McKinsey acquires IncepTech, opens studio in Budapest

"I believe that digital and software engineering are the closest things to magic in the tech world,” says György Buslig, founder of IncepTech. “Through mastering a new way of thinking, and ‘casting spells’ when writing code, we can create something new, seemingly out of thin air, that solves problems and can bring people closer together at work and in life.”

He and his partners Dániel Schay and Áron Antal are all McKinsey alumni, and they are bringing their team of more than 60 experts to McKinsey Digital this month. They will form the core of a new studio in Budapest, fast becoming a center of technology innovation in Europe, and focus on helping clients with their digital transformations. It will be the fourth McKinsey Digital studio in Europe, in addition to London, Berlin, and Stockholm.

IncepTech founders György Buslig, Dániel Schay, and Áron Antal.

According to the press release, the acquisition deepens McKinsey's technical delivery capabilities, along with the company's recent acquisitions of Candid for cloud and Hypothesis for software engineering and Agile.

“With IncepTech’s technology leadership and deep engineering skills,” says Paul Jenkins, a senior partner and head of McKinsey Digital in Europe, “We can significantly grow what we are already doing: mobilizing small, highly-skilled teams to help clients build digital products, channels, and businesses.”

“In our studios, which are McKinsey Digital expert communities, cross-functional teams help clients solve their hardest, make-or-break challenges, often on very tight timelines, working in a fast and agile way,” explains Chris Smith, a McKinsey partner in London who helps lead the McKinsey Digital studio network in Europe."

McKinsey has collaborated with IncepTech on projects such as helping a fast-growing real estate agency build a digital-service ecosystem to significantly increase earnings, and working with a leading expedition cruise company to develop their digital distribution platforms for travel agents and customers.

“We share a similar commitment to our clients and an urgency to deliver value,” says Smith. “Our teams will be 100% integrated from the start, and our IncepTech colleagues, by joining McKinsey, will have the opportunity to work on some of the most intriguing digital challenges today.”

“When we first started our firm,” says Buslig. “We wanted to create a culture that merged the worlds of technology and business. It’s not just consultants and engineers who work together—but engineers who want to be digital business leaders, and business consultants who love this world of technology, and want to understand the inner workings of all things.”