Leading Hungarian ecosystem stakeholders partner with DEEP Ecosystems to bring the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator to Hungary and launch eight new systemic growth initiatives.
Innovation does not grow in isolation. It depends on people and organizations who connect startups, investors, academia, corporates, and public institutions. People who are willing to work on the hard, structural problems in between. These actors are often called ecosystem builders. Their role is critical, yet it is still rarely supported in a structured way.
Most innovation programs focus on individual startups or short-term outputs. Ecosystem building works differently. It requires coordination across sectors, trust between institutions, international connections, and long-term commitment. Results take time, but the impact is structural.
Why Ecosystem Building Matters
This is why leading Hungarian ecosystem investors and institutions invited DEEP Ecosystems and its global community to bring the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator to Hungary: DEEPSEA Hungary.
The goal is simple: identify a group of ambitious ecosystem builders and support them over several years to tackle real bottlenecks in Hungary’s innovation system. Each selected project addresses a specific systemic challenge and aims to unlock growth beyond a single organization or region.
From Ecosystem Hack to First Cohort
The program started with an open call and a series of international meetups – what we call an Ecosystem Hack. These sessions were used to surface pressing issues, test ideas, and bring ecosystem builders, investors, and international peers into the same conversation.
DEEPSEA Hungary Co-Organizers
Based on this process, the co-organizing partners – NIÜ (Hungarian Innovation Agency), EIT Health / InnoStars, Óbuda University, Óbuda University Venture Capital, Startup Hungary, and DEEP Ecosystems – jointly selected eight ecosystem building projects to form the first DEEPSEA Hungary cohort. Below, we present the eight DEEPSEA Hungary alumni projects, each addressing a different structural challenge in Hungary’s innovation ecosystem.
Lab2Care (L2C) – The Health Innovation Bridge (Budapest, Hungary) aims to build a stronger ecosystem and a collaborative platform that drives the creation and acceleration of health technology startups from Emerging Europe that can compete globally. Building on the region’s strong foundation in life sciences and natural sciences education and research, it connects universities, healthcare providers, researchers, innovators (startups, scale-ups, industry players), and investors to accelerate the clinical and market validation, technological utilization and market access of health innovations.
Contact: lab2care.net@gmail.com
European Innovation Week by Association of Automotive Engineers (Hungary, Budapest). This flagship innovation event bridges the worlds of science, education and industry with connecting startups, researchers, and global corporations from fields like AI, mobility, and sustainable energy. It empowers the next generation of engineers and innovators, inspiring collaboration and investment across borders. By fostering an open, international community of deep-tech talent, it positions Hungary as the Central European hub for innovation, research, and future technologies.
Green Brother (Budapest, Hungary) is an innovation ecosystem providing various services to help Central and Eastern European deep-tech startups thrive. By connecting local innovation potential with European networks, capital, and growth opportunities, Green Brother’s project aims to scale ecosystem impact across CEE by a growth approach, attract international investors to the region, and strengthen the long-term sustainability of startup support.
Contact: akos.dervalics@greenbrother.hu
DEEP Ecosystems Portfolio Page
The Village21 is a growing, multidimensional social ecosystem dedicated to supporting personal and professional development for emerging talents, underserved communities, and purpose-driven individuals. Rooted in values of collaboration, empowerment, and accessibility, we connect professionals about to enter a phase of career change providing skills development to boost their resilience in facing the unknown.
Contact: timeavarga.iv@gmail.com
DEEP Ecosystems Portfolio Page
University Venture Capital Coalition (UNIVCC) by UniPrisma Venture Studio is a neutral global coalition institutionalising university venture capital as a coordinated asset class. It connects university-backed funds, emerging university VC initiatives, TTOs, LPs, and ecosystem leaders through shared infrastructure and an AI-powered coordination platform. UniVCC addresses fragmentation and underperformance by enabling structured co-investment, shared intelligence, performance benchmarking, and cross-border capital alignment to better scale academic spin-offs.
Contact: hello@univccoalition.org
DEEP Ecosystems Portfolio Page
Transformation & Innovation Kitchen by Tech in the City (Budapest, Hungary)
The Transformation & Innovation Kitchen (TINK) provides the missing collaboration hub that bridges cultural and communication gaps, unites local stakeholders with global leaders, and empowers startups to scale internationally—positioning Hungary as a Central European ecosystem hub.
Contact: balazs@startupgrind.com
Winno.Stage0 (Budapest, Hungary) is an ecosystem-building project that unlocks entrepreneurial talent in Hungary and addresses a core systemic barrier: many high-potential individuals remain outside the startup pipeline and don’t know where to start. The project engages in sectors such as wine, film, tourism, and others through activities like intensive zero-stage programs, bringing in industry professionals, creatives, and enthusiasts who would not normally join accelerators.
Pannon.AI (Győr, Hungary). Building on our talented engineers as they develop into top AI experts, our goal is to create a leading AI hub that supports and empowers the companies and startups of the future. To achieve this, we aim to attract the right partners, resources, and ideas, and actively invest in, collaborate with, and connect AI talent and innovative startups.
Six Weeks to Reframe, Two Years to Impact
In September 2025, the cohort entered a six-week intensive acceleration phase. This included workshops, 1:1 mentoring, peer exchange with international ecosystems, and the development of Ecosystem Hub Creation Playbooks for each project.
The focus was not on polishing pitches or scaling individual initiatives. Instead, participants were pushed to rethink their work at system level. Over six weeks, they worked on:
- shifting from organization-level goals to ecosystem-level impact
- clarifying what problem they are really solving — and for whom
- grounding their assumptions in data and broader trends
- mapping stakeholders and identifying where the system breaks down
- deciding what they should do themselves and what requires partners
- shaping partnering strategies based on shared interests
- defining what it means to act as a “hub” for others
- identifying options to finance early pilots, including public funding
From Acceleration to Implementation
While the six-week phase has ended, the work is now intensifying. The projects have entered the implementation period focused on execution: finalizing their narratives for value creation, activating partners, building visibility, engaging international peers, and securing resources to test their ideas in practice. DEEPSEA Hungary remains fully active. Advisory support, partner introductions, and follow-up activities will continue until at least October 2027.
Together with our partners and the cohort members, we are now looking for speaking opportunities, partnerships, and co-investment to help these initiatives move from design to real-world impact.
Learn more and request an introduction: