The Tokeportal’s mission is to actively support and develop the startup ecosystem in Hungary, and each time, renowned experts share their experiences with the audience of the Kanapé Pitch.

Our guests:

• Dalma Berkovics | Head of Microsoft for Startups Budapest
• Peter Szlavik | EDUardo, CEO
• Tamás Barathi | Blue Colibri App, CEO
• Krisztian Kolkedi | Express Innovation Agency, CEO; HSUP founder

Krisztian Kolkedi – Express Innovation Agency, HSUP (00:20 – 21:44)

Krisztian was featured on one of our previous Kanapé Pitch broadcasts in December, where he announced the launch of Express Innovation Agency, and he’s here to report on the close of almost half a year.

As the number of tasks increases, so does the severity of the tasks, which they have already increased the number of employees eightfold to ensure that everyone can create a sustainable state according to their own abilities. Although they do not yet pay much attention to marketing, they are receiving more and more invitations to appear, which shows that the sector is in demand. Countless SMEs and start-ups are approaching them to solve a problem, find a partner or even to analyse the international market. They are always open to these and, even if they don’t have a solution to the problem, they will always help you find the right contacts.

One of the most successful projects of the agency, the Hungarian Startup University, is proving very popular: now working with 27 universities, the number of students and projects has doubled, with more than 4,000 students and 200 projects applying last time, representing a total grant of nearly HUF 600 million. The programme offers universities 2 semester-long online courses, with a complete curriculum, which can be taken on a phone or tablet, and can be tested from anywhere – no time or place restrictions. The most successful projects will go through to the national finals, the demo day, where the organisers will invite a number of investors and even raise capital. Although the project is still fully state-funded, so the budget is 3-5 years, Krisztian is confident that these few years will be extended continuously. This is backed up by the 8 international enquiries already received to launch the programme in their own countries through a licensing agreement. Negotiations are already underway and preliminary calculations suggest that with just three such agreements they could become self-sustaining. The programme can be scaled up in this way, which will help to give more and more entrepreneurs the support they need to internationalise, as well as the knowledge and motivation to become entrepreneurs.

In addition to the HSUP project, another highlight is their international study tours, or as Krisztián calls them, business tours, which are not aimed at exporting or selling Hungarian startups abroad, but at enabling the startups that apply to network, learn about other countries’ business cultures and get to know international markets. They have already taken startups to CES in Las Vegas, and their next destination will be a conference in Toronto, where they can get advice that could help them convince more Hungarian investors. The full cost of these tours is covered for now, but later the startup will have to include a self-cost to get serious and feel the weight, and even then they will only need to pay a self-contribution of about 10%.

The overall aim of the projects is to show high school students that they can take their hands up to internationalisation, teach them how to start a business, but the decision whether someone actually founds a startup is in the hands of the founder.

Zoltan Toma – Syrius (21:45 – 24:35)

Zoltan Toma, CEO of Syrius, is pleased to announce the launch of the closed phase of the campaign.

Our success is yours! – is the slogan of the campaign, if they improve, the value of the security for the investment will become more valuable on the market. And as an investor, you not only get a better insight into the startup world, but also into the life of Syrius. We also find out that the company’s order book value for the full year has reached 45% of its target in three months, a huge achievement!

Investors are also offered three types of discounts:

• Up to HUF 1 million (~ € 2509) investment: small investors can exit after 3 years, and the dividends accumulated until then will be paid out at par value
• Between HUF 1 and 5 million (~ € 2509 and € 12545): investors receive a 5% discount on the value of the company and can exit after 3 years
• For investments above HUF 5 million (~€ 12545): investors receive a 7.5% discount on the value of the company
• For those who want to invest in a heavy industry company that has been stable for 15 years, here is a great opportunity!

Viktor Nyics – Sztárüzenet ( 24:35 – 27:55 )

Viktor Nyics, the campaign manager of Sztaruzenet, stresses that the campaign expires on 18 April, and that it is still possible to buy shares in the company. Whether this will close with many individual investors or possibly a few large investors remains to be seen. In any case, they are looking forward to working even harder on the further development of their project after the campaign.

Although they are also feeling the negative effects of the war, the traffic shows that content-based philanthropy remains an effective tool. Whatever happens, their vision remains unchanged: to build an easy bridge between consumers and content creators, so that anyone can surprise a loved one with a joyful and unforgettable gift.

The platform already features more stars than any other influencer agency or concert platform. So the biggest Hungarian star platform already exists, all that’s left is to build more services.

In its first year, the site received more than 150,000 visitors, generating a turnover of almost HUF 3.5 million (~€ 8780). To multiply these figures, they want to develop many other features, such as the downloadable extras already available, which allow you to buy directly the individual content of the stars.

But the possibility to order commercial videos is also being developed. The letoltheto.hu, a webshop for Hungarian digital content where anyone can easily sell their digital content, or the potolhatatlan.hu, where NFT creators and collectors can find everything from creation to purchase, are also new steps towards a bridge!

Anyone who wants to be part of this vision can now simply buy a personal share.

Korchmáros Sára – RECASH ( 27:56 – 29:27 )

Today the RECASH campaign was launched! – Sara Korchmaros, RECASH’s commercial manager, reports.

RECASH is a mobile app that gives users a fully automatic cashback on purchases. It’s also a marketing platform that provides program partners with a unique marketing tool to target, entice and retain competitors’ customers in a very effective way. RECASH’s business model is enabled by the EU PSD2 Regulation, adopted in 2019, which ensures the free flow of banking transaction data between payment institutions. PSD2 aims to foster innovation in financial services.

Their community funding round, which is now being launched on the Tokeportal, will be available up to a capital ceiling of HUF 120 million (~ € 3010). It can be said that the amount of investment needs assessed through pre-registrations has already reached the maximum capital target. However, during the campaign, an investor will have the opportunity to invest more than once. RECASH does not plan to launch another round of Community funding in the future after the campaign has closed. Anyone who becomes a shareholder now will acquire a stake at a company value of HUF 1.9 billion (~ €47670).

Berkovics Dalma – Microsoft for Startups (29:28 -36:09)

We talked to Dalma Berkovics, Head of Microsoft for Startups in Hungary, earlier in our special edition of Startup New Year’s Eve about how the program works. Now he’s going to talk about his latest news, and he’s also brought along two startups participating in the programme.

Dalma explains that, contrary to previous practice, it is now possible to apply to Startup HUB on a continuous basis, not only as a B2B but also as a B2C business, and even at the idea stage, whereas previously it was only possible for scale-ups. This is because businesses at a more mature stage have already made many business decisions, developed their technology and are less open to change. Therefore, they want to get started as soon as possible, as they need different help at each stage of their life cycle: mentoring or even international market access. Recently, two Hungarian startups have made it into the top 5 in the first regional startup competition!

The idea phase is divided into 4 different levels, and while the lowest level provides up to $1000, the highest level provides up to $120,000 in credits. The programme is open for 4 years, but the focus is not limited to this period, as the aim is to build long-term partnerships of up to 10 years. Dalma is now working with around 50 startups with varying needs. For those with a real sense of purpose, meetings take place up to weekly, while for those whose goals are not yet clear, meetings take place once or twice a month.

The programme is an important tool for helping start-ups to enter the international market. On the one hand, they have a wealth of contacts at their disposal through Microsoft. On the other hand, the Azure Marketplace (online marketplace) is a platform for start-ups participating in the programme to sell their services to large companies. As Dalma explains, more and more startups see the Microsoft Marketplace as a sales channel that they prefer to use for international expansion.

The good news is that two Hungarian startups made it to the top 5 startups in the Microsoft CEE Startup Awards – regional startup competition in February!

Peter Szlavik – EDUardo (36:10 – 45:06)

Peter Szlavik, founder and CEO of EDUardo, explains that the company provides learning through business simulation, where users can go through simulations created around complex economic topics and issues. Peter has been teaching at BGE for years, where he observed that talking about a problem is completely different from experiencing it in practice, which is why a business simulation is an excellent tool, where there is no risk, where you can start from scratch and learn from the events.

The company was founded in 2019 with its own angel investors, and last May they joined Microsoft’s programme, which resulted in a transactional offer this January. Thanks to Microsoft’s marketplace, they are already present in several countries, such as Chile and Singapore, and in addition to being exempt from billing and other administrative activities, they can also participate in the mentoring programme, where the focus is currently on sales.

Their portfolio, which includes simulation case studies that can be tailored to individual needs, can be paid for by companies and higher education institutions for their own employees or students, either in business planning or financial management. The simulations, which can be conducted via e-learning, do not require an instructor and can be completed individually, so everyone can progress at their own pace. Although there are competitors, their structures are generally less developed and they cannot keep up with the growing needs of the market.

Tamas Barathi – Blue Colibri (45:07-50:53)

The Blue Colibri App is mainly a corporate internal communication, HR administration and education platform, developed for companies with a large number of colleagues who do not have their own corporate email or laptop, such as in a logistics company, shop or even hotel, making it difficult to reach employees and inform them effectively. In 2018, exploring this communication gap, Tamás and his team tackled the app, just ahead of 2020-21, which was mainly about how to engage colleagues online, motivate, train and build community.

Founder and CEO Tamas Barathi explains that they offer a cloud-based service with a platform tailored to the company (e.g. name, logo and features) that employees can download to their mobile phones, so all employees can be targeted and feedback can be collected on the same platform. This allows for the digitalisation of a myriad of processes, such as: requesting leave, reporting errors, which previously could only be done verbally or on paper.

The launch itself took place in 2019, when the first customer was acquired. And 2020 gave them a boost that now sees them with more than 80 large corporate partners in 8 countries and 16 languages, providing services to nearly 60,000 employees. Since the system is cloud-based, Microsoft’s system was a given for them, which is how they got involved in the project and the online marketplace. Their competitive advantage lies in the fact that, although they offer a wide range of modules, from onboarding to e-learning, they have gathered the most important tools in each area, so that a company does not need to implement several different systems, but just one, as it has everything that is needed to operate efficiently.

Get to know our guests!

Find out about the investment and sponsorship campaigns that are up and running! Be part of their success and support good causes!

Our campaigns are currently available:

Support our campaigns and help our beneficiaries.
TRIP | Support their campaign! Be a founder of the First Hungarian-International Web Theatre!

Become the first European Webmaster!

Syrius | Time to conquer the heavy machinery market
Recash | Because RECASH puts money in your pocket! Really.