startup

A Hungarian startup to revolutionize fitness teaching

According to profit7.hu, Europe’s first online fitness school has just started in Hungary. Mymove.hu aims to teach fitness and aerobic trainers together with dance teachers through online courses. As we reported, the Hungarian startups are exceptionally successful lately.

Now it is free to try out!

The basic idea of the startup is that both theoretical and practical

classes are taught by recognized professionals

whom students can follow online on videos. However, of course, they can ask them questions both online and by meeting them. Besides, the first online fitness school in Europe is now free to try out!

According to Szilvia Gyöngyösi, CEO of Mymove their courses are flexible, and there is no fixed time set for the lessons. Thus, they can adjust to everybody’s needs. ‘Among our teachers, there are the best professionals of the country: Balázs Czanik, Szimonetta Simon or Zsuzsanna Konok’ – she added. Gyöngyösi highlighted that students can reach the materials of the theoretical and practical classes both in written form and on videos. Furthermore, thanks to their technological developments,

the program is accessible on tablet, smartphone, and computer, as well.

E-learning works, too 

In the offer of the online fitness studio

not only beginners but also experts

can find interesting materials. Besides, they plan to launch courses for fitness instructors, sports trainers and aqua trainers in the future.

Shooting video for one of the courses. Photo: facebook.com/pg/mymove.hu

‘I have been working as a trainer and an instructor for many years. Several of my courses were cancelled because of the travelling, the distance or because finding a babysitter was a problem for my clients’ – said Gyöngyösi. She added that all these problems could be solved by using their innovation. Besides, the material can be acquired more profoundly since all their videos and written materials are viewable without limit for 30 days. Furthermore, alongside comfort money is also important. Though a traditional course can be worth ten thousands of HUF they provide

the same kind of highly professional material for only a small part of the original offline price

– highlighted the CEO of Mymove.

There is a free trial period for the courses that are available on the Mymove website. For enrollment, one should obtain an adequate qualification – mostly high-school graduation – and a medical certificate. After one finishes a course successfully, the online fitness school not only provides marketing advice but also helps with finding a job.

Szilvia Gyöngyösi highlighted that as an opening offer those who enroll for an OKJ-course in August would be able to

choose one of their certificate providing programs for free.

Photos: facebook.com/pg/mymove.hu

A Hungarian startup managed to break into the Chinese book market

PublishDrive

PublishDrive, which reformed the market of e-books managed to break into the state-controlled Chinese book market. In fact, after a series of negotiations they will be able to enter the market through retail giant DangDang, often dubbed as ‘the Chinese Amazon’ – according to hvg.hu. As we already reported, Hungarian startups are very successful lately.

AI in service of reading

To start with, PublishDrive is an

e-book sharing site that uses solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI).

In fact, if someone uploads a paper it appears in the offer of 400 online webshops in more than 100 countries. Besides, the system delivers it automatically to the shops and it not only registers the data of purchases but it also does analyses.

The Hungarian team behind the startup introduced their product on the TechCrunch in New York two years ago. Now they aim for the Chinese market where – according to a Forbes survey in 2014 – there are 580 publishers and, beyond doubt, it is the biggest market in the world. However, all publishers are state-owned since

private publishing is banned in the formerly Communist country.

As PublishDrive summed up, the total volume of the Chinese book market was

 between 20 and 23 billion USD in 2016.

Moreover, the total turnover is increasing by an average of 0.3 pc yearly. Furthermore, 58.4 pc of the population regularly reads books, which mean 812 million people altogether. In 2015, 80 pc of them read more than half an hour every day while 50 pc read over 10 books per year. According to the Chinese Book Market Data (2017), the 580 publishers produced more than

475,768 titles in 2015.

From the USA to China

Kinga Jentetics, CEO, and co-founder of PublishDrive told Forbes that they started the talks with their Chinese partners in 2016 and it was not easy to reach an agreement. She added that business is slightly different in the biggest country of the world because of the huge state importer and the censorship. Thus, it was

hard to find out who is who

and there are still some questions regarding the balance of power even today – she said.

Interestingly, PublishDrive did not get an index, but they are aware of the fact that they can have difficulties with some books. In fact, the startup already gained a foothold on the American market. After an investment worth one million dollars they could open offices in New York, California, and Seattle. In fact,

even Google provided them with mentorship.

Hungarian startups are very successful

As we already reported, many Hungarian startups became very successful in the past few years. Of course, the flagship of them is the presentation software Prezi reaching its 100 millionth user in April. But there are startups helping shatter taboo topics like Super Izzy AI. Hajnalka Héjja’s vision is to create a virtual hygienic assistant backed by artificial intelligence and machine learning to help to deal with taboo topics such as women’s health, menstruation, and pregnancy issues.

Furthermore, BOOKR Kids is a three-year-old startup that develops interactive books and apps for children as well as for publishers, schools, and companies. Not only does it digitalize the tales so far only available on paper but it also offers a new format for Intellectual Property owners. Finally, Turbine.AI, which has built an artificial intelligence that models how cancer works at the molecular level, and tests millions of potential drugs on it, won the Startup of the Year title at the Central European Startup Awards (CESA) in Sofia last year.

HERE is a collection of the most promising Hungarian startups of 2018.

Featured image: facebook.com/pg/publishdrive

Hungarian students’ startup idea to help people with food allergies

startup, students, success

According to Forbes.hu, yet another great startup idea has been developed, this time by Hungarian students. USchool, an educational program with a modern outlook, has launched a program to introduce students aged 16-18 to the world of business and project planning, to the basics of sales and marketing as well as to group dynamics.

USchool

Last year, 22 students from 12 schools participated. This year, 100 students from over 40 high schools participated in the program focusing on startup-talent management. The students had the help of experienced mentors, young entrepreneurs and mentors from big companies, who are familiar with the field of innovation.

The students could gain entrepreneurial experience while also learning how to present the projects they have been working on for months. 

The best ideas were awarded in front of a crowd made up of investors, entrepreneurs and people simply interested in the projects.

Winning startup idea

uschool, startup, winner
Photo: facebook.com/uschoolhungary

The best idea was developed by a group of three high school girls: Veronika Végh, Rebeka Szabó and Dorina Merhala, all aged 17. Their innovative idea in the sustainability category was to develop an app that helps people choose consciously what they buy by scanning the allergens displayed on the packages.

The app allows people with food allergies to choose their ingredients safely. All they have to do is scan the allergens of the products.

2nd place

uschool, startup, idea
Photo: facebook.com/uschoolhungary

The group winning second prize consists of Eperke Remetei-Filep, Dalma Versánszky and Leila Tóth. Their idea was featured in the category of consumer and designer products.

They aim to revolutionise indoor climbing with the help of LED lights.

The climbing wall, as well as the routes signalled by the lights, can be adjusted to the height, weight and skill-level of the climbers, with the option of making it more or less of a challenge.

3rd place

startup, uschool
Photo: facebook.com/uschoolhungary

The other idea in the sustainability category that won the third prize was developed by Noémi Asztalos, Dániel Egressy and Mátyás Erdős. They aimed to

make Hungary’s first ever sustainable food truck a reality. To minimise the amount of food waste, the group’s idea is to use ingredients that are close to their expiration date.

During the program, students could learn about strategies used by leading companies and startups to develop ideas, as well as skills and experiences that are useful in the business world. They had the chance to experience what it is like in real life to get from an idea to the execution of it.

The groups winning the first three prizes get to compete in the international final held in Slovenia at the end of June.

For more news about Hungarian startups, check out this article about a Swedish-Hungarian collaboration.

Featured image: facebook.com/pg/uschoolhungary

Hungarian startup supports the innovation of a Swedish school

thoren Hungarian startup supports the innovation of a Swedish school

140 newly graduated Swedish high school students participated in a two-day innovation workshop in Budapest, and worked on a project how to improve the learning experience at their schools, Thoren Innovation School. Several Hungarian startups and large companies held speeches, students participated in a Design Thinking training, so they could come up with more innovative and creative solutions. And their ideas? For sure, the spirit of competition is very much alive in the Swedish students, since there were several ideas for year-round competitions between classes. They came up with a sound-insulated mobile space divider wall against the noise of lessons in the classroom, formed a plan to introduce strategic and business computer games in the curriculum to help students learn the basics of economics and urban planning. AR and VR technology would be used for the safe execution of chemical experiments, and the basic concept for an IT security videogame was also born.

In the Swedish education system, it is really important that the education methodology is adapted to the students’ interest and motivation, so even introducing VR glasses is realistic. Last year, coaches were hired to the teaching staff at the Thoren Innovation Schools, focusing on students’ goals and personal development, so teachers have more time to develop educational tools. Preparing students for the world of work are at the center at Thoren Innovation School, as after four weeks of study, four weeks of internship take place, and this system rotates all year round. Thus, at the end of high school studies, many students already get a job offer from the company providing the internship.

„Do not imagine blue-collar workers”, said Enikő Nőthig-Hegedüs co-founder and CEO at edUcate „the students participating in the two-day Innovation Tour will have the foundations of an engineering, IT or a science profession, they are learning more or already starting to work in this direction. Many times, right after graduation, companies are hunting for them thanks to their special knowledge. It was a great experience for us as well to hold the training for them, as the students were very open-minded, with creative and practical attitude. No wonder that so many fantastic and feasible ideas were born just in two days.”

EdUcate got in touch with the Thoren School in Gothenburg in the summer of 2017, during the company’s international expansion. They immediately identified common points and synergies, and the concept of the Innovation Tour was born. As a result of the event, students managed to discover the basic motivation behind learning and came up with a number of solutions to maintain it. The competitive spirit is strong in students, so a lot of ideas were built on how to conduct a year-long competition between classes, which keeps their interest constant, but also encourages them to help each other in learning.

Hungarian startup supports the innovation of a Swedish school thoren

Students love the small-group sessions in class, but at the same time, it is difficult to concentrate because of the noise generated. Thus, as a technological innovation, the concept of a mobile separating wall was created which is sound-proof and functions on both sides as a whiteboard. There was a team that would complement the security class with a video game which simulates a company and its technical devices, and the player’s goal is to protect it with the resources available. When a virus invades the company there is a deduction of points, but if they manage to defend the attack, they get extra points.

„We usually hold Design Thinking trainings for companies to help their growth. This is a creative problem-solving thinking and methodology. It provides innovative and marketable ideas that provide a new perspective and tangible growth opportunities for the company, but t is totally applicable for other organizations too, e.g. schools who wish to innovate themselves. During the Thoren Innovation Tour students learn innovation from experienced professionals, then work on the development of education, finally they presented their ideas to the school board who decides which ideas to implement in practice” – Enikő added.

The director of Thoren Innovation School in Gothenburg, Madelene Schöldberg, is very pleased with the results. Every year they organize a meeting for Thoren students which is mainly about networking and relationship-building. „This was the first time when the meeting had an innovation focus as well, and I think we build a great tradition on this, because who would know better what they need for learning more than the students themselves?! I’m so glad we went for it, and spent a few days in Budapest with edUcate. We’ve heard many inspirational speeches and we can take back to Sweden a lot of implementable ideas. And we’ve already started planning the Innovation Tour for next year!”

During the two-day training, a long list of Hungarian companies and startups helped the students with speeches and presentations about innovation: Skyscanner, Supercharge, BemyBoss, DayOne Capital, CEU Innovation Lab, IBM and the National Tradehouse also took part. Students visited company offices and gained insights into their workflows such as product development and design, then listened to inspirational speeches on the future of startups, innovation and the local ecosystem, and finally, participated in a workshop on „how to leave their podium fear behind” with Alejandro Duque.

Hungarian storybook startup on the rise

bookrkids-start-up

BOOKR Kids is a three-year-old startup that develops interactive books and apps for children as well as for publishers, schools and companies. Not only does it digitalise the tales so far only available on paper but it also offers a new format for Intellectual Property owners. This startup is revolutionising reading stories and, according to forbes.hu, the state’s Hiventures Risk Capital Fund has invested a sum of 1 million Euros (314 million Forints) in the idea.

Dorka Horváth, the founder and manager of BOOKR Kids, stated in an interview:

“the primary goal is to build a bridge between books and the digital word. This way, literature could become as natural a part of children’s lives as screens already are.”

They only changed the form and the platform, and made the books more playful, while the content of the stories remained the same. As parents, teachers and even experts accept the positive developmental effects of BOOKR Kids, it provides ‘legal’, more acceptable screen-time for the kids.

BOOKR Kids will also enter Hungarian primary schools from September, as part of the Digital Welfare Program. They developed a special pedagogical-methodological package to help with reading comprehension. Primary schools can apply for it from this year onwards, as part of the Institutional Digital Development Plan.

International expansion

The company is making steady progress. It has already brought in last year’s revenue, and the yearly plan is 500 thousand Euros (160 million Forints). They are already present in five countries and have contracts with partners in both Norway and China. The China Project is especially important since it involves developing a platform for one of the most successful language schools of the country, to help English language learning with partners like Edutainment Licensing. However, thanks to the investment, they plan to expand even further.

Daniel Karányi, one of the founders of the startup talked about the progress the company has made:

“Our company began with three people but we added software developmental-, international sales- and education experts teams over the years. Today, we have 20 permanent employees as well as several external experts. Thanks to this, thousands of families can use the BOOKR Kids apps every day, from anywhere in the world”.

Featured image: facebook.com/booksrkids

Hungarian startup to help shatter taboo topics

According to Forbes.hu, Hajnalka Héjja is working on her startup, Super Izzy AI, in Berlin. Her vision is to create a virtual hygienic assistant backed by artificial intelligence and machine learning to help to deal with taboo topics such as women’s health, menstruation and pregnancy issues.

In an interview, Hajnalka Héjja talked about the importance of opening up about topics often brushed under the rug because they are uncomfortable – topics such as menstruation, female hygiene, contraception and having difficulties conceiving. Moreover, she pointed out the importance of giving the right tools to the younger generation to get accurate information and to be more receptive to these issues.

Héjja also revealed her motivation to develop her educational app:

“I vividly remember the feeling of utter perplexity at the age of 15 or 16, when I had to face these topics and situations. I just stood there and simply couldn’t think of any options I would have.”

As a med student, she often visited the school where her mother was a teacher, to give talks to young girls. She could never have imagined how influential these events would be on what she does now.

In addition, Héjja hopes to strengthen gender equality by breaking down these taboos. In her opinion, it says a lot about relationship dynamics who it is that decides on the method of contraception. Moreover, she also draws attention to the fact that male health issues are just as surrounded by taboos. While she aims to use technology in a way that helps inspire conversations about these topics, she also highlights the importance of the people and the innovative ideas behind these technologies.

She personally had to face some adversity for being a woman in the world of startups and business. She was told to get a male co-owner in order for her and her idea to be taken seriously. However, she was able to overcome such obstacles and, today, she can simply laugh about these things and joke, that, instead of a male partner, she invested in a female programmer and a male marketing director.

Héjja admits that there is still a long way to go, full of mistakes until her vision is fully realised. However, she is grateful for the group she is working with and all that they have accomplished so far. She looks forward to helping many more women in the future.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/SuperIzzy

Hungarian startup beyond 100 million users

Hungarian presentation software Prezi has reached its 100 millionth user recently, as Forbes.hu reported. This information was announced on the 9th birthday of the company, which is something to celebrate. The management of the Hungarian startup has also shared that the company is moving to its own office building in San Francisco and that they have a new CFO.

The most successful Hungarian startup launched in April 2009 and has been having a truly promising career since then.

The presentations created through the interface of Prezi have been viewed more than 3.5 billion times altogether.

The basic concept of Prezi’s interface evolves around zooming, which provides an opportunity to bring the presentation into an interactive space instead of sharing the information in a linear format. It is splendid for showing the connections between items. Moreover, Prezi Next was published last year, which enables the creation of dialogue-based presentations.

After passing the milestone of 100 million users, the company is moving to a new office in the USA. The new headquarters was designed by Gensler, the same enterprise responsible for the office buildings of Facebook and Instagram. This will be the 5th office of Prezi — not counting the early times when CEO Péter Árvai’s housing served as the centre of the company. However, this is the first time when they do not have to share to building with other companies, as they are on their own now.

Mr Árvai stated that Prezi has experienced a large increase in the numbers of both customers and employees.

The management also witnessed some significant changes recently, most importantly in the person of the new CFO. Narayan Menon is an experienced veteran in the field of financial management; he has helped the work of such colossal companies like Microsoft, Skype of Cisco. He may play a vital role in moving Prezi to a whole new level.

Photo: Facebook.com/prezicom

Who will be the best startup of 2018? – Blastoff contest 2018

Budapest bar blastoff 2018

Blastoff Startup Contest 2018, a competition for local and international startups is now accepting applications. Top winners will head off on a trip to international success powered by a funding of EUR 150,000 from Power Angels, a 6-month accelerator program membership by OXO Labs and special prizes by Google, EURid, Design Terminal and Impact Works.

This year, startups from Central and Eastern Europe have the opportunity for the 4th time to participate in one of the region’s largest startup competitions, which aims at providing a chance for the best ideas and business plans to get executed.

Last year, the competition featured 114 applicants, with 91 Hungarian and 23 international teams and had winners like Chempass, Smartill, vHeart, and Kontrachess.

3 of last year’s winners received significant funding after the competition by OXO group and its partners. OXO Labs and Power Angels provided a total of HUF 80M in funding.

Applications for the 2018 competition are accepted until April 22.

Applicants are required to fill in the application form and submit a short introduction video in English. In the second round, contestants will have to participate in a video interview to introduce their companies. The 10 most promising projects will be selected by an expert jury and scheduled to compete live on the first day of Brain Bar (Budapest) on June 1.

The winner will receive an investment offer of EUR 150,000 from Power Angels and participate in OXO Lab’s 6-month accelerator program. Special prizes include an opportunity to take part in the .eu Web Awards show organized by EURid, communication coaching by Impact Works, consultancy with the mentors of the Design Terminal and Google Cloud credit in the worth of USD 3,000 offered by Google.

For more information and application:
http://blastoff.eu/

The success of the Hungarian #foodporn startup

food health startup

According to szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, the Hungarian company launched at the beginning of 2017 delivers 5-star hotel quality, healthy and delicious meals prepared in gourmet style. The best part: it is affordable! So it is no surprise that the startup has been soaring.

In one year, YoloFoodPorn has grown so much that they had to change their 100 square metre kitchen to a workshop four times bigger, reminiscent of the kitchen of a hotel. Naturally, the number of the staff has also increased tremendously.

The motto of the startup is that “health has never been so delicious”.

In the light of their motto, they started cooperating with Fitness World Champion Dorottya Németh and Sportkontroll, whose dietitians put together the menus for people with diabetes.

“We keep to our philosophy. We are working with good quality ingredients, lay great emphasis on serving and we work with compostable packaging. The preparation and cooking works start at dawn. We want to keep to the standard as long as we can. We have more and more menus, while we stick to the original prices” said Chef Gábor Kiss, who previously worked at the best kitchens in the world.

The ideology of the company is to never stick to “the general”. They encourage everyone to taste new flavours without prejudices. A diverse diet guarantees that our body gets all the necessary nutrients.

Even though some people just laughed at them in the beginning, they have been receiving more and more orders. Gábor Kiss believes that the key to their success is persistence.

“We are customer-oriented. If we make a mistake, we try to compensate for it, since we are humans, and there is no such thing as a perfect kitchen. Our dispatchers and servers are in constant contact with our customers. We also pay attention to small things. For instance, we sent flowers on Women’s Day. These are nuances, but it is worth it in the long-run.”

According to their experiences, their customers do not belong to the high society since they have affordable prices. A main course costs 1,700 forints (delivery included), which is only 20-30% more expensive than at other, “average priced” companies.

“People rather pay a bit more for neat, delicious food and good service.”

“Our kitchen measures up to the technology of a 5-star hotel, we are not average, and our startup fills a market gap. In the beginning, I was the one looking for partners, but now, partners are looking for us” added the chef.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/YoloFoodPorn

Design Terminal announces mentoring programme participant startups

GlovEye startup business

Hungarian incubator Design Terminal on Tuesday announced the six participants in its next mentoring programme.

The six startups — three from Hungary, and one apiece from Israel, the UK and Latvia — were picked from 125 applicants from 25 countries around the world.

The Hungarian startups are GlovEye, which makes a device that “translates” printed text into Braille; Nold Technologies, which has developed a universal remote control; and CollMot, which, among other things, makes aerial light shows using drones.

LearnIT, from Latvia, organises coding clubs in primary schools; Israel’s FabriXense makes a wearable biometric sensor; and Studyx, from the UK, writes software that helps students study.

The three-month mentoring programme is the sixth one Design Terminal has organised. So far, 38 teams have participated, of whom 34 were Hungarian.

Design Terminal counts businesses such as E.ON, MOL, Knorr-Bremse and BlackRock Budapest among its partners in the programme.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/GlovEye

The most promising Hungarian startups of 2018

startup

2017 was a golden year for startups. This is a world of gambling where both success and failure can be enormous. Luckily, most of the Hungarian startups did well so far, some of them even reached as far as the USA. This year seems to hold some exciting ideas, waiting to become a reality. Here are a few examples collected by Forbes.hu.

Turbine AI

This enterprise, which is researching the field of medicine, had an exciting year in 2017. Turbine goes through long and complicated medicine combination experiments in no time with the help of artificial intelligence. It helps to treat tumorous diseases.

The enterprise had won several awards last year and it has Bayer among its investors already.

PublishDrive

E-publishing is an extending market, and a Hungarian enterprise has just appeared on the radar in December. It was extended to the USA after one and a half million dollars of investment. The startup was mentored by Google for a while in their Launchpad program. Now they are cooperating with Apple.

Bitrise

Bitrise launched in 2014, and it develops a software that makes the life of mobile application developers easier. The point is to save time, money and resources for IT companies and their crew. They already have partners such as Foursquare, Invision, Plangrid and Product Hunt.

They have received 3 million dollars of investment recently and spent a semester in Y Combinator, one of the world’s most prestigious incubator programs.

RateMate

There are a bulk of data collector services in the hotel industry, but Event Intelligence made a twist on the traditional idea: with its help, hotels can foresee the events that are to be hosted nearby so that they can adjust their prices according to this information. Marriot has already shown interest towards the idea and data collection is in progress in multiple cities in the USA.

HeatVentors

Energy production is an essential branch of business, so novelties are always welcome. Most of the heat storage devices run on water nowadays. Heating can store energy and cool the water. At least this is the original idea, but HeatVentors came up with the improvement that phase changing materials should change their state of matter.

“It is like an ice cube. As we melt or freeze the material, we can store much more power, almost without any change in temperature.”

The owners state that this method will pay back its price to any company within half a year. Their target market is China.

AIMotive

It is the Hungarian startup with the second largest capital investment after Prezi. It is not a surprise, as the self-driving car is an idea in which everyone is interested. AIMotive is an enterprise that develops software for these futuristic vehicles.

FleetYou/Sendee/RidRoll

In 2017, social delivery was introduced in Hungary as three different startups were initiated in this business.

This type of service means that anyone who owns a vehicle — even if it is a bicycle — can assume food delivery through an interface like Uber. 2018 promises much excitement for these enterprises as on-demand services will rival them.