Budapest, 14 July 2023 – on 12 July 2023, 20 university startup teams introduced themselves at the HSUP DemoDay closing the 2023 academic year in Kápolnásnyék. Around 4000 students participated in the two-semester training organised by the National Innovation Agency. For the showcase on Wednesday, the best teams were selected from 194 ideas to present their innovation entrepreneurship ideas to a professional jury of investors.
The Hungarian Startup University Program was launched in 2020 with the aim of introducing a modern entrepreneurial approach to Hungarian students and introducing them to the world of innovation and startups. Organised by the National Innovation Agency, the programme makes the learning materials and exercises available through an online platform (desktop and mobile app), on the basis of which the best teams can present their work on DemoDays.
“The Hungarian Startup University Program provides students with the theoretical and practical knowledge to turn their dreams into innovative ideas and mature projects, and also offers the best ones contact with investors, so that their ideas can be turned into real products and services,” said Zsuzsanna Kun, CEO of the National Innovation Agency, in her welcome speech. The Agency aims to prepare young people for the challenges and opportunities of the market so that they can enter the business world with confidence.
At the Demo Day event, the teams pitched their innovative ideas to a jury of ten professionals well versed also in investing, namely: Dénes Csiszár, Head of Startup Business Development at EIT Digital and Board Member of the Hungarian Business Angel Network, Péter Fehérvári, Head of the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Division of TECHTRA Zrt., Imre Hild, CEO of Digital Factory, Attila Khader, Investment Director of Startup Campus, Péter Langmár, Investment Director of STRT Holding Zrt., Péter Macher, co-founder of Vespucci Partners Zrt. Péter Oszkó, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OXO Technologies Holding Nyrt., Sándor Varga-Tarr, Investment Director of Hiventures Zrt., Barbara Verő, CEO of Future Proof Consulting and Máté Wohlmuth, CEO of Coding Sans Zrt.
After the presentations, the jury made professional offers to help implement the ideas. This year, the Green Fertilizer team, providing a solution to the difficulty of accessing fertilizer due to the availability and price of natural gas, received the most offers. The team has developed a climate-neutral product that may be used also by organic farmers and be able to enter the nitrogen replacement market at a competitive price. Also popular with the jury were HoloSapiens (using augmented and mixed reality to improve medical education) and RelectroTrech (using artificial intelligence and advanced sensors to make knee joint rehabilitation more effective). Fermito, which is developing a diagnostic tool that exploits the flexibility of the lungs, and Assu, which uses a drone to assess the condition of vineyards, also received numerous positive feedbacks from the jury.
But for HSUP, Demo Day means the end of the academic year only. During the EFOTT festival, HSUP will be hosting startup programmes and inspiring presentations at the EFOTT UNIversum HSUP dome. Visitors will have the opportunity to encounter success stories such as ReFilamer (that started in HSUP and became a successful start-up) or Voovo (which helps people learn more effectively).
More about the Hungarian Startup University Programme
HSUP is a digital education programme that has been running for 3 years now with the aim of introducing a modern entrepreneurial approach to Hungarian students and introducing them to the world of innovation and startups. Over the past years, over 10,000 students have participated in the programme and 460 innovative student projects have been launched on the educational platform, which is now available at 31 universities.
Practical training is supported by 82 mentors across the country, with HSUP being the 2nd most used app in the education category.
In the first semester of the HSUP programme students were introduced to innovative thinking and the world of start-ups, while at the end of the first semester, students presented their entrepreneurial ideas in the form of an one pager, which is assessed by a panel of innovation experts. In the 2nd semester, students gain practical knowledge in entrepreneurship and implement their ideas with the help of mentors. During this phase, students also received a monthly scholarship.
More about the National Innovation Agency
The National Innovation Agency (NIA) is a key catalyst in the innovation ecosystem in Hungary, a flexible organisation that can monitor and support innovative ideas from their conception to market exploitation, and can be the first custodian of ensuring the economic and social exploitation of the resources used in the field of innovation and science policy.
The main functions of the organisation (formerly Express Innovation Agency) established on 1 July 2023 under the John von Neumann Programme:
- Making the innovation ecosystem dynamic
- Measurement, monitoring, impact assessment in the RDI field
- Promoting a culture of innovation
- Key innovation projects (such as HSUP or the Student Lab programmes)
