Who is InVendor for those who do not know you? What is your business approach and who do you target?
InVendor is a Hungary-based advisory company. We also focus on the start-up ecosystem in the Central Eastern Europe, and our profit comes from working with corporations, banks and other players on the market. We connect start-ups with the players mentioned. We saw an opportunity in the fact that the banking and corporate sectors are constantly looking for ways to innovate and better connect with start-ups.
For the last 7 years, InVendor has built the ecosystem that helps companies to be ready to interact with bigger players. Now we are stepping forward, we have a partnership with another advisory company who is an EPCA member. The company name is eBIT, also based in Hungary. Invendor and eBIT are merging so is a natural outcome for us to be focusing more on FinTech startups.
Why did you choose to focus on the CEE region?
We are based in Hungary, but I`m Bulgarian by origin so this is the reason why picking the region was quite a natural thing. The region is rich in talent and has a lot of innovation capacity. Still, what we are still lacking is better ways to exchange knowledge and there we play an important role by filling that gap.
We have offices in the Czech Republic, in Hungary, in Slovakia and we are opening offices in Croatia, thus, we have a deep knowledge about the trends in the region.
What’s more, we have our own portfolio of FinTech companies based in CEE. For example, we have a flat carrier company which is the first independent sales organisation in the region, providing payment solutions such as POS terminals and online payments.
What are the opportunities, but also the challenges in the CEE area for a FinTech company?
One challenge is the legal system, which is not focused on FinTech. The regulators in this region don`t keep up with the industry trends and they are not aware of this fast-moving tendency.
What is clear is that we are not early adopters in the FinTech space. Yet, we know that in terms of technological revolution, some CEE countries have a lot of catching up to do. Still, the advantage of missing several steps that other companies have already taken and invested in them for years will enable us to leapfrog some steps.
How are you helping corporations innovate?
Corporations are focusing intensively, at least in Eastern Europe, on their own internal innovation programs. So, what we are doing is take all these methodologies like lean startup, lean analytics, growth hacking which we implement with our startups and try to adapt them to the corporate environment. We help their internal teams with what they are doing and familiarise them with these methodologies.
The other thing that we do is helping the corporations to create partnerships with startups. So, one thing a corporation might want, for instance, is to invest in a startup, even if that is rarely encountered in Eastern Europe. They are looking for some kind of collaboration, even if it might be for the moment and more on the CSR side.
One of the best examples I have is a Top 500 Company. They wanted to know directly from the startups how do they work, experiment, or use these methodologies. It’s important for them to have their teams there and to learn not just from a book, or only from a training.
About Antonia Imre
Antonia Imre is a serial entrepreneur / management advisor specialized in fintech and other high added value IT intensive verticals. She has gained experience in various positions at companies such as McKinsey&Co, Wizz Air, IBM Global Financing, and leading commercial banks. Antonia is a partner at Hungarian EPCA member eBIT since 2007 and runs startup and M&A advisory InVendor.
About InVendor
InVendor Investment and Innovation is a consulting house providing sell- and buy-side M&A and related strategic advisory and scouting services for corporate clients and organizing deals for startup companies. We offer end-to-end, one stop shop solutions to our corporate clients that create value during mergers and acquisitions. We are based in Hungary, although we are tightly connected to CEE markets and built up day-to-day working connections with major capital markets world-wide. InVendor is an organiser and contributor to a great number of well-known international industry events. InVendor has multiple fintech investments in 4 CEE countries and expanding further in 2016. We believe that developing the ecosystem will be of benefit to all players, so we are open for collaboration with community builders, media and supporters.
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