Creating CEElicon Valley – The HVCA held its annual investment conference

The Hungarian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HVCA) held its 24th annual investment conference on 21 September, 2023, which is the largest and most prestigious professional event of the Hungarian VC/PE market. The international presenters and experts discussed the future of the venture debt market, changed thoughts about how to create the regional CEElicon Valley, tasted wine and awarded EIF with the John Harsanyi Prize.

The conference provided a forum for the most prominent players, investors, executives and business decision-makers of the Central and Eastern European venture capital and private equity sector to share and discuss market trends and presented the most topical issues with prominent players in the sector.

The first panel discussion focused on non-conventional venture debt, where financial experts consulted about the current role of venture debt in early-stage firms’ life cycle, outlining a number of positive synergies and the nature of complementarity between venture debt and venture capital finance.

What ingredients does CEE needs to replicate the success of Silicon Valley? – that was the main question in the panel, where the region’s experts was looking into latecomer advantages of CEE Europe’s venture capital market and its capacity to catch up with the mature venture capital market of Silicon Valley.

By exploring the region’s current resources, regulatory environment, infrastructure and culture, as well as targeted actions needed to be taken, the discussion highlighted that processes in CEE Europe’s venture capital market can be radically improved as the region climbs the steep development curve.

EIF won Harsanyi Prize

One of the largest Fund of the Funds is the European Invetmenst Fund on behalf Cyril Gouiffes, the Head of Social Impact Investing took the John Harsanyi Prize, which is HVCA’s award to one individual or an organization recognized for its exceptional contribution to the development of entrepreneurial processes worldwide. This year EIF earned this prize.