The National Innovation Office of Hungary announced the list of four Accredited Technology Incubators eligible for working with together with the State. Their mission will be to accelerate the growth of the local startup ecosystem by channeling funding from the Hungarian State for 20 grants worth around 5.5 million Euros in total.
The Accredited Technology Incubators will not receive direct financial support with the awarded title. The selected incubators get a one-time operational funding of approximately 270,000 Euros, and they become entitled to nominate companies to receive direct financial backing from the State.
According to the decision of the jury, below are the first four Accredited Technology Incubators.
- ACME Labs (covered earlier)
- Aquincum Technology Incubator
- Digital Factory
- iCatapult (covered earlier)
The objective of the call for proposals was to select and accredit technological incubators that are competitive on international markets, and able to promote start-up enterprises founded in Hungary by contributing to the successful completion of their projects to undertake capital investment. Members of the jury included distinguished international advisors, such as Rina Pridor, Founder and former General Director of the Technological Incubators Program Israel, and Dr. Jari Romanainen, Executive Policy Adviser at the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, and at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The call by the State received 20 applications by incubators and accelerators from across the technology industry. Laszlo Koranyi, Vice President for International and Domestic Affairs at the National Innovation Office expressed that due to the overwhelming interest in the programme, and the high number of quality applications that are worth receiving backing by the State, both the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the National Innovation Office are committed to continue and extend the programme in 2014.
