New Offices in Silicon Valley

Some time ago, we informed you about newly launched Investors Day where twenty projects were applied and only two of them were from the Czech Republic. Global ambitions are now being helped by Rockaway´s offices in Silicon Valley. “As to portfolio projects, we mainly search for the possibility to enter global market. And when a technological company wants to get to global level, it will be extremely difficult without being represented in Silicon Valley,” Dušan Zábrodský explains motives for opening the new branch. The first one to use the background of US office and advantages of being present on American market was  SOCIFI team providing  solution for monetizing public wi-fi.

We Send Czech Start-ups to Silicon Valley

Promising Czech start-ups have a unique opportunity to spend 4 months in Silicon Valley thanks to the program Czech ICT Incubator, which is being launched in cooperation with Rockaway, Seznam.cz and CzechInvest by Czech ICT Alliance.

The selection is divided into three phases and up to 3 Czech start-ups are to be selected in each phase. These will get a free place in incubator Runway, support of mentors from partners and allowance for conferences. All this without any claim for having some share in the company. The applications are to be sent by the end of December. Interviews start in January and first projects are leaving at the beginning of February.

Czech partner, in the role of a private investor, is also the investment fund of Rockaway. “It is extremely difficult to succeed on global market without contacts and background in Silicon Valley. Common incubator is a new way to gain both. Moreover, it is a project supported by an extraordinary amount of first-rate partners and these are another opportunity for the development and getting new contacts for start-ups,” says Dušan Zábrodský, head of Portfolio Investments.

Formal requirements for the applicants are minimal – there must be at least one Czech co-founder. After that, the company goes through a formal check and gets about one month to prepare to expand to the USA. Basic mentoring in the Czech Republic is a part of it.

“Everyone who wants to do global sale heads for the USA. In Europe, we are able to compete with the USA from the technological point of view, and we have better sense of product development, but we lack business and marketing abilities. In the end, this makes the biggest difference,” said Jakub Havrlant at the end of Thursday evening in Wayra.