Accomplishing financial tasks is often costly, non-transparent and time-consuming for SMEs and startups. And most small businesses do not have the capacity or resource to run complex financial systems. EIT Digital innovation activity and startup spin-off eBIZ promises to change this with a new banking service for SMEs and startups, that safely and efficiently performs financial and administrative tasks anywhere and at any time.
Developed by OTP Bank, and with the EIT Digital partners Deutsche Telekom, ELTE and the Technical University of Berlin, the startup has ambitious plans.
Strong footprint in Hungary already
“eBIZ was successfully launched as an innovation activity last year with the aim of bringing it to market as a startup this year. We are already meeting strong demand in Hungary, with 8,000 registered users and close to 6,000 SMEs using our system. By connecting daily banking services to administrative tasks, companies get to save a lot of time and money. Our long term vision is to bring eBIZ primarily to international markets, where our key eBiz partner and owner OTP Bank has a presence, such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia. We are also examining other EU markets to expand,” says Tamás Jósvai, Managing Director of eBIZ.
eBIZ aggregates data and financial services on one single platform. Users can upload, review and manage bills anytime. An automatic cash flow planner highlights any liquidity issues. The system also warns of tax liability issues when the accountant prepares and submits payments via the accounting program. Tax payments and any other money transfers can be sent from the same platform.
Jósvai continues: “Next year we plan to develop a cloud-based solution for SMEs to enhance the paperless administration. We also want to further pursue eBIZ’s international expansion.”
Expansion in Europe
“The successful creation of the eBIZ startup through EIT Digital is evidence that innovation is not always about using the latest cutting-edge technologies but finding an actual business problem or an underserved segment of the market and defining a new innovative way to provide a solution” says Antonio Hortal, Action Line Leader for Digital Finance at EIT Digital. “We are sure that, after its great success in Hungary, eBIZ will be able to expand to other European countries where SMEs have similar needs. European SMEs need to go deeper and faster in their digital transformation to become competitive globally. With our pan-European network of partners, we at EIT Digital are encouraging and supporting innovation activities in Digital Finance, like eBIZ, that enhance the capabilities of SMEs in this area,”
EIT Digital seeks to generate significant innovations from top European research. Its overall objective is to incubate ideas in order to deliver market uptake and rapid growth. Investments are focused on Innovation Action Lines - areas of interest selected on the basis of European relevance and leadership potential. We currently have five action lines: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Infrastructure and Digital Finance. eBIZis an innovation activity of the Digital Finance Action Line, which was set up in 2017/2018 to support the creation of innovative tools and services, to help the finance industry adapt to the challenges it currently faces. Robust, yet agile and tailored financial services are essential for our economies, citizens and enterprises.
