The start-up environment has been active in the face of all difficulties and the extraordinary circumstances of recent months. “Participants of the Start it @K&H incubator program did not lose momentum. Leveraging the inherent agility and growth potential of start-ups, several of them have developed solutions responding to the coronavirus and its economic impact. At the same time, we received roughly the same number of applications to our incubator as last year. Due to the lockdown, the selection process was managed online. 8 new teams have been selected for the program and one more new team has been admitted as a Start it @K&H special award-winner of a hackathon event. As a result, Hungary’s leading enterprise start-up incubator now has 27 members. Besides professional mentoring, the enterprise network and the available infrastructure, participants also access digital services enabling their growth in these hard times”, said Balázs Németh, Head of K&H Operations, Technologies and Retail Credit Management.
Telenor: the technology partner of start-ups
The program’s start-ups have been supported by more than 45 industry mentors and experts and 15 corporate and university partners before. Now telecom operator Telenor is joining the league. “We considered the digital support provided to our start-ups a priority already before the pandemic which was a great asset contributing to their growth and transition to the online environment in the new situation. A case in point is the USD 1 million digital service package offered by Global Accelerator Network (GAN) that makes USD 120,000 worth of IBM cloud services available to start-ups. Now the range of opportunities is further extended with unlimited mobile internet access and a discount corporate service package provided under the partnership with Telenor. In addition, Hungarian start-ups will be the first businesses to access the 5G network supporting the implementation of their products and ideas”, added Balázs Németh.
5G test environment for start-ups
“We want to make daily business easier for Start it @K&H incubator start-ups by giving them unlimited mobile internet access to let them develop their projects anywhere and anytime. Our experts and the 5G-enabled devices provided will enable them to rely on real-life technical experience and infrastructure to make the most of 5G in their solutions. They have to get started now to have ready-made, mature and competitive models by the time 5G technologies go commercial. Start-ups open to new technologies can play a major role in that” said Attila Mészáros, Corporate Communications Director of Telenor Hungary.
New teams of the Start it @K&H incubator program
The 9 new teams admitted to the program reflect the diversity of Hungary’s only cross-industry enterprise incubator program:
• KRUZ Bike: provides custom-designed bike packages to large enterprises
• Warmauz: develops a competitive e-sports platform with low entry fee tournaments and a broad game offering
• LiveRobe: social media platform enabling users to sell their own clothes
• Kosár-logisztika: supports the short supply chains of small local communities (shopping communities)
• Linistry: a plug-in app aligning customer visits and appointments
• Volteum: a route planning app for electric vehicles
• DriftAir: a device to be fitted in chimneys supporting the combustion process and reducing emissions
• Cégjelző: one of Hungary’s leading company information systems
• Phonein: an international team producing smart doorbells adjusted to the needs of short-term tenants