can reduce delays caused by the obligatory but lengthy inspections, speed up turnaround time and thus help airlines keep customers happy and save money as well.

According to the manager, what differentiates them from other companies is that they do not intend to eliminate engineers from the process just yet. Most methods are heading towards complete automatisation, but they think this would be too big a step at present. They want to help the engineers get to the information needed faster and easier, but they still need their expertise to make the right call.

AerinX already has a partly-Hungarian partner who has international customers. The first step is to make a pilot that works in real-life situations, too. This is the stage on which they plan to spend the investment worth 250 million Forints (778.6 EUR) they got from X-Ventures Gamma Venture Capital Fund.

For more information about the techniques, watch the video below:

For more news, check out this article about the possibility of going to Budapest Airport by train.

Featured image: facebook.com/aerinaerospace

January 14, 2019

Hungarian startup performs extraordinary show for the British Royal Family

A Hungarian startup called Collmot Entertainment made a spectacular drone show in the garden of Buckingham Palace in front of a thousand guests.

Who said modern art cannot be beautiful? The Hungarian startup did an extraordinary drone show for the British Royal Family, Szeretlek Magyarország states. The eight minutes long Christmas show was performed by 40 drones with such elements like the Christmas tree, with a firework and the Star of Bethlehem, a snowflake, an angel and a 3D animated reindeer.

“The CollMot quadcopters are the first drones to fly as a coordinated flock without the need for continuous commands from a central computer,”

they claim Collmot Entertainment is the leading drone-lightshow service in Europe; their shows can be seen worldwide at festivals, bigger outdoor events and work celebrations. They performed at such events like the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Budapest, Shanghai Interactive Festival of Theatre, the opening ceremony of National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and the fireworks in Budapest 20^th August. Check out their work in the below video:

The startup uses smart drones to perform their choreographies, which tell interesting stories with different drone formations, 3D animated drone statues, fireworks and light paintings.

Collmot Entertainment and Cogito, both supported by the mentor program of Design Terminal, took part in Pitch@Palace in London between 10^th and 12^th December. Andrew, Duke of York, son of II. Elisabeth, founded the competition in 2014 to provide a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of Entrepreneurs. Check out the below gallery for more of their works!

It seems Hungarian startup companies are on the rise. For example, we wrote about a Hungarian carsharing service earlier, which takes over Germany, but it is also worth mentioning the company that managed to break into the Chinese book market.

Featured Image: facebook.com/collmot

December 18, 2018

Europe’s leading startup acceleration program to coach 15 teams next to the Hungarian border

10.000 € investment from Europe’s leading early stage investor Pioneers Ventures, access to the legendary Pioneers’19 in Vienna and media coverage – all those goodies awaits the participants of the next Startup Live Program in Eisenstadt connecting the Austrian and Hungarian startup ecosystem.

Turning an idea into a business is the goal of the mini-acceleration program Startup Live. In just one weekend, startup founders and those who are eager to become one learn everything from business modeling to the perfect pitch. They meet mentors and experts from the startup industry and they have the opportunity to pitch in front of renowned European investors.

IT’S ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND THE LASTING EXPERIENCE

You can definitely feel the real excitement of teams, sitting from the early breakfast until the late night, giving every last drop of energy of pulling the whole thing as far as possible and then enjoying the final pitches.

What stays are the connections and the whole experience.

“What I find interesting about Startup Live is that when you look at the attendees of previous events you find people that worked on ideas and met new people and had a great time. When you look at what they do now you will find companies like Runtastic, mySugr, Qriously, Codeship, Shpock, PSPDFKit, Blossom and many others. This is the substrate for the region’s innovation engine.” says Thomas Schranz, CEO of Blossom and frequent mentor at Startup Live Programs.

The program is not only beneficial for entrepreneurs ready to take their project to the next level, but also for everyone who wants to see what the startup world is about, feel its vibe and gain some first-hand experience.

The proven Acceleration program has already been successful in many European cities including Vienna, Athens, Berlin, Prague, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Tel Aviv, Zagreb and Belgrade.

About Startup Live

The leading Startup Acceleration program Startup Live (www.startuplive.org) is the starting point for prospective founders. With a proven track record internationally in 40 cities it has so far attracted more than 10,000 participants. Companies such as Runtastic, Shpock or mySugr are among the most successful participants of the program.

All information and updates about the event can be found online at www.startuplive.org/pannonia.

Facts:
Date: 23.- 25. November 2018
Location: WKO Burgenland, Eisenstadt
Further information:www.startuplive.org/pannonia

Featured image: Startup Live – Tamás Künsztler

November 6, 2018

Hungarian startup Xeropan makes learning languages fun

Xeropan that offers language learning through fun and play, raised almost 800 000 EUR from Hiventures. Xeropan’s mission is to teach practical language skills to the world by offering real-life video content.

Instead of using textbook-like outdated learning content, Xeropan offers real-life video lessons from film trailers, TV shows to newscast so that learners acquire the everyday use of the target language. We immerse learners in the actual use of the language, they become used to native-like thinking, they understand the native rate of speech and we enhance their cognitive creative thinking and speaking – says Attila Al-Gharawi, the co-founder and CEO of the company.

A personal digital language teacher helps learners 24/7, wrapped in a gamified, entertaining environment.

Learners can level up, earn various ranks and different achievements by completing thrilling lessons and tests. Xeropan also offers a mini app within the app that keeps track of the learners’ passive (weak expressions learners find it hard to remember) and active vocabulary (strong expressions). Learners also receive a detailed summary of their learning progress.

Xeropan language learning — *Photo: www.facebook.com/Xeropan*

Parents are generally pleased to see their kids playing around with Xeropan on their phone and it happens quite frequently that parents themselves become hooked on Xeropan as well, because they can learn a wide variety of real-life expressions that otherwise would be hard to practice without living abroad in the target country.

Language teachers and schools have also discovered the benefits of the app and recommend using it as an after-class activity.

The company currently has learners from around 185 countries of the world and wishes to strengthen its international presence with the investment. As the first stage of the development, they doubled the number of languages through learners can learn English and the team is now working on a revolutionary feature that allows learners to practice their conversational and speaking skills along with the Desktop html version of Xeropan.

The company has increased its revenue in the last couple of years, but their goal is to reach over a million EUR revenue by the end of 2020. The two founders have built a strong team of content developers, software engineers, UI\UX specialists and marketing experts. Currently, 20 people work on the development of the software and they also got 3rd party experts on board to assist the team.

This contributes to the fact that thousands of people use Xeropan on a daily basis with retention rates way over the industry standard.

Retention plays a significant role in our industry – says Attila – because even with magical abracadabra, we can’t learn to speak a language confidentially over a couple of days; we need to dedicate 5-15 minutes a day of fun learning with Xeropan for a couple of weeks to get the hang of a language and start speaking confidentially.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/Xeropan

September 18, 2018

Central and eastern Europe’s largest startup centre opens in Budapest – PHOTOS

Central and eastern Europe’s largest startup centre was opened in Budapest’s Millenáris Park as the first project in a 5 billion forint (EUR 15.3) programme, on Monday.

At the opening ceremony of the Millenáris Startup Campus, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said that the initiative was aimed at “lending momentum to human assets” and improving conditions for businesses. In his address, Varga voiced the government’s readiness to support new ventures based on innovation and higher efficiency.

Gergely Gulyás, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said that the new centre could become a “cradle for development promoting the Hungarian economy”.

The centre will contribute to the development of a “creative neighbourhood in which many could create new and useful things”.

State Secretary László György said at the ceremony that the government had allocated a total 360 billion forints to “build and innovation ecosystem” and spend another 600 billion forints on innovation and research and development projects under a 7 year programme. He noted that Swedish and Polish ventures have already “signed up” for the new centre.

The Millenáris Startup Campus, built using a 1.7 billion forint budget, has 180 work stations, 24 offices and meeting rooms and 3 auditoriums.

Featured image: MTI

September 17, 2018

Potential of technological startups in Hungary

Startups became one of the most promising ways of starting a flexible and developing business and there is no more rapidly developing area of business than tech. In this new world, does Hungary provides a promising climate for tech startups?

If you’re looking for a place with plenty of startups in Hungary, look no further than the capital, Budapest. It has marked its position in Europe as a tech hub that is on the rise. In recent times, Hungary has become alluring to various startups because of the availability of talented developers and engineers. In addition, there’s an increase in active homegrown VCs, and also the government is startup friendly.

The Early Days

One of the most prominent names when it comes to startups in Hungary is one Peter Zaboji. He is regarded as the father of the Hungarian startup ecosystem. He’s credited with laying the foundation for today’s thriving tech scene by coming up with various events and organizations that would bring together entrepreneurs.

After the successful buyout of Tenovis and its ensuing successful exit, Zaboji returned to Hungary at the commencement of the startup dawn in Hungary. He attempted to infuse in the Hungarian community the notion that business and innovation needed to be done on a global stage. In 2009, he came up with the Venture Acceleration Course (VAC) in Budapest. It was an English language entrepreneurship workshop series that aspired to offer basic education on the business side of creating a company.

Before 2009, even though there were various early stage technology companies, not much of what could be considered as a startup ecosystem existed. The arrival of Morgan Stanley in Budapest in 2006 created a challenging environment for startups. It offered attractive wages, so most people wanted to work there. However, Morgan Stanley’s arrival made the IT sector more attractive to future startup employees.

Peter Zaboji’s English language entrepreneurship course and the various entrepreneurial events he organized encouraged attendees to begin to think bigger and come up with products that could target the international market rather than the local market only.

Education in Hungary

We all know that education is crucial for the development of a thriving startup ecosystem.

Historically, even though Budapest has been behind when it comes to education, it has gradually started to make progress. Years back, universities in Hungary were traditionally known for their focus in the field of life sciences. Fields like business studies and innovation have never been that competitive with Western European Universities. However, things have begun to change. Budapest University of Technology and Economics specializes in the fields of math, physics, and technology.

Moreover, while focus has shifted to business education, most universities have achieved this by teaming up with large companies that could guarantee employment and high wages.

Good Economical, Technical and Human Capital Conditions

In spite of having one of the highest tax rates on products and services, prices are quite low as compared to other nations in the region. Therefore, the low cost of living and the low cost of starting up in Hungary are advantages. The workforce there is well trained in business, technology, and the English.

Technically, conditions are also favorable.

Hungary is the 6th nation worldwide when it comes to internet speed.

Furthermore, it occupies the 3rd position when it comes to the speed of the 4G network. As such, startups can easily work with wireless gadgets without having to worry about the technical setup.

Also, capital has also been in abundance owing to the JEREMIE Program. It’s a European Commission program created alongside the European Investment Fund. That’s the reason why many startups have benefited from funding, and more entrepreneurs have made a decision to start-up. In 2015, the number of startups was around 300. The increase in the number of entrepreneur and startup communities, public initiatives, conferences, and events makes the Hungarian startup ecosystem one of the most vibrant.

Friendly Environment

We have events and conferences in Hungary such as Startup Sauna, CEE global Impact Competition, and CEE Women Startup Competition. The startup community in Hungary is open, and anyone is welcome. You might meet your potential investor, mentor, employee, or even co-founder.

Examples of Successful Startups from Hungary

Prezi – It was founded in 2009 by Peter Arvai, Adam Somlai-Fischer, and Peter Halacsy. It’s a presentation software company.
LogMeIn – A company that offers SaaS-based remote connectivity, support solutions and collaboration.
Ustream – This company provides cloud-based live video streaming services.

Conclusion

In summary, if you’re searching for a place that’s conducive for startups, then Hungary is the place to be. It has a thriving ecosystem, and soon, more global investors and consumers will troop to Hungary.

What’s your take on the Hungarian startup ecosystem? Feel free to leave your comments in the comments section below.

August 29, 2018