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Czechia Regional Finalists

Best Accelerator/Incubator Program

AI Startup Incubator

Description

AI Startup Incubator (AISI) is an early-stage investor focusing exclusively on startups implementing AI in their innovative ideas. We support startups at varying stages of readiness, each with a unique set of challenges and offer technological solutions to society’s problems.

ESA BIC

Description

ESA BIC is European Space Agency´s business incubator. It helps startups to get their ideas off the ground. It is looking for projects that re-purpose existing space technologies on the non-space market or introduce innovative non-space technologies in the space market.

i&i Prague

Description

i&i Prague focuses on scouting and supporting innovative technologies in the field of drug development, diagnostics and medical devices. It supports the setup, teaming-up and foundation of spin-off companies and invests in their pre-seed to Series A phases.

Best VC

Lighthouse Ventures

Lighthouse Ventures is an early-stage and acceleration venture capital, focused on technology projects with global vision.

Presto Ventures

Prague based investment company empowering talented CEE start-up founders. As our name suggests, speed is key to our mission. We act quickly to help you progress quickly – supporting you in fast learning, fast business development, and ultimately, fast growth.

DEPO Ventures

Description

We are pioneering the early-stage investments in CEE since 2016. Since launching our first angels fund in February 2019, we have quickly grown to become one of the preeminent investment firms in pre-seed stage technology companies in the Czech Republic.

Founder of the Year

Ji Pecina

Description

I started my first business at a very early age, a bicycle repair shop in our neighbourhood. I set up my first serious business in XXX. This was Eurocar, a car dealership in my home town of Brno. Soon after, Eurocar became an official dealer for Volkswagen and quickly rose to become the number 2 dealership in the country. Eurocar was later acquired by a private investment fund. Since that time, while living in the USA, I have focused on my family and preparing for the future. My wife is my main partner in all my business ventures, she and I together began to think about smart and innovative solutions for dealing with medical issues after the arrival our children. And this is how MEDDI was born. I am an experienced manager of more than 20 years in several businesses and start-ups. I will guide MEDDI as it grows across the CEE region, and in LATAM or the Middle East. Complementing this, my best talent is having a vision for the emerging trends and technologies in these markets. I recognized early on that digitalisation is vital to developing better services for the future. I have partnered with various successful ventures in Europe and the US to gain experience and knowledge in the field that I could transfer into our own projects. Now my main focus is engaging top talent from our region to make MEDDI a global success, while keeping customer experience and security as our guiding principles for all of our activities.

Vlastimil Vodicka

Description

Vlastimil Vodicka is a startup founder with a Venture Capital background. He is an amazing entrepreneur with a passion for startups. While working at J&T Ventures, he went through all the phases of venture capital; raising capital, negotiating VC deals and executing transactions, deal-flow sourcing, portfolio (and crisis) management, company sale and new fund set-up. He was involved in 10+ transactions that generated multiple capital appreciation for our investors. Vlasta is an adventurer by heart and a former member of Czech Judo national team, a judo black-belt and an active Brazilian jiu-jitsu contestant.

Martin Barry

Description

Martin Barry is the Founder and CEO of Manifesto Market and Chairman of reSITE, an urbanist NGO. He has been awarded in the EU and North America across 3 industries: landscape architecture, retail real estate development and events excellence. Since 2018, he’s been committed to his startup Manifesto, an internationally recognized food hub model operating its 3rd location in Prague, Czech Republic with global expansion plans underway. Manifesto’s mission is to provide hybrid offline-to-online experiences merging food, culture and technology and to transform underused urban places based on values of sustainability, equity, and community. He is a Fulbright Scholar and former Associate at W Architecture, an award-winning firm in New York City.

Best Newcomer

Born Digital

Description

Born Digital provide scalable AI-Driven Digital Contact Centre technology. It helps traditional contact centres automate a significant part of manual human activities and provide high-availability/high-quality services to their end customers.

Invity

Description

Inviting everyone to the world of cryptocurrencies with the all-in-one comparison platform for buying, exchanging, and selling crypto.

VOS.Health

Description

VOS.health is a self-reflection company. Our mission is to help people become a better version of themselves, encourage them to self-reflect, and maintain their mental health.

Diversity Role Model of the Year

Andrea Bohačíková

Description

Over 11 years of experience in business development and business strategy. CEO & Founder M.arter: helps women and men on parental leave return to the labor market or start, lead or scale up their own companies. Head of the BusinessUp program for beginning entrepreneurs. Lecturer. Mentor of individuals, non-profit organizations, startups and small businesses. Co-founder&head of Jaké chceš Česko (initiative to support a small and medium local business), Co-founder of Educator initiative to adapt education to the 21st century. Founder of Female Leadership: a community for growing women’s leadership skills.

Pavlina Louzenska

Description

Pavlína is a Lead Mentor in Google for Startups for Europe and Africa, as well as in various other accelerators. She founded #HolkyzMarketingu, a female empowerment community which currently unites 30 000+ marketers. She is a Google Certified Trainer for Design Thinking and Female Entrepreneurship. Alumni to Aspen Institute Young Leaders Program, YTILI, On Deck and CGYPP fellowships. She was listed among 20 people who shaped 2020 by Hospodářské noviny. She regularly hosts Trendspotting podcast and sends a newsletter on society and technology pavlinaspeaks.com.

Vladimíra Činčurová

Description

Vladimira has experience with developing and acquiring new partnerships, creating diverse and inclusive programs, and building startup ecosystems in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Currently, she works as a Startup Program Manager at Microsoft, managing Microsoft for Startups program in Czechia and Slovakia, a program for B2B startups. She invests in strong partnerships with local accelerators, investors, innovation hubs, community groups, and connecting startups with relevant contacts and mentors in order to help them scale further and faster.She is also co-founder of Lumus Investment Collective – the biggest female angel investment club in Eastern Europe, connecting female angel investors with startups in the CEE.

Katerina Haring

Founder, CEO of Dynamic Group, Design Center, Arch Group, GEP President of CMAPM (Czech-Moravian Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Managers) World FCEM Vice President Europe WED (Womens Entrepreneurship Day) Ambassador in the Czech Republic Active search for business partners in the CIS countries for Czech and foreign companies and participation in negotiations on business conditions Since May 2020, the entrepreneur podcasts have been recording for the info.cz portal Forbes magazine ranked Kateina Haring among the 135 most influential women in the Czech Republic

Ana Wolsztajn

Description

Ana started off her career as a copywriter before Mad Men series made it cool, then she continued as tech journo, a founder, community builder and brand strategist for startups. 15 years of work as an operator later, Ana draws from her experience at a number of venture builders, and big event organizers eg. SaaStock, Startup Sesame, SouthStart in a variety of growth, product, marketing, and comms roles in mainland Europe, the UK, Asia, and Australia. Nowadays Ana invests in early stage tech startups across Europe with KAYA. She also gives back via mentoring as Included VC alumna and startup advisor to various communities across Europe.

Best Coworking Space

WorkLounge

Description

WorkLounge stands for high quality workspace services with flexible conditions and personal approach. It is a representative coworking space at exclusive locations in Prague where you can meet both freelancers and small or mid-sized teams working across different industries.

HubHub Czech Republic

Description

At HubHub, like-minded talent and a culture of opportunity collide – creating the perfect environment for extraordinary things to happen.

Impact Hub Czech Republic

Description

The Impact Hub is an inspiring space with endless opportunities for everyone. Its community, coworking space and fully equipped offices provide the perfect foundation for independent professionals, start-ups, small companies and non-profits.

Ecosystem Hero of the Year

Lucie Bresova

I am building on my decade of work in the startup world where I met countless companies in different stages, and many of the challenges here come down to people and how you organize them (because when you organize the right people well, they can solve anything – product, money, you pick!). This is something I had plenty of fun with when I managed the exponential growth of the travel tech disruptor Kiwi.com, taking the company from 10 to 2000 people globally and setting the financial systems to sustain growth from 0 to 1bn€ in turnover in 4 years. Now I am putting this experience to work as COO of Pocket Virtuality – building live 3D virtual teleportation, enabling remote technical collaboration in the industrial world.

Marketa (Havlova) Prenosilova

As a director of the Division of Startups and Innovative SMEs, I am responsible for activities from supporting the commercialization of R&D, through startups and their technological incubation and internationalization, to working with potential investors in the strategic sectors of the agency. I´ve been working with startups for 10 years. I started as a project manager responsible for launching the CzechAccelerator project (1st foreign accelerator for Czech startups). Later I held several positions in the Agency and I am also member of the several national and international groups and platforms focused on innovation, startups and R&D commercialization. I was also in the inception of the first online hub for startups called czechstartups.org

Vladimíra Činčurová

Description

Vladimira has experience with developing and acquiring new partnerships, creating diverse and inclusive programs, and building startup ecosystems in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Currently, she works as a Startup Program Manager at Microsoft, managing Microsoft for Startups program in Czechia and Slovakia, a program for B2B startups. She invests in strong partnerships with local accelerators, investors, innovation hubs, community groups, and connecting startups with relevant contacts and mentors in order to help them scale further and faster. She is also co-founder of Lumus Investment Collective – the biggest female angel investment club in Eastern Europe, connecting female angel investors with startups in the CEE.

Startup of the Year

MEDDI Hub

Description

MEDDI hub is a company focused on developing leading telemedicine solutions for individuals, medical institutions and corporate clients. We launched the first version of MEDDI app in 2020. In 2021, we launched a customized version in cooperation with Masaryks Oncology Institute.

Leadspicker

Description

Whether youre in need of more business opportunities for your B2B firm or a supply of fresh startup applicants for an accelerator we are here to help. Explore how you can automate lead generation for your busy sales team or get more startup applications at leadspicker.com

GREYCORTEX

Description

GREYCORTEX is one of the main providers of NDR (Network Detection and Response) security solutions for IT as well as OT (industrial) networks. We help organizations to make their networks secure and reliable.