Venture capital and university start-ups

Imre is involved in the Hungarian and CEE ecosystem from its inception. Upon return from the USA
where he worked for LehmanFirst he founded two startups - both in the 'life annuity for real estate' space - and thus created a new industry segment. After the credit crunch of 2008 he started to use his venture building skills with other companies. He worked with VC portfolios, founded accelerators, built CEE consortium of accelerators, developed training courses for mentoring, international market access and other start-up related topics. In 2018-2019 he lead the effort of EIT to establish a soft landing ground in Tel-Aviv to learn about proper ecosystem building. Imre is now the CEO of OUVC, a university backed 30M euro VC fund operating out of Budapest, investing in deep tech and AI startups.

Krzysztof is a Board Member of UWRC Ltd., a special purpose vehicle of the University of Warsaw dedicated to supporting scientists and students on the path to commercialization through spin-off companies. UWRC Ltd. was established in 2013 and has since supported the creation of more than 30 spin-offs. Krzysztof personally became engaged in this endeavor in 2016 and has assisted numerous research teams with their spinning-off activities. Currently, UWRC Ltd. boasts a portfolio of 23 university spin-offs. Recently, Krzysztof was also involved in the preparation of a report for the European Investment Bank (EIB) on technology transfer activities, particularly through spinning-off and spinning-out companies in Poland.

Katarina started her career in the telco industry, where she has been involved in strategic, business and product development projects. She then moved to the world of venture capital and helped start G-Force, the first EuVECA fund in Slovakia, operating between Bratislava and London. As Head of Investment Platform, Katarina leads the Seed investment programme, helping early-stage stage startups in the climate-tech space grow. She is also involved in several international projects collaborating with universities on closing the gap between research and commercialisation.