Startups that took off well: Don't let these Czechs get out of your sight
In the Czech Republic, new startups are emerging all the time, but some of them do stand out among the lot - be it through their unexpectedly fast development, international successes, interesting personalities or the right timing. We have selected four promising projects that are definitely worth keeping your eye on. Investing in one of them could bring you a huge profit in the future.
All experienced angel investors, as well as those who invest money in more advanced startups, have their own strategy for valorizing the investment. Therefore, we don't aim to bring specific advice on how and where to invest, but rather tips on promising Czech projects.
And what promising future stars are we talking about? These are our startup tips for the second half of 2020:
International: VRgineers
The reputation of the Prague startup VRgineers is growing rapidly and it's quite possible that the founders Marek Polčák, Martin Holečko and Václav Bittner will play one of the main roles in the fast developing field of virtual reality. That makes them a hot candidate for you to follow and possibly choose to "bet" on them.
They develop professional glasses for virtual reality with a unique 8K resolution 180 degree vision. And they're currently one of the leaders in this field, delivering their products to NASA, the US military or the world's largest carmakers. They're winning one award after another (most recently, it was the prestigious Red Dot design award) and they're also successful at raising money for development. In last year's investment round, they received several tens of millions of crowns.
Growing: Boataround
This year, they want to mediate boat rentals for half a billion crowns, and in addition, they managed to obtain an investment of 15 million crowns from the Miton Group. We're talking about a promising Czech-Slovak startup Boataround, founded by Pavel Přibiš and Jana Escher. The company currently offers 14,000 boats (yachts, catamarans and other vessels) in 900 locations and on 5 continents. And they're planning to grow rapidly.
What plays into the hands of this startup? Many people value privacy on vacation these days, and their big advantage is that they have a global reach. The customer search for yachts for rent through the Boataround reservation system has increased by up to 500% in recent months and it looks like this trend will continue. The perfect time to start watching this startup closely.
Ferocious: Crofungo
This is hot news for everyone who sees investment opportunities in real estate. Their steadily rising prices are a big temptation for investors looking to purchase an apartment or house in Prague. And the startup CroFunGo comes up with a new concept in the form of investments in housing projects through crowdfunding.
The man behind the startup is the experienced manager Vladimír Bezděk, who has been working in insurance or banking corporations for long years, and is financially covered by the ambitious RN Solutions group. They have a plan for a very fast start and already in 2021 they want a break-even, i.e. for the startup to start earning money. And the circumstances are favorable, which is why you should keep your eye on this "pike".
Smaller: Explorio
The startup Explorio is more of a smaller-scale local company, but a very interesting one at that. This service is a unique search engine for holidays for families with children and so far, it has no competition in the Czech Republic. It's gained a lot of popularity during this summer, when many families decided to have a vacation here in our country due to the pandemic.
Explorio was founded in 2019 by František Peterka and Jan Davídek. The former has already enjoyed success for example with the Driveto project, which specializes in long-term car rentals, thanks to which he can lean on ample previous experience. In short, Explorie is a smaller, but all the more ambitious project, which is ideal for potential investors who don't want to head straight to the world market.
