Exclusive interview: 8bitPR Agency on bridging the Hungarian Tech and Venture Capital ecosystem with global markets

Hungary’s startup ecosystem has been steadily gaining international attention in recent years. Behind many of the region’s emerging tech brands are strategic communication partners helping them scale beyond borders. We spoke with Stepan Burov, co-founder of Budapest-based 8bitPR, about the agency’s role in connecting Hungarian innovation with global capital and media.

Daily News Hungary: Let’s start simple. If you had to explain 8bitPR to someone outside the tech bubble, what exactly do you do?

Stepan Burov: Thanks for having us. We are an award-winning PR agency operating both in Hungary and globally, with a focus on startups and venture communications. Our team has more than 10 years of experience in strategic communications across the tech industry and venture capital in key markets: The US, the UK, Europe, MENA and Latin America.

Over the last three years, we’ve grown from a niche PR studio into a trusted communications partner for emerging tech companies across our key regions. We have built deep expertise in deeptech, AI, fintech, edtech, SaaS, VC, complex B2B products and even winetech. Today, we actively work with startups, venture funds, and innovation ecosystems across the globe.

Our most common request is investment PR in support of funding rounds. Recently, our clients successfully closed several investment rounds. We also regularly support major product launches, help founders build strong personal brands, and develop communications strategies for bringing products to new markets.

Daily News Hungary: You’re not originally from Hungary, yet you chose to build your agency here. Why Hungary? What did you see here that others perhaps overlooked?

Stepan Burov: We see ourselves as an active part of the ecosystem movement in Central Europe, particularly in Hungary, where we are headquartered — a country renowned for its rich historical heritage and long-standing tradition of engineering excellence. With strong regional expertise across European markets, we see great potential in the region. Hungary has a super strong pool of unique tech talent, engineers and innovators, supported by a well-developed infrastructure. For example, Budapest‑based robotics startup Allonic made global headlines by closing a major pre-seed round, signalling the region’s rising prominence in global tech.

Over the past years, we’ve had the privilege of working closely with Hungarian founders, venture funds and technology teams. What we consistently see is strong engineering talent, ambitious leadership and globally competitive products. At the same time, we also see a gap: international narrative infrastructure has not yet caught up with the quality of innovation being built here.

Global expansion today is not just about entering new markets — it is about being visible, credible and strategically positioned within them. International media presence directly influences investor confidence, LP perception, talent acquisition and long-term brand authority. That is why we decided to launch the «Hungary Tech to Global» initiative. Through this initiative, we are offering a structured Media Readiness Audit for selected venture funds and technology companies preparing for international expansion (applications open until the end of March 2026). We have opened a limited application form for organisations that want to assess their global positioning and understand what it realistically takes to compete for international attention.

We do our best to support this gap through various client projects, events, mentorship, and the creation of new communication standards.

Yes, that may sound quite ambitious — but still realistic. With our deep regional expertise and nuanced understanding of local and global markets, we see our aim is to become a unique communication provider – a bridge for Hungarian companies that want to go global, and international companies that want to enter Hungary.  

We also actively collaborate with US, UK and European companies, and last year we expanded our services to MENA and LATAM, where we currently help fintech, AI and deeptech companies maintain their visibility in the regions. 

Daily News Hungary: What does “good PR” actually mean to you?

Stepan Burov: For us, PR is not about mindless coverage or vanity metrics. We prioritise meaningful results, impacting business performance and we truly see results – partners’ attention to our clients, investments, improved HR metrics, or fast hiring of top talent. We act as a strategic partner — embedding ourselves into our clients’ business processes, strengthening their market positions and shaping brand narratives that genuinely suit the target markets. We operate as an extension of the team, immersed in the business and aligning every PR initiative with tangible business value. Every brand has its own DNA – and we know how to decode and translate it into a language that resonates both globally and locally.

In our view, PR is all about impact: it must drive the sales funnel, drive investor interest and foster long-term brand perception. We treat PR as a business tool: it helps companies enter new markets, raises funds and builds reputation that they can later convert into revenue, market trust and long-term growth.