About Us
The Budapest Enterprise Agency was founded in 1993 by the Municipality of Budapest. Our goal has always been helping businesses – mainly SMEs and startups – in Budapest to grow and to strengthen innovation. Our aim is also to enhance European integration, we strive to achieve that through international projects, smart city solutions and by liaising between the Municipality and the business sphere of Budapest.
BEA has years of experience microfinancing and mentoring local businesses, SMEs. Throughout the course of our history, we have mentored over 500 SMEs and are mentoring 60+ today with the goal of developing the economy of Budapest.
In order to help realize Budapest’s smart city strategy the Smart Budapest Initiative is BEA’s strategic programme to connect political decision makers and representatives of the business sphere.
BEA participates in several international projects and we are proud to be a member, Hungarian board member and certified EU|BIC of the European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) among the 106 Certified EU|BICs and over 43 Associate members and 20 satellites shaping their global community. EBN is a not-for-profit that serves a pan-European, global community of people that use innovative business as a driver for regional (economic) development. EBN’s initiatives include EU|BIC certification, development and distribution of quality business support programmes, facilitation and initiation of project collaborations, global networking and advocacy for excellent business support actors like the EU|BICs.
What We Do
SME Development
The BEA has microfinanced and mentored over 500 SMEs through the course of its history and is mentoring 60+ today with the goal of developing the economy of Budapest. Our mentoring services aim improvement of financial awareness and consulting throughout the loan period, we help micro entrepreneurs grow, prevent potential failures with our advisory services. We help enterprises create viable business plans and execute it as their business starts to operate.
Smart Budapest Initiative
Smart Budapest Initiative is BEA’s strategic programme to connect political decision makers and representatives of the business sphere to realize Budapest’s smart city strategy. The Smart Budapest Initiative came to life after BEA held the Smart Budapest Idea Competition in 2021. Smart Budapest Idea Competition gathered more than a 100 competitors 12 were selected to pitch their urban innovation ideas in front of the political leaders and the company directors of the Municipality.
COMMUNITY
The Smart Budapest Community was founded with all of the participants of the Competition to create a networking and know-how exchange event series held every quarter where the decision makers of the public and private sector could meet. We had 3 closed and 1 open sessions and our Community counts 80 members today.
FORUM
Extending our program, in October 2022 we held our first Smart Budapest Forum, an annual smart city conference.
The main goal of the Smart Budapest Forum was to connect decision makers at the Municipality, representatives of the business sphere and those Hungarian and international experts, who can help realize Budapest’s smart city strategy.
Beside the presentation of international best practices the Forum gives the opportunity for people in key roles defining Budapest’s future to think together and partner up for Budapest’s development projects.
The conference hosted 9 foreign and Hungarian speakers and 8 panelists and and was attended by nearly 200 political leaders, business leaders and urbanist experts from Hungary and from abroad.
FUND
The Smart Budapest Fund enables innovative businesses and startups to pilot their projects in Budapest. BEA and the Municipality wants to finance smart city solutions which are able to help a smarter, more sustainable future for Budapest.
BOARD
The Smart Budapest Board connects the governmental and the business sphere thus helping the leadership of Budapest to achieve smart city goals.
EU projects
Current Projects
Interreg Europe CRAFTS CODE project
(PGI05964)
CReative Actions For Tailoring Smes’ COmpetitive DEvelopment, in short CRAFTS CODE project, as the name indicates aims to enhance the competitiveness of craft SMEs by developing their entrepreneurial competences. The project has two phases.
Phase 1 (01/08/19 – 31/07/22) was dedicated to interregional learning, which consisted mainly in the identification, analysis and exchange of partners’ good practices. The main objective was the creation of an Action plan with the involvement of the local craft ecosystem. The Action plan created by the Budapest Enterprise Agency aims to propose measures to increase the competitiveness of the handicraft sector and entrepreneurs, to raise their prestige, and to bring together cooperation within the profession and the utilization of synergies. The complex programme includes training and mentoring, communication campaign and annual exhibition. The policy framework for the Budapest craft enterprise development programmes and measures proposed in our Action Plan is provided by the Budapest 2030 Long-Term Urban Development Concept prepared by the Municipality of Budapest.
In phase 2 (01/08/22 – 31/07/23) our goal is to implement the Action Plan and monitor the results achieved during this process, exchange of information with partners on the progress of implementation, communication and distribution.
Visegrad Fund; Business Problems Interactive Web Portal, 22210127
Funding programme: Visegrad Fund
Period (start and end date): 01/07/2022 –31/12/2023
Within the framework of V4 Programme, “Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Research”, the project aims to create and support new cluster networks by creating effective conditions for close cooperation between academia and businesses both in Georgia and V4 countries. The result of the project will be an Interactive Web Portal with elements of the Web 4.0 to help Start-ups and SME’s with starting and running their businesses in order to gain sustainable and long-lasting business to be competitive with more developed countries with longer entrepreneur history and supportive culture.
Former Projects
Funding programme: Erasmus+
Period (start and end date):
1.11.2017- 31.12.2019
Website: https://eurostart-project.eu
Short description:
One of the goals of the ET 2020 strategy was the development of entrepreneurial competencies. The EuroSTART project was created to achieve this goal. It supported startups and entrepreneurs as its main target group. The main objective of the project was the development of management skills, which are the main challenge for business people. As a result, the participants in the project acquire the knowledge and skills with which they were able to strengthen their business activities. The project was also intended for organizations that deal with adult education and vocational training, or they are interested in the development of startups and businesses and in this way contribute to the stimulation of economic activities. The EuroSTART project offered a new type of online training opportunity specifically for startups.
Funding programme: EBN
Period (start and end date):
P1: 1.05.2018 – 31.10.2018
P2: 1.11.2018 – 30.11.2019
Website: https://www.europeanesil.eu
Short description:
The ESIL was an EU-funded initiative that connected networks of business angels and crowdfunders across Europe with a focus on developing and expanding the angel investment and crowdfunding scene in Europe, and on increasing cross-border investment between European countries, ESIL connected the leading investors across Europe.
Funding programme: Interreg Europe
Period (start and end date): 1.09.2017- 30.04.2019
Website: http://bvk.hu/eyes/
Short description:
The specific aim of the SKHU EYES project was to make the Slovakian-Hungarian border region a more cohesive and competitive one by improving employment opportunities and supporting institutional and people to people cooperation. As a result of the project, young people were encouraged to start their own business on both sides of the Slovakian-Hungarian border. Several cross-border events were organised including competitions for startups and innovative project idea owners in order to reach a critical mass of youth and to develop their entrepreneurial spirit and skills.
Funding programme: Visegrad Fund
Period (start and end date):
01.10.2016 – 30.09.2017
Short description:
The main aim of the EYES was the promotion of the V4 co-operation opportunities by exchanging of good practices and experiences in developing emerging young entrepreneurs in the V4 countries with the help of innovative business development models (3D platform included). This was the idea to implement a complex out of the box education method which could be multiplicated in all V4 countries and beyond. Stakeholders and civil society contributed as well in order to reach critical mass of youth.
International Cooperations
