EIB's Budapest Office turns 10 — a different perspective on what makes Europe stronger

It started with a real grilling. Almost three years of it. And looking back, I am grateful for every minute.

As the European Investment Bank celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Budapest Office, I would like to share a personal story about the EIB Group — one that is not primarily about financing, investment volumes or financial instruments.

It is about people, trust, generosity and the European culture of cooperation.

My story begins in 2015.

I attended the CEE Impact Day at Impact Hub Vienna. Listening to Charly Kleissner's inspiring impact entrepreneurship story about BioLight was a breakthrough moment for me.

I fell in love. For the first time — with impact investing.

Returning to Budapest, my partners — Dr. Barbara Ming, Károly Fehérgyarmati-Tóth and Gergő Iváncsics — and I decided to do something ambitious: establish Hungary's first, and one of Central and Eastern Europe's pioneering, dedicated impact venture capital funds.

We had the ambition. But we had very little experience of how to build such a fund.

So we started learning.

And something remarkable happened.

The early pioneers of European impact investing welcomed us with extraordinary openness. Bavarian teams, including BonVenture and Ananda Ventures, generously shared their knowledge and experience.

Nikolaus Hutter, one of our greatest supporters, encouraged me to join EVPA — today Impact Europe — where Ewa Konczal immediately offered invaluable support.

These people and many more did not see us as competitors. They saw us as fellow pioneers.

They shared what they knew, without hesitation, without expecting anything in return.

That generosity left a lasting impression on me.

By late 2015, we had prepared our first investment concept and submitted our initial Impact Ventures fund presentation to the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group.

A first-time team. A first-time fund. From a region where impact VC was still largely unknown.

And then the grilling began.

For almost three years, we worked with the EIF, refining the investment strategy, developing our impact methodology, strengthening our governance and building the foundations of a credible institutional venture capital fund.

It was demanding. Sometimes exhausting. But an extraordinary learning experience.

Finally, in December 2018, we registered Impact Ventures 1 and 2.

We thought we had reached the finish line.

But in early January 2019, I received an email from Cyril Gouiffes, then leading the EIF's impact investment activities.

His message was approximately this:

"Dear Elemér, congratulations on registering the funds. But the real work is only beginning.

Your first responsibility is to find the best impact enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe.

Your second responsibility is to share everything you have learned from your European impact investment peers with those who will follow you.

Please connect with Renata Brkić, who is preparing Croatia's first impact fund, and share your knowledge and experience with her."

I was stunned.

Here was a representative of a European public financial institution telling us that our responsibility was not only to succeed ourselves, but also to help the next generation of fund managers succeed.

What an extraordinary understanding of Europe's mission!

And we did exactly that.

I visited Renata in Zagreb. Our Impact Ventures team shared its experience — the lessons, the challenges, the mistakes and the practical knowledge accumulated during those three demanding years.

Renata and her colleagues went on to establish Feelsgood Capital, Croatia's pioneering impact investment fund.

But the story did not end there.

Through that initial introduction, Renata and I developed a personal relationship.

Personal relationships became professional trust.

Trust led to sharing investment opportunities.

Sharing opportunities led to co-investments.

And co-investments became the foundation of a cross-border impact investment ecosystem.

Think about it.

A European institution encouraged a Hungarian first-time fund manager to help a Croatian first-time fund manager. That simple act of knowledge sharing helped create a lasting relationship between two investment teams, enabling cooperation across national borders.

No regulation could have mandated this. No financial instrument alone could have created it.

It happened because someone at the EIF understood that building an investment ecosystem requires much more than providing capital.

For me, this story captures something fundamental about the European Investment Bank Group.

Europe is not only a collection of institutions, regulations and financial programmes.

Europe is also a culture. A culture of solidarity, reciprocity, trust and shared responsibility.

And I believe this culture is one of our greatest competitive advantages.

Today, through Impact Ventures and ImpactCEE, we are working to carry this philosophy forward: connecting institutional investors, emerging fund managers, entrepreneurs and European partners to strengthen the impact investment ecosystem across Central and Eastern Europe.

The ambition is bigger than any individual fund.

We want to mobilise more long-term institutional capital, create stronger cross-border investment partnerships, support a new generation of impact fund managers and help innovative CEE enterprises scale across Europe.

Our continuing dialogue with the EIF, the EIB Group and European institutional partners builds on the same conviction that shaped our journey from the beginning:

Capital creates opportunities. Knowledge creates capabilities. Trust creates partnerships. And partnerships create lasting European competitiveness.

At a time when Europe is searching for ways to strengthen its competitiveness, mobilise private capital and deepen its single market, I believe this lesson is more relevant than ever.

We need financial instruments, guarantees and investment programmes. Absolutely.

But we also need the human infrastructure that makes them work.

People who connect others. Institutions that share knowledge. Investors who cooperate rather than operate in isolation. And a European mindset that recognises that helping others succeed ultimately makes all of us stronger.

That is the Europe I experienced through the EIF.

And that is the Europe we are trying to help build through ImpactCEE.

Happy 10th anniversary to the EIB's Budapest Office!

Thank you to Cyril Gouiffes, Nikolaus Hutter, Ewa Konczal, Renata Brkić and all the European impact investment pioneers who demonstrated what genuine European cooperation looks like.

And thank you to the EIB Group for showing us that its most valuable contribution is sometimes not just the capital it provides, but the relationships and trust it helps create.

Let's continue building Europe's success. Together.

#EIB #EIF #ImpactInvesting #ImpactCEE #ImpactVentures #EuropeanCompetitiveness #CEE #VentureCapital #EuropeanCooperation