Speaking at 0100 Emerging Europe 2025, László Bodis, Deputy State Secretary for Innovation and CEO of the Hungarian Innovation Agency, emphasized Hungary’s ambition to evolve from a promising startup scene into a true innovation powerhouse. The country already boasts a strong scientific foundation — ranking 11th globally in Nobel laureates per capita — but struggles to turn research into scalable ventures.
According to Bodis, four pillars are key to accelerating the ecosystem: education, institutional structures for tech transfer, tax and regulatory reform, and improved access to capital. One of Hungary’s flagship initiatives is the Hungarian Startup University Program, which has introduced over 20,000 students to entrepreneurship and innovation in just five years.
Still, capital remains the biggest bottleneck. “Only 5% of global venture capital is raised in the EU, compared to 52% in the U.S. and 40% in China,” Bodis noted. He argued that Europe must reform its regulations to allow institutional investors — such as pension funds — to allocate more to high-risk VC assets.
To help scale-ups expand globally, the Hungarian Innovation Agency is running the XPAND program, supporting entry into markets like the U.S., South Korea, China, and Germany. “Our vision,” Bodis concluded, “is not just to be an innovation hub — but a regional innovation powerhouse.”
he third edition of 0100 International — organized by Zero One Hundred Conferences in partnership with the Milan City Council’s Department of Economic Development and Milano&Partners — brought together the global private markets community for a high-signal, execution-focused gathering held from October 27–29.
François Candelon, Partner for Value Creation & Portfolio Monitoring at Seven2, shares how the firm aligns every investment around a clear “exit animal”—a vision of the company at exit—and uses disciplined execution, AI-driven transformation, and sustainability as levers for resilience and premium valuations. From reengineering core processes with AI to embedding decarbonization into business strategy, Candelon explains how Seven2 builds companies that are not just exit-ready, but future-proof.
Private markets are entering a new era where trust, compliance, and technology converge. While public markets enjoy automation and transparency, private assets still depend on paper-based, fragmented systems. Antonio Chiarello, CEO of Weltix, argues that the next leap forward is not just digitization, but the creation of digital infrastructures that redefine ownership. In this conversation, he discusses why friction is structural rather than technological, how regulation enables innovation, and how programmable liquidity and transparency can channel more private capital into real economic growth.
