Navigating FDI Central Eastern Europe or Asia

Navigating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

Central Eastern Europe (CEE) or Asia

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

9 AM Central Standard Time (CST) - Texas

16:00 Central European Time (CET) - Hungary

The economic growth of Central Eastern Europe (CEE) is among the highest in the old continent continuously. These once underdeveloped countries became highly competitive throughout the last decades and they are nursing one of the most dynamic innovation ecosystem out there today, while still remain sort of uncharted territory for the eye of the decision maker at the larg scale. While everyone is looking to Asia, the connoisseur discovers reliable partners at closer distance with a really advantageous and pro-business environment, poised to be the next economic success story that will go to textbooks.

With lot of room for strategic partnerships based on capability of creating high value added, Central Eastern Europe offers high return on local innovation and R&D. Its affordable and highly skilled labour force - matched with tailor made state support schemes for investors - grants a long term and sustainable success for transnational ventures.

In the next episode of the Virtual Conference Sessions of the Vice-Consulate of Hungary in Houston, a local venture capitalist will showcase the advantages of doing business in the CEE region and we will also bring you a few examples of success stories in sectors like IoT, Green Tech, Robotics and Spacetech.

Agenda:

09:00 – 09:05 Welcome remarks by Gábor Markocsány, Consul

09:05 – 09:20 Hungarian innovation potential – Ms. Julia Sohajda, Vespucci Partners

09:20 – 09:30 Experience of a Texan VC in Hungary – Mr. Zoltan Papp, Falkon Ventures

09:30 – 09:35 Best practices – Mr. Péter Perecz, Haris Digital

09:35 – 09:40 Best practices – Mr. Daniel Vincz, Mollia

09:40 – 09:50 Best practices – Ms. Liz Madaras, Poliloop

09:50 – 10:00 Q&A

Our speakers:

Júlia Sohajda - Founding and Manging Partner - Vespucci Partners

Ms. Sohajda is the Founding and Managing Partner of Vespucci Partners, a Hungary based VC fund. Before founding Vespucci, Julia gained experience both on the investor and the startup side of the table. She used to work at Group11 VC in California, where they invested into Israeli based startups and helped them scale towards the US market. From that portfolio 3 startups are now unicorns. Then she became a co-founder of a Hungarian IoT startup. Her current goal is to bridge the CEE region to the US startup ecosystem, while cashing in on the arbitrage possibilities that this provides.

Vespucci Partners is a sector agnostic Central Eastern European Venture Capital firm investing in early stage, innovative, deeptech startups. The aim of Vespucci is to bridge the CEE region with the US startup ecosystem. As such, they build hybrid startups with a presence in both locations. Besides providing capital, they support startups with an extensive network including later-stage investors and business development partners. Vespucci Partners currently has 9 portfolio startups and is actively looking for new investments.

Zoltan Papp - Co-founder - Falkon Ventures

Zoltan is the Founder of Falkon Ventures. He has over 30 years of experience in a broad spectrum of venture capital, debt financing, M&A, and global corporate and commercial law, including securities law, corporate governance, litigation and intellectual property. He is a serial entrepreneur with successful exits, experienced in operations and has been active on Boards of companies at various stages.

Falkon Ventures is an Austin, Texas headquarted venture fund which focuses on frontier technologies providing global transformative solutions. Falkon Ventures typically invests at the early commercialization stage usually at the Series A stage. Falkon Ventures uses an innovative methodology to assess and track the viability of a venture company’s value network and probability for success. From that methodology, Falkon Ventures works in collaboration with the venture company to provide value add support from the firm’s support networks and resources to accelerate the venture company’s path to success.

Peter Perecz - Chief Executive Officer - Haris Digital

Peter started Haris Digital 3 years ago to help manufacturers solve some of their most challenging problems. From his work with Ford Motor Company, Flex, Sanmina, Peter’s entire career has been dedicated to manufacturing and manufacturing support. 

Haris Digital is an industrial IoT/AI company that develops smart-manufacturing solutions to help small and mid-size manufacturers become more productive for reaching higher profits.

As current Industry 4.0 solutions are developed for the needs of large enterprises, they are often expensive, slow to implement and require expertise. With Haris Digital's quick and easy alternative, any manufacturer can enjoy the same benefits at a fraction of the cost. The team is proud to serve over 50 manufacturing companies and is currently focused on further expanding customer portfolio especially in Texas and Mexico.

Daniel Vincz - Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Mollia

Daniel is a serial entrepreneur and Deputy-CEO of Mollia, a Hungary-based Artificial Intelligent software company developing a unique robotics intelligence technology to make robots move like humans. Previously he co-founded the INPUT Program, a UN Global Best Practice program run by the Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology, to support Hungarian tech startups to expand globally. He is a regular speaker and host of international conferences (Singapore, China, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, etc.). He is passionate about education, entrepreneurship, startups, youth, and our future.

Mollia is a Hungary-based Artificial Intelligent software company developing a unique robotics intelligence technology to advance humanoid kinematics. We envision a world where humanoid robots are not only an essential part of our everyday life but also partners who can understand our specific needs and fulfill them intuitively.

Therefore, we are creating an autonomous technology that enables humanoid robots to learn fundamental movements more naturally, just like humans do. In the near future, our technology will enable an average person to be as efficient as an outstanding robotic expert in training robots.

Liz Madaras – Chief Executive Officer – Poliloop

300 M tonnes of plastic are produced every year and only 2% of plastics are effectively recycled. Our patented technology, the microbial cocktail, degrades fossil-based plastics, such as PET, PP, LDPE, HDPE, PS, CPE, EVA, PLA, PU, composite, multilayer packaging. The plastic can be mixed and does not require sorting or pre-treatment, light washing and some grinding are sufficient. The end-product is non-toxic biomass that can be used as a fertilizer or upcycled into higher-value products.

Sponsored by Hungarian-American Chamber of Commerce, Texas  - HACCTX