Rockaway Ventures reinforces its team with the addition of David Šťastný and Max Palko

“The addition of David and Max to the team is confirmation of our ambition to make Rockaway Ventures one of the key VC investors in the region,” says Martin Konop, the division’s investment manager. “In addition to broader expertise, we now have substantially greater capacity to focus on the active search for companies with potential to grow and to establish themselves on the global market.”

After six successful exits including, for example, SQLdep, Brand Embassy and Creditas, Rockaway Ventures currently manages investments in a total of 14 start-ups. The work involved with the portfolio is very diverse. “Together with some of the founders, we play an active role in formulating strategies and we strive to provide important know-how and to be a beneficial sparring partner on the shared road to success. In other cases, when a company has already gained strong traction, we take part in the further financing of growth, provide necessary mentoring according to the founders’ needs and, when necessary, assist with the preparations for exit,” explains Martin Konop.

“What I value at Rockaway is mainly the hands-on approach without the corporate complexities, thanks to which you have the possibility to directly influence the trajectory of the best start-ups in the region and help them achieve the desired growth,” says David Šťastný, who was previously involved in the launch of a company focused on venture-capital investments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to that, he worked for the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., where he focused on the area of telecommunications and the oil and gas industry.

“Personally, I intend to focus primarily on working with the start-ups that are already in our portfolio,” says Max Palko. “I mainly look forward to the business development of start-ups in various sectors.” Palko is completing his studies at the Charles University Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, during which he spent a year and a half in the Rockaway Academy programme, where he did work for Košík.cz as well as for start-ups. Prior to joining Rockaway, he worked for three years in the sales and controlling departments of the pharmaceutical company Sandoz and also headed the consulting-oriented Club 307.

Rockaway Ventures focuses its attention primarily on regional technology start-ups with global scalability that are dedicated to using technology to seek out new opportunities and solutions to problems in the areas of eTail, eTravel, Fintech, Proptech and everything associated with the offline and online worlds.