BME GTK celebrates the 10th Danube Cup finals in Vienna

This year’s final of the ten-year-old Danube Cup was hosted by the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). BME’s Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences (GTK) and Corvinus University of Budapest celebrated the anniversary of the international startup competition as founding institutions.

The event was uniquely embedded in the Entrepreneurship Avenue conference – Europe’s largest student-led startup event series attracted hundreds of participants to the Austrian capital. The competition was opened by Rudolf Dömötör, Executive Director of the WU Entrepreneurship Center, and Monique Fischer, the center’s Head of Operations. Representing the founding universities, Sarolta Tóvölgyi, Acting Vice-Dean for International Affairs at BME GTK, and Péter Fehér, Director of International Alliances at Corvinus, welcomed the audience.

Sarolta Tóvölgyi, GTK was represented by András Bethlendi, Vice Dean for Finance; Mariann Szabó, Dean’s Delegate for Academic Programme Development; and Szilvia Bíró-Szigeti, Dean’s Commissioner for Communications. From the Department of Management and Business Economics, the delegation included Pál Danyi, founder of the Danube Cup and coach of MBA teams; Anikó Kelemen-Erdős, Head of Danube Cup at BME and member of the Danube Cup Scientific Committee; Péter Zrubecz, assistant lecturer; and Miklós Verseghi-Nagy, CEO of BME InnoLab Zrt.

During the event, several professional discussions took place

with the aim of further strengthening cooperation between WU and BME, as well as existing academic partnerships.

This year’s Danube Cup featured 10 teams from 9 universities in 4 countries, with a total of approximately 100 participants. The GTK was represented by the CoBoarding team (Gyula Bohus, Ákos Nagy, Hajnalka Turóczi, Márk Végh). The podium finishers were: 1. Terraformer (WU Vienna, Austria), 2. Prinity (OTH Regensburg, Germany), 3. TraceQ (Corvinus). Pál Danyi presented the medals. The event organizers also expressed their special thanks to János Vecsenyi, co-founder of the initiative.

Over the past decade, the Danube Cup has grown into a high-quality international start-up pitch competition, playing an increasingly important role in fostering innovation and contributing to the economic development of the Danube region. As a co-founder institution, BME GTK remains committed to fostering this international ecosystem, empowering the next generation of student entrepreneurs, and strengthening academic and business ties across the Danube network.

Rector’s Office, Communications Directorate