Why Budapest is the best place to grow your startup?
At MKB Fintechlab, we are very proud to be located in Budapest, the beautiful capital city of Hungary and the heart of Central Europe. Not only is it one of the most picturesque cities in the world, with gorgeous views along the Danube and the impressive and majestic Parliament building (one of the main reasons I fell in love with this city), it is home to a burgeoning startup ecosystem and is a great choice for any entrepreneur looking for a place to grow his/her next business.
Here are the top 5 reasons why Budapest is a great city for startups:
1. Central location
Budapest has a great central location in CEE. Several other European capitals like Vienna and Bratislava are within a few hours’ reach by car or train. The abundance of low-cost flight carriers and destinations allow for fast, cheap direct connections to pretty much anywhere you’d want to go. Day trips to Brussels and London are not out of the question, not to mention the Balkans and Israel. It’s hard to think of a city with better travel options than Budapest.
2. Low cost of living
But why would you want to leave Budapest at all? It is possible to have a great quality of life here for a fraction of the cost of other major cities in Western Europe or the USA. With its bustling nightlife, great restaurants and affordable prices, you can enjoy all the city has to offer, even while bootstrapping your startup and paying yourself a smaller wage. Better to save the extra cash to hire a few extra employees. Which brings me to my next point…
3. Great access to talent
Budapest is home to many of the country’s top universities, and in recent years, the number of professional training programs has grown rapidly, especially for developers. Companies like GreenFox and the local chapter of CodeCool are building the pool of engineering talent, and the growing number of local startups is training up a new generation of growth hackers and business developers. Whatever talent your startup needs, you can find it in Budapest.
4. Maturing startup ecosystem
Entrepreneurship has really blossomed in Budapest over the last 5–10 years. Budapest regularly ranks on lists of cities with the fastest growing companies and has already produced several big success stories, the three most often mentioned are Prezi, UStream (now IBM Cloud Video), and LogMeIn (IPO in 2009). The founders and early employees of these companies are active in the community and give back their time and experience as mentors. For example, we are proud to work with Roland Pecsenye, founder of IND Group and one of the stars in the fintech world.
For more details on the history of Budapest’s startup community, check out this great overview from our friends at 150sec.
5. Plenty of funding options
With a mix of public and private sources, Budapest has a high amount of capital available for startups. For early-stage companies looking for angel funding, there is the Hungarian Business Angel Network. There are also a host of incubators and accelerators that provide seed investment, some in specific verticals (like ours, focused on fintech innovations), and many seed-stage VCs as well. Many of these are well-connected in the region, which can help when taking companies to new markets. Take a look at our website for a list of some of our investor partners, which can give you a sense of our network and access to different funding sources that we can offer our portfolio companies.
Have we convinced you yet? Don’t take our word for it, come visit us yourself! MKB Fintechlab offers free day passes to any visiting fintech entrepreneurs and 3-month programs for the most promising fintech startups in the CEE region. We have regular events and open houses where you can drop in and meet us. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media to keep up to date on the latest happenings in Budapest as you plan your trip :)
