On 17 September under the V4 Healthcare programme of @Startup Campus financed by the @International Visegrad Fund in collaboration with @CIVITTA, @DEX Innovation Hub and @Startup Hub Poland we present to you “The Introduction to the Hungarian Ecosystem” workshop. We will showcase the opportunities that domestic and foreign health ventures can enjoy in Hungary.
Hungary is an exciting ecosystem for a healthcare enterprise, as 8 out of the top 10 global pharma companies haves R&D activities there, moreover, it has an excellent talent force with a supportive business environment (lowest 9% corporate tax in EU).
If you are willing to learn more about the opportunities in Hungary, then this workshop is for you. You can meet with the most important organisations – ask your questions, learn, and engage. Besides startups, this workshop is also useful for SMEs.
You will hear from the following experts:
Tamás Tossenberger from Startup Campus will start with an introduction about the progress of the Hungarian ecosystem.
Dr Laszló Németh an experienced Healthcare Business Development Professional and Managing Director of EGINOK Health Industrial Innovation Centre Ltd, who strives to increase the profitability and develop business strategies in any healthcare or business organization. By having an in depth understanding of the Hungarian and Eastern European medical business market, his education in healthcare and in the medical business enables him to drive any organization towards excellence.
Laszló Hradszki, the Senior Advisor and Member of the Board of Directors at Hiventures since 2016. As venture capital / private equity professional, Laszlo has been working in this sector for 23 years. Until the end of 2015, for over a decade he was partner at a 3TS Capital Partners, one of the leading Central and Eastern European venture capital firms. Earlier he gained experience at Hungarian VC firms: Euroventures as investment manager, and Hungarian Innovative Technologies Fund, as managing director. Previous to his VC career, Laszlo worked eight years in the Hungarian banking sector pursuing corporate finance and corporate banking assignments. He finished College for Foreign Trade, Budapest in 1989, and received a master’s degree in Banking and finance at Stockholm University in 1991.
We asked a few questions prior to the workshop from Laszlo to grasp his understanding on the healthcare startup ecosystem:
What do you think, what are the main challenges of the healthcare industry in the post-covid era?
"Healthcare providers need to rethink their operating models. The pandemic accelerated the transformation of the industry and revealed areas of weaknesses. Healthcare is lagging behind some other consumer centric sectors, like retail, in the adoption of new service models. The areas requiring improvement are numerous: virtual services, workforce training, planning and management in a remote work environment, supply chain management, scenario planning, collaboration with technology and other partners, cybersecurity, and fraud risk, broadening scope from illness to wellness to mention a few."
How can innovation solve these issues?
"On one hand new virtual service provides will emerge, and on the other hand the traditional service providers will have to adapt almost all aspects of their operations into a new model. All of these will require the redesign of operations, processes and service models that will be driven by digital transformation and new technology solutions."
What is your best advice for the healthcare startups of the future?
"Timing is very good. Opportunities and challenges are huge. Market is open and constantly growing for innovative solutions, but competition is also intensifying. Work hard, prepare for a tough and long battle. Collect as many resources (capital and talent) as possible."
Krisztian Kölkedi is the Head of RDI Services Department at the National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NRDI in Hungarian NKFIH). The NRDI Office of Hungary is a national strategic and funding agency for scientific research, development, and innovation. He is building and supervising the R&D&I services for the youth sector through universities and startups to multinational companies and making strategic action plans and programs to support and incite the Hungarian innovators to build the Hungarian innovation ecosystem.
Gabor Denes is an investment expert with experience in corporate banking, and track record in project and structured finance. In the last decade he worked on several VC and private equity transactions. As investment director at Solus Capital, one of Hungary’s leading VCs managed a lot of investment transactions. Currently Gabor is deputy CEO of MFB Invest the investment arm of MFB the Hungarian Development Bank.
We are looking forward to meeting all of you on 17 September, if interested you can register here!
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund . The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.