Startup Hungary

23/02/2026

🔬From Lab to Market – What Does It Really Take?
How long can you push an R&D idea before it becomes a real, investable business?

At the Hungarian Business Angel Network's Startup Arena event, we’re diving into the real journey of turning scientific excellence into a scalable company. Csongor Biás (Managing Director, Startup Hungary) sits down with Szabolcs Nagy (CEO & Co-Founder at Turbine, Founder Board Member at Startup Hungary) to unpack:

🚀 How a domestic prototype evolves into an international product
📊 What angels and early-stage investors truly expect from R&D-driven startups

If you’re building in deep tech or commercializing research, this conversation is for you.

📍 STRT Office, Budapest
🗓 February 23, 2025 | 18:00–22:00
🎟 Tickets: http://bit.ly/4cOs3yi

20/01/2026

What will 2026 look like for startups, investors, and the economy — and how will AI actually reshape venture and company building in CEE?

Join us for a community breakfast with Peter Balogh, CEO of STRT Holding and Felhő - Gergely Hodicska, Co-founder of CraftHub for a candid, forward-looking conversation on what’s coming next.

Honest insights, real signals, and good coffee with the CREATE26 community. ☕️

Register at https://luma.com/r21k0thv - please note that if you are not (yet) a member at CREATE26, you will need to buy a coworking day pass to access the event

12/01/2026

Andreas Klinger, one of the co-initiators and driving forces behind the EU–INC has just published a great article on where things stand with the implementation of the 28th regime proposal - https://klinger.io/posts/europe-needs-founders

It dives into the details that really matter, what still needs to be done right, and how the ecosystem can actively contribute.

TL;DR: the European Commission is set to publish its proposal in March.

Huge kudos to everyone who continues to invest time and energy into this crucial advocacy effort for Europe’s startup and innovation ecosystem. 👏

06/01/2026

Join us for the first First Monday meetup of 2026, featuring Frank Sondors, co-founder & CEO of Salesforge.

From $0 → ~$3M ARR in ~12 months, profitability from day one, ~2,000 customers, and only $500k raised — all with a lean, AI-native approach to sales.

We’ll talk bootstrapping vs. raising, what most teams get wrong about outbound, and how to build a capital-efficient AI SaaS that actually scales.

📅 First Monday - Jan 12th - 6:00PM
📍 CREATE26
👉 Don’t miss the season opener. Get your tickets now - https://luma.com/uryjwzuq

29/12/2025

🏃 Kick off 2026 with Startup Hungary's Running Club!

We’re back on Margaret Island for the first run of the year — relaxed pace, great company, startup vibes.

📅 Jan 6 | 7:30 AM (sharp)
📍 Sarolta Monspart Running Circuit (Margaret Bridge entrance)
🛤️ 5 km, easy & conversation-friendly
➕ Optional pre-run from Szabadság híd (7:05 AM)
☕ Coffee after at Madal Cafe

Founders, investors, operators — lace up and join us ->

The first run in 2026 is here! We start on the Island. Our weekly Running Club for startup founders, investors, and operators continues: this time, back to…

17/12/2025

Europe is at a real crossroads on EU–INC (aka the 28th regime) — the article in the comments makes it clear why the stakes are so high. 🇪🇺🚨

A pan-European legal entity could finally remove one of the biggest brakes on scaling in Europe. However, if it ends up as a directive instead of a regulation, we risk recreating the same fragmentation under a new name.

As Andreas Klinger puts it bluntly: “If the goal is to create a standard for Europe to make investments easier, there is no point if that standard is different in every country.”

We strongly support EU–INC as a founder-first reform. More capital or new funds won’t fix Europe’s scale problem if the underlying legal infrastructure stays broken. This is exactly why flipping, legal constraints, and alignment with global venture standards keep coming up in our ecosystem conversations — and why EU Inc needs to be something startups can actually use, not a political compromise.

12/12/2025

Great energy last night at the ElevenLabs Hackathon 🚀

We were happy to be part of the organizing team and the jury, and to see so many strong teams experimenting, building, and shipping in such a short time. Always inspiring to spend an evening with builders pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI.

05/12/2025

🚀 We’re launching the Startup Hungary Legal Library – bringing venture best practices to Hungary.

One of the biggest structural challenges Hungarian founders face is navigating early-stage legal work in a system not designed around venture standards.
So we decided to change that.

Yesterday we've launched the Startup Hungary Legal Library, created together with HVCA and leading partner law firms — Szecskay Attorneys at Law, White Summers, Jalsovszky, CSŐVÁRI LEGAL, PV Partners Ügyvédi Iroda, Oppenheim, DLA Piper, Lakatos, Köves and Partners, Bóné Ügyvédi Iroda / Bóné Law Firm, A&O Shearman, Cytowski & Partners — to give founders and investors a unified, high-quality starting point for early legal work.

📃 What’s included in the first release:
– Term Sheet
– Founders’ Agreement
– ESOP
– CLA
– SAFE
– and while the new templates make it easier than ever to launch a globally ambitious startup from a Hungarian entity in a way that aligns with international standards, we also believe that most teams aiming for true global scale will eventually need a US flip — which is why, alongside the Hungarian model documents, we’ve also included practical guides and templates to support the flipping process.

Our goal is simple:
👉 bring international venture standards closer to the Hungarian legal environment,
👉 make it easier and cheaper for founders to start and raise early rounds,
👉 and give the whole ecosystem a clearer foundation to build on.

These templates are free, founder-friendly, and designed as a starting point — not a substitute for tailored legal advice. Every startup is different; every deal is unique. But a solid baseline can save founders time, money, and a lot of avoidable headaches.

📌 The Legal Library is now live on our website, check it out: https://www.startuphungary.io/legal-library

06/11/2025

What a night! Monday night, our First Monday featured Mehmet Sel Atici, Managing Partner at Bek Ventures, sharing insights from over a decade of investing in high-growth startups across Europe.

We talked about the realities of early-stage fundraising, founder-investor relationships, and what top investors like Bek look for in founders.

Huge thanks to Mehmet for joining us and to everyone who came out – the energy and curiosity of this community keep us inspired every month. 💥

07/10/2025

Another great First Monday in the books! 💥

Huge thanks to ioan iacob, Founder & CEO of FLOWX.AI, and Mark Palfalvi from PortfoLion Capital Partners for joining us for an inspiring fireside chat.

We dived deep into how FlowX.AI is transforming banking infrastructure with agentic AI, Ioan’s journey from building enterprise software to redefining financial systems, and the lessons learned on scaling from Europe to the world.

Big shoutout to everyone who joined — the questions, conversations, and energy in the room keep proving why this community is so special. 🙌

See you at the next First Monday - more information coming soon!

02/10/2025

🎉 We celebrated CREATE26’s 2nd birthday with a vibrant Community Day: bringing together founders, freelancers, operators, and creatives from across Budapest’s tech scene.

From panels on building global companies from Budapest to talks on GenAI, freelancing, and workspace culture, it was a day full of learning, connections, and good vibes, topped off with plenty of mingling.

A huge thanks to CREATE26 for the collaboration and for being such an important hub for our community. Here’s to many more years of shaping the ecosystem together! 🚀