Hungarian deal appeal for T-Venture

T-Venture Holdings, the corporate venture arm of Deutsche Telekom, has set up base in Budapest and is on the look out for Hungarian deals. T-Venture has entered into an agreement with Hungarian telecoms service provider, Matav to launch a venture capital fund this year targeting early stage minority investments. The new office will be located at Matav’s headquarters.

Hungary represents T-Venture’s first step into the Central and Eastern European market. Around two thirds of early stage investments in Hungary is in the telecommunications, information technology, multimedia, entertainment and security sectors. Technology investments have boomed in Hungary over the last two years and even held out in 2001, in spite of unstable market conditions. In 2000, total commitments to communications-related investments grew from HUF465.8 million to HUF6.4 billion.

It is hoped T-Venture’s global expertise and Matav’s key local market position will help promote Hungary’s emerging high tech sector. Since its inception in 1997, T-Venture has invested over EURO250 million in more than 60 early stage portfolio companies.