Innovation does not grow in isolation. It depends on people and organizations who connect startups, investors, academia, corporates, and public institutions. People who are willing to work on the hard, structural problems in between. These actors are often called ecosystem builders. Their role is critical, yet it is still rarely supported in a structured way.
Most innovation programs focus on individual startups or short-term outputs. Ecosystem building works differently. It requires coordination across sectors, trust between institutions, international connections, and long-term commitment. Results take time, but the impact is structural.
Why Ecosystem Building Matters
This is why leading Hungarian ecosystem investors and institutions invited DEEP Ecosystems and its global community to bring the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator to Hungary.
The goal is simple: identify a group of ambitious ecosystem builders and support them over several years to tackle real bottlenecks in Hungary’s innovation system. Each selected project addresses a specific systemic challenge and aims to unlock growth beyond a single organization or region.
From Ecosystem Hack to First Cohort
The program started with an open call and a series of international meetups – what we call an Ecosystem Hack. These sessions were used to surface pressing issues, test ideas, and bring ecosystem builders, investors, and international peers into the same conversation.
Based on this process, the co-organizing partners – NIÜ (Hungarian Innovation Agency), EIT Health / InnoStars, Óbuda University, Obuda Uni Venture Capital, Startup Hungary, and DEEP Ecosystems – jointly selected eight ecosystem building projects to form the first DEEPSEA Hungary cohort. Below, we present the eight DEEPSEA Hungary alumni projects, each addressing a different structural challenge in Hungary’s innovation ecosystem.
Six Weeks to Reframe, Two Years to Impact
In September 2025, the cohort entered a six-week intensive acceleration phase. This included workshops, 1:1 mentoring, peer exchange with international ecosystems, and the development of Ecosystem Hub Creation Playbooks for each project.
The focus was not on polishing pitches or scaling individual initiatives. Instead, participants were pushed to rethink their work at system level. Over six weeks, they worked on:
- shifting from organization-level goals to ecosystem-level impact
- clarifying what problem they are really solving — and for whom
- grounding their assumptions in data and broader trends
- mapping stakeholders and identifying where the system breaks down
- deciding what they should do themselves and what requires partners
- shaping partnering strategies based on shared interests
- defining what it means to act as a “hub” for others
- identifying options to finance early pilots, including public funding
Across the cohort, this led to a clear shift in perspective. Ecosystem building was no longer framed as running events or support programs, but as designing interventions that change how actors interact, how resources flow, and how value is created. These shifts are documented in the Playbooks and already visible in early decisions and actions taken by the teams.
From Acceleration to Implementation
While the six-week phase has ended, the work is now intensifying. The projects have entered the implementation period focused on execution: finalizing their narratives for value creation, activating partners, building visibility, engaging international peers, and securing resources to test their ideas in practice. DEEPSEA Hungary remains fully active. Advisory support, partner introductions, and follow-up activities will continue until at least October 2027.
Together with our partners and the cohort members, we are now looking for speaking opportunities, partnerships, and co-investment to help these initiatives move from design to real-world impact.