First Monday with Wise & SEON

​Kicking off the fall season of our First Monday series, we are back with a special meetup. Stoked to have Kristo Käärmann (CEO & Co-Founder at Wise) and Tamás Kádár (CEO & Co-Founder at SEON) joining us for an exciting founder fireside chat.

​Though at different stages, Wise and SEON have many things in common—just to mention a few, both are deeply rooted in Budapest, where large parts of their products are built, and both are expanding to the US from an Austin-based HQ. Also, they are partners, and SEON is helping Wise to fight against fraud.

​Don’t miss this opportunity to learn first-hand insights from these outlier founders. They prove that global category-defining companies can be built from this region. 

​We’ll dig into their founder journeys—from early product–market fit to scaling teams and culture—along with hard-won lessons on hiring and global expansion from the EU/CEE to the US. Expect unfiltered takes on the AI wave’s impact on venture and company building, and where they see the next decade of tech in Europe, CEE and Hungary.

​About Wise

​Wise is the global leader in transparent, low-cost international money movement. Founded in Estonia in 2011 by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, Wise has grown into a decacorn, moving over £10 billion every month for 16 million people and businesses. With a team of 5,000+ across 40 offices—including a strong engineering hub in Budapest—Wise recently became the first tech company co-listed in London and the US, proving that a European fintech can achieve true global scale.

​About SEON

​SEON is Hungary’s breakout startup and one of the fastest-growing fraud prevention companies in the world. Founded in 2017 by Tamás Kádár and Bence Jendruszak, SEON is the command center for fraud prevention and AML compliance, helping thousands of companies worldwide stop fraud, reduce risk and protect revenue. Powered by 900+ real-time, first-party data signals, SEON enriches customer profiles, flags suspicious behavior and streamlines compliance workflows. With integrated fraud and AML capabilities, SEON operates globally from Austin, London, Budapest and Singapore.

Schedule:

​5:30 PM - 6:00 PM - Registration
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Introduction
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM - Fireside chat with Wise and SEON
7:15 PM - 7:30 PM - Q&A
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM - Drinks, Mingling & Networking

​​Project no. STARTUP-2024-RENDEZVENY-0043 has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the 2022-1.1.2-STARTUP-2022-00001 funding scheme.

​Startup Hungary is Powered by