We’re all about finding the next big shots of the startup world. And we’re not alone: we’ve teamed up with MassChallenge, one of the largest startup accelerators worldwide, to hunt down CEE’s 25 hottest newcomers. Not long until it’s revealed who’s made the cut for the four-day bootcamp in Warsaw.

MassChallenge has just closed submissions for the Bridge to MassChallenge program, looking for the most innovative startups in Central and Eastern Europe. So far the accelerator has been active in the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Mexico and Israel and now, thanks to an initiative of PKO Bank Polski and the Foundation for Technology Entrepreneurship, it’s setting up its CEE base in Warsaw, Poland. Bridge to MassChallenge has been welcomed with open arms by several local partners, including BNL Start Partners in Hungary.

And it was high time they had made the move: Central and Eastern Europe is one of the most rapidly emerging startup ecosystems. More and more of the biggest accelerators are eyeing this part of Europe, with Hungary being one of the main target countries.

The Bridge to MassChallenge Warsaw competition set out to find the promising ventures striving to get their international career rolling. Startups had until November 6 to apply if they met the following criteria: they are established on the market, their products have been validated, they have a market traction and they are ready to scale up their business.

The organizers will now select the 25 best entrants, who will be invited for a 4-day bootcamp in Warsaw. During the workshops, with support of top mentors from the U.S. and Israel, participants will face real-life challenges that come with moving from startup to scale-up and verifying the effectiveness of resources. The top ten finalists will fly to Boston in February to participate in 4 days of workshops and meetings with global giants, as well as potential investors and business partners so they can test out their growth plans in practice.

As a B2B- and fintech-focused organization, we were glad to take part in the initiative. Leave it to us to make sure that the best Hungarian newcomers get all the attention and support that Bridge to MassChallenge can give! We promise we’ll keep you posted.