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We are able to work individually. However, experience has shown that when we join forces, abilities of the whole team grow exponentially.

Team Rockaway

Jakub Havrlant

CEO and Founder
Jakub Havrlant (*1984) is the founder, CEO and sole shareholder of the Rockaway Capital group, which he established in 2013 with the vision of building a global investment group from the Czech Republic.

As an angel investor, Havrlant previously supported start-ups in the United States (e.g. ProductBoard, in which an investment was undertaken in 2018 by the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers group, which is behind the success of Amazon, Google and other global companies), Brazil (e.g. the fintech start-up Creditas, whose value had increased nearly tenfold by the time Rockaway exited the firm in 2017), and the Czech Republic (e.g. Brand Embassy, now a leading customer-care platform that collaborates with Apple, for example).


During the same period (2010-2013), Havrlant served as CEO for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic states in the Allegro e-commerce group (part of Naspers, which also owns stock in Facebook), which he joined after selling his own real-estate start-up Bezrealitky.cz, the first start-up in our country to use Google Maps technology.

By the age of thirty, Havrlant had carried out a successful exit from the role of CEO in a multinational e-commerce group and established a portfolio of investments in global start-ups. Through Rockaway Capital, he is now striving to bring a broader meaning to the term “internet business” – simply building strong companies with the use of digital technologies. The firms under Rockaway’s administration achieved aggregate sales of more than EUR 2.5 billion in 2019, while employing more than five thousand people in 17 European countries.

His contributions have been recognized with inclusion in Forbes 30 Under 30 (Czech Republic) in 2017 or awards such as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Czech Republic) in 2022. His interests extend beyond business, as seen in his philanthropy and membership in the National Economic Council of the Government (NERV), demonstrating his dedication to societal and economic progress.

INVESTMENT PARTNERS

Jaromír Švihovský

CFO
Jaromír serves simultaneously as the CFO and COO at Rockaway. He is thus in charge of finance, the legal department, IT and back-office operations. Jaromír worked for Jakub Havrlant prior to the founding of Rockaway and has thus been part of the team since the very beginning.

He has roots in the world of finance – he has been focused on the the areas of tax consulting, financial management and controlling since 2009. He previously lectured on the issue of international taxation at the Technical University of Liberec.

Robert Chmelař

Investment Partner
Robert has been with Rockaway since 2016 and is responsible for the Private Equity division. He joined Rockaway to help define the investment strategy and direction of the company, in addition to seeking new investment opportunities. Robert was also instrumental in executing Rockaway’s recent successful exits.

Robert has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance and private equity. Prior to joining Rockaway, he worked at Mid Europa Partners, the largest private equity firm in Central and Eastern Europe. As an investment director, he was involved in some of the Mid Europa’s landmark transactions in the Czech market, including investments in České radiokomunikace, T-Mobile, Walmark or Energy 21.

Jaroslaw Czernek

Investment Partner
Jaroslaw joined the Rockaway team as an investment partner in 2015. He brought with him essential know-how, thanks to which he was able to finalise key transactions such as the acquisitions of Mall and Heureka. Today he is responsible for firms in the travel industry, with Invia Group at the top.

Jaroslaw previously worked at the law firms White & Case in Prague and London, Cravath, Swaine and Moor LLP in New York and Linklaters in London. In addition to the Czech Republic, he is a qualified attorney in New York, England and Wales. His specialisations are cross-border transactions in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, with particular focus on Russia/CIS and the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Dušan Zábrodský

Investment Partner
Dušan joined the Rockaway team in 2014. As an investment partner, he focuses primarily on Mall Group, Heureka and certain start-ups. Even though his role is developing, thanks to his knowledge of start-up business and know-how in the area of transformation strategies for large portfolio units, he has long been seeking out new opportunities and cultivating existing projects in our portfolio.

Prior to joining Rockaway, Dušan focused on consulting for international start-ups, where he was involved in company development and entry into international markets. Before that, he spent seven years at AVG Technologies, where he was part of the company’s management, which listed AVG on the New York Stock Exchange.

Jan Jírovec

Investment Partner
Jan Jirovec has been with Rockaway Capital since the beginning, having worked with Jakub Havrlant back in 2013. As an investment partner, he focuses on business development, investor relations and communication. He manages strategic projects across the entire Rockaway portfolio, especially the companies in the Rockaway Arts division: the media group, which includes the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Colours of Ostrava and Designblok, and a number of other cultural events. In our group, in the past he has also worked on the Mall Group, WE|DO, Kosik.cz, Vivantis, and Heureka Group projects.

Prior coming to Rockaway Jan headed the Allegro Group for the Czech Republic and Baltic Region, where he took over from Jakub Havrlant. Before that he helped develop the PayU payment gateway on the Czech and Slovak market. He also worked in the financial software segment in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Andrea Lauren

Investment Partner
As an investment partner, Andrea has long been focused on fintech at Rockaway. She joined the team at a time when the firm needed senior expertise and was arranging partnerships with major global companies. Andrea came to Rockaway from the Czech investment bank Roklen, which she cofounded in 2014 and where as CEO she managed the first Czech investment crowdfunding platform, Fundlift. Prior to that, she worked in London for the global investment banks JPMorgan and HSBC, where she participated in the management of M&A deals for clients in the private sector as well as for governments in the total volume of more than CZK 675 billion. In addition to that, she is also the chairwoman of the Czech Fintech Association (CEFTAS).

Richard Trojan

Investment Partner
As an investment partner, Richard focuses, besides other things, on real estate segment. He has over 16 years of investment management and legal advisory experience; focusing on cross-border transactions and collective investment vehicles. Richard has served as counsel and advisor for several private as well as institutional investors in structuring and investment allocation. He was also in charge of 1,2 bil EUR pan European RE portfolio when working for a UK private equity fond. Richard has received his JD degree from the Charles University in Prague, earned an LL.M. from Virginia Law, and also graduated with the MBA degree from Macquarie University in Sydney.

Petr Šmíd

Investment Partner
Before becoming General Partner at Rockaway Ventures, Petr spent 11 years at Google, where he led the launch and adoption of products like Google Pay and Google Assistant, gaining millions of users across more than ten CEE countries. Under his leadership, Google Pay demonstrated that Central and Eastern Europe could become a leader in the tech sector, surpassing even the Western world. Petr also played a key role in building Google’s B2B advertising business, growing it tenfold, helping numerous digital companies from the CEE region scale and expand to international markets. Before Google, Petr gained extensive experience at McKinsey as an Engagement Manager, working in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Western Europe, Albania, the Middle East, and South Africa. His aim is to build innovative, confident, and competitive companies that can succeed on a global scale.

Viktor Fischer

Investment Partner / Managing Partner at RockawayX
Viktor is an investment partner at Rockaway whose areas of expertise are start-ups and blockchain. He came to Rockaway from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, having previously lived for eleven years in France, where he cofounded Innovatrics, a start-up focused on biometric identification, which won several awards and was ranked in the Deloitte Top 50 with 344% growth. Viktor has taught project management at a university in Paris, and the accelerators StartupYard and Wayra in Prague and The Spot in Slovakia know him as a mentor. He is also an investor in several technology start-ups and runs the club Le Valmont in the very centre of Prague.

Michal Šmída

CEO RockawayQ
Michal joined Rockaway Capital as the CEO of the newly established RockawayQ division, focusing on technological advancement and business digitalization. With over 10 years of experience in fintech and startups, he is the founder and former CEO of Twisto, one of the leading fintech companies in Central Europe. Under his leadership, Twisto secured more than EUR 60 million in funding and served over one million customers. At RockawayQ, Michal aims to leverage his expertise to help companies across the Rockaway portfolio scale their digital operations and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. He holds a degree from the University of Warwick and is a recipient of prestigious awards, including Forbes 30 Under 30. Michal is also actively involved in supporting the startup ecosystem and mentoring young entrepreneurs.

ROCKAWAY CAPITAL TEAM

Petr Mahdal

Executive Leader, Technologist & Advisor
Petr has been part of the Rockaway story since the very beginning, when he was enticed by Jakub Havrlant’s vision, for which he left AVG Technologies, where he’d been for seven years. He specializes in technologies, product development, IT and project/programme management, both directly for Rockaway and for its portfolio companies and projects. His most recent mission involved three years with the Košík.cz on-line supermarket, where he was in charge of R&D and IT, including product development. At the beginning of 2021 he rejoined the Rockaway team. In the past Petr worked for Sunnysoft, a Czech company developing products and software for the precursors of today’s smartphones, and then for AVG, which he took to the New York Stock Exchange and participated in the acquisition of US and Israeli companies.

David Šťastný

Investment Director
David joined Rockaway as an Investment Associate, now he works as an Investment Director. He is involved in the search for new opportunities and is responsible for the existing portfolio.

Before joining us, he was involved in the launch of a venture-capital investment firm in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to that, he worked for the consulting firm McKinsey, where he focused on telecommunications and the oil and gas industry. He studied at universities in Prague and Stockholm.

Anna Dvořáčková

Investment Manager
Prior to starting as Investment Manager at Rockaway Capital in 2023, Anna worked for four years in Germany for the E.ON energy company. She first started in finance and management, and then moved to the international M&A team. She had always wanted to try working abroad and for a corporation, and so she decided to do so immediately after graduating from CEMS at the University of Economics. Her hobbies include playing in an orchestra and sports – bike riding, volleyball and soccer.

Jan Picálek

Investment Associate
Jan, a CFA charterholder, completed his Master’s degree at the Institute of Economic Studies at Charles University before joining Rockaway as an Investment Analyst in 2022. He previously gained investment experience with the Česká spořitelna Real Estate Fund and spent almost two years with the Corporate Finance team at Deloitte. At Rockaway, his primary focus has been on projects within the Euromedia Group and Invia. In his spare time, Jan enjoys spending time with family and friends, exploring the mountains, and participating in sports such as crossfit, running, and winter sports.

Oleksii Bobrov

Investment Analyst
Oleksii graduated from the University of Economics, majoring in Finance and Business Valuation. He joined us from EY, where he worked in the Due Diligence department. His hobbies include snowboarding in winter and running in summer. He also enjoys going out for brunch with friends. And his perhaps not-so-typical hobby is collecting miniatures of various landmarks from cities he has visited.

Arman Avetisyan

Investment Associate RockawayQ
Arman joined Rockaway Ventures as an investment analyst in the summer of 2022. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Finance and Business Valuation from the University of Economics in Prague, where he graduated with honors; during his studies he also completed a program at the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan. He gained valuable experience during a several-month internship at Ernst&Young in the Valuations team and also at Redwood Capital, where he mainly worked on the Dotykačka and Mindpax projects. Arman is involved in identifying and evaluating investment opportunities and also works on corporate development at late-stage portfolio companies with a focus on M&A and fundraising, including robust financial modeling. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, his passion is photography, and most importantly he is the guitarist in the Hochi&East band.

Kristýna Coufalová

Investment Analyst RockawayQ
Kristýna holds an MSc in Statistical Science from the University of Oxford. Prior to that, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from the Institute of Economic Studies (IES) in Prague, her hometown. During her academic journey, Kristýna gained valuable experience through internships, including a role in data science at Moody’s. Kristýna is a sports enthusiast who spent 12 years in athletics and now enjoys recreational running, cycling, and swimming. She loves adventurous travel, preferring hitchhiking and mountain climbing over traditional tourism, and has visited over 35 countries so far.

Samuele Antonio Mazzola

Private Equity Intern
Samuele comes from Český Krumlov and is currently studying at IES. He has experience in consulting for non-profits and also in the energy sector at Grant Thorton. His leisure activities include road cycling, chess and reading books by N. N. Taleb. He is interested in art, design and architecture.

Karel Ziernwald

Technology Intern
Karel is a final year student at the University of Economics, majoring in Finance. Before that he worked at Deloitte as a technology intern, then at Seyfor, where he created a data foundation for the use of artificial intelligence in marketing. As part of Rockaway’s Investment team, he is working on a data platform that will be used to identify financially sound companies with the potential to be bought. He enjoys a good cup of coffee and in his spare time he can be found cycling, running and hiking. His biggest hike to date was a multi-day trek through the Colca Cañon in Peru.

Lenka Dvořáková

Rockaway Arts / Colours of Ostrava CFO
Lenka’s journey with Rockaway began at Invia Group SE, where she worked for two years as Head of Group Controlling and Reporting. Before that, she audited manufacturing and trading companies at KPMG Audit – and as she says, the most interesting ones were, for example, garbage collectors or a betting company. She has a university education both in Bratislava and Prague. She likes to spend her free time with sports and, mainly, with her son, with whom – in a good way – she completely “switches off”.

Adam Chudárek

Rockaway Arts Project Lead
Adam has been working in Rockaway since August 2023 as Project Lead. He started his career ten years ago at AQS, a film acquisition and distribution company, followed by two years at Mall.tv as Product Manager and then by a move to Czech News Center to work in the online department focusing on digital transformation, product and operations management. In his spare time he enjoys running, cycling, watching Formula racing, and spending time with his family.

Iva Fišerová

Rockaway Arts Marketing Director
Iva joined the team in December 2023 and since then has been responsible for marketing portfolio companies in the Rockaway Arts division. She studied political science and economics and then worked at Deloitte. She also led innovation at Creative Dock incubator and held the position of Chief Marketing Officer at technology firm SatoshiLabs (Trezor). For the last 3 years Iva has been doing freelance marketing and brand consulting for global fintech and bitcoin companies. With director Vladimír Michálek she founded Slothmachine, a production company dedicated to artist representation and film production. Iva lives alternately in the Czech Republic and Portugal, loves art and in her free time you can find her surfing in the Atlantic or in the mountains.

Dana Běhálková

Head of Controlling
At Rockaway, Dana is responsible for the financial reporting of key holding companies in the group. So she spends most of her time working on financial controlling, reporting, communicating with auditors and tax advisors and is also involved in cash flow planning for the entire group.

Prior to that, she worked at KPMG, where she led teams in audits, especially of financial institutions.

Martin Štukheil

Group Reporting and Consolidations
Martin has been part of the Rockaway team since 2020. In the Finance Department he is involved in drawing up the group’s financial statements, reporting, working with the auditor, and helping with sub-consolidation within the scope of the group’s individual segments. Before coming to Rockaway, Martin worked at O2 Czech Republic, where he focused on corporate reporting and consolidation. Prior to that he worked for five years at KPMG, where he was in charge of teams auditing prominent Czech manufacturing companies and groups.

Lukáš Galuszka

Group Reporting and Consolidations
Lukáš joined the Rockaway team in 2022. He mainly works on consolidating and auditing the financial statements of the group and the companies in its portfolio, IFRS issues, and reporting. After graduating from Economics at Charles University, he gained experience in the area of finance at KPMG, where he was in charge of company audit teams, and then at the Dr. Max Group, where he worked on IFRS consolidation and audit, coordination of accounting policies in individual countries, and banking finance, among other things. He considers ACCA certification to be one of his greatest successes.

Šárka Bezděková

Consolidation Specialist
Šárka joined our Consolidation team in 2023 bringing valuable experience from her three years at the Prague office of KPMG, where she participated in audits of leading Czech companies, as well as from the finance and global internal audit teams at an American tech company. She graduated from Masaryk University in Brno and likes spending her free time travelling, trying new things, and dancing.

Jan Berný

Financial Analyst
Honza graduated from University of Economics in Prague. For more than 15 years he has been working in the field of finance, with the main focus on the creation of financial models and reports. In Rockaway, he helps with creating a reporting and consolidation system.

Jakub Ryba

Rockaway Ventures Fund CFO & Corporate Finance
Jakub joined the Rockaway team in 2019 and has been overseeing the valuation of our private equity portfolio and capital markets analysis ever since.

Before that, he worked for more than 7 years in Risk Advisory at KPMG. He was manager of an advisory team focused on corporate finance, valuation, business combinations and acquisition accounting. For 3 years he helped clients with IPOs and bond offerings. He has gained experience working on more than 50 assignments in the field of valuation, 15+ business combinations and several transactions on the capital market, the most interesting of which include, for example, advising the largest energy group in Central Europe on various bond offers (combined volume in units of billions of EUR) and or advising to international investment groups in connection with acquisitions and capital markets. He holds ACCA and shortly also ASA accreditation.

Barbora Fadrhonc

Financial Controller
Bara came from KPMG, where she spent nearly six years. She led audit teams, engaged in auditing financial institutions (mainly banks and funds) and also provide consulting services. In Rockaway is in charge of financial controlling, reporting, consolidation and preparing communications with auditors and tax advisors.

Dominika Karvánková

Financial Controller
Dominika joined us in 2017. She graduated from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management.In Rockaway she is responsible for financial controlling, reporting and is involved in cash flow planning of the entire group. She ensures communication with financial institutions and provides support in communication with auditors. She oversees the processing of accounting documents and the execution of payment transactions.

Jakub Koval

Financial Controller
Jakub joins us after 3.5 years at KPMG, where he managed teams auditing mainly banks and other financial institutions. He was responsible for communication with clients, risk assessment, as well as setting up audit procedures and planning engagements. His biggest hobby is sports, both active and passive – especially hockey, ice hockey and football.

Andrea Šamšová

Financial Analyst
Andrea joined Rockaway as legal support, grew quickly and very soon began working with the financial and investment team, assisting them with the preparation of audits and consolidations as well as the day-to-day management of the Group’s operational matters. Today she is a full member of the Financial team as a Finacial Analyst. She is also studying management at the University of Economics in Prague.

Pavlína Fejtková

Junior Financial Analyst
Pavlína works at Rockaway as a Junior Financial Analyst and is therefore responsible for putting together material for accounting, invoicing, and payments, and related communication with banks and regular reporting. Prior to coming to Rockaway she worked as a business analyst at the Rigips division of Saint-Gobain, where she was responsible for reporting to company management and administration of the SAP sales database. Prior to that she was with SPAR, where she helped create budgets and prepare financial analyses.

Klára Kubáčková

Financial Admin
Klára joined Rockaway in 2022 to work in Financial Support, where she is responsible for processing accounting documents, primarily invoices. The year before joining our financial department she graduated from vocational high school, specializing in Economics in English, where she took advantage of her studies abroad in previous years.

Jakub Krůta

General Counsel
At Rockaway, Jakub doesn’t occupy just one chair: he works on all primary aspects of M&A transactions, and to a similar degree also on large corporate and financing projects within Rockaway. He currently spends most time on the Media vertical – the KVIFF acquisition is hitherto Jakub’s largest project at Rockaway.

After studying law in the UK, Germany and China, Jakub lived for a time in the United States before deciding to practice his profession in the Czech Republic. Prior to joining Rockaway’s legal team, Jakub worked at the Prague branch of a German law firm, where he focused on M&A, IP, and data protection law as well as internal investigations in the area of white-collar crime.

Jakub Rod

Chief M&A Counsel
Jakub has worked on a number of cross-border and local transactions, including the joint venture between PPF and Generali, which was realized in 2008; being valued in excess of 5.2 billion euro, it ranks among the biggest joint venture transactions realized in the CEE region. Amongst others, he has also represented Mid Europa Partners in its auction sale of České radiokomunikace, or the founders of AVAST Software in the sale of a minority stake in AVAST to Summit Partners.

Jakub graduated from Macquarie University in Sydney and is admitted, among others, to practice law in England and Wales. After returning from Australia to the Czech Republic in 2008, Jakub worked for five years as an Associate in White & Case Prague’s specialized M&A team. In 2014, he started working as a consultant at BBH, providing legal services to its clientele. In September 2016, he decided to join Jakub Havrlant’s Rockaway.

Soňa Baranová

Legal Counsel
Soňa joined the Rockaway legal department as Legal Counsel in 2022. Prior to that she worked for six years at the Dentons law office, including while still attending the Faculty of Law at Charles University, and then the next three years as a law clerk, primarily focusing on insolvency law. However, she also worked on corporate and criminal law and the area of dispute resolution. She enjoys good food and drink, and also likes to relax while painting in a studio.

Tomáš Jančar

Legal Counsel
Tomáš joined the Legal team in 2023 after working as a trainee lawyer at AK PEYTON legal, where he focused primarily on commercial and labour law. Before that, while attending the Faculty of Law at Charles University, he worked for more than three years with the Czech Olympic Committee and also tried out various other positions. He plays squash, does hiking, and is involved in theatre, both as an improv actor and a regular attendee.

Kristýna Ulmanová

Legal Counsel
At Rockaway, Kristýna focuses mainly on the operational and corporate affairs of holding companies and participates in M&A transactions. She works on group audits, consolidations and intragroup financing.

She joined the team from a small law firm, where she focused mainly on M&A, and also gained a lot of experience during her three years at the investment company Hartenberg Capital. Kristýna studied at the Faculty of Law of Charles University.

Marek Šotnar

Paralegal
Marek is a student at the Faculty of Law of Charles University. He is involved in ELSA Prague, as the treasurer, and he also participated in the organization of the regional round of the international human rights moot court Helga Pedersen. He also has experience in bookkeeping in their family company. His favorite cuisine is Tex-Mex and he is interested in history.

Marianna Zapotilová

PR Executive
At Rockaway, Marianna makes sure that the entire group’s activities are visible. On top of that, she manages social networks, and works with her colleagues on events, press releases, website content, the newsletter and internal magazine, as well as internal communications and PR strategy for Rockaway Ventures and RockawayX. Together with HR, she is also responsible for promoting the Rockaway Academy and communication with universities.

Marianna worked for a year for the Czech Radio news website team, and for seven years for the PR department of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. She has a journalism degree from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University and a Master’s Degree from Kingston University in London. She also spent a study abroad year at the University of Miami.

Marek Blahuta

PR Executive
Marek joined Rockaway’s PR team in the fall of 2021. His responsibilities include promoting the group and portfolio companies, writing press releases and other texts, helping with the newsletter and internal magazine, and with events. He also helps with the implementation of the communication strategies of Rockaway Ventures and the Rockaway Blockchain Fund.

Mark’s experience is primarily in the area of start-ups. For example, he worked as a marketing specialist for SatoshiLabs, a manufacturer of hardware wallets for cryptocurrencies. He also worked as an intern for the information research centre of A. T. Kearney, a consulting company. He studied Media and Communication Studies at Metropolitan University Prague, where he primarily focused on the influence of new information technologies on public opinion.

Michaela Teuchnerová

HR
Michaela has a lot of experience in the entire recruitment process, education coordination and taking care of IT interns. Before joining Rockaway, she worked for the energetics company Innogy and a recruitment agency GoodCall, where she mastered active recruiting, which is very valuable in today’s job market. During her studies, she gained experience with AC/DC realization as an intern in Tres Consulting.

Eva Livora

HR
Eva has been a part of Rockaway since its very beginning – as a VSB graduate (Technical University of Ostrava) she was one of our first employees.

She started as an assistant and then moved up to finance. In June 2015 she was given a chance to start our HR 2.0 department. Since then she has been helping match people with the jobs that fit them best.

Dan Blažek

IT Lead
Dan joined us as IT Lead in 2022 and strives to take IT at Rockaway to the next level by developing user values in symbiosis with security. Prior to that he was responsible for the installation team, software, and indeed the entire IT department at a large gastronomy holding company in the Czech Republic. He considers his greatest milestone and success to be leaving advertising at the age of 25 for the gastronomy sector, where he built a functional IT system virtually “from scratch” for a growing holding company.

Michal Ryba

IT Administrator
Michal joined Rockaway Capital as an IT administrator in 2018. In his previous job, he was involved in two helpdesks, collaborating on national and international projects within the Allianz Group.

Radka Kučerová

Office Manager / Executive Assistant
As an Office Manager at Rockaway, Radka has been providing support to our team since the start of 2023. Prior to that she spent seven years at the Mall Group, where she held several positions in several departments, the most recent being Executive Office Assistant for the management of the entire group and Allegro. Radka loves animals, travelling, and good food, or sitting with friends with good cup of coffee or glass of wine.

Lea Skálová

Finance & Legal Assistant
Lea joined our team in the summer of 2021 as a receptionist, and gradually she worked her way up to our finance & legal assistant. Lea graduated from the College of Higher Medical Education in Pilsen, and in the past worked as a dietologist, a hostess, and in the theatre. While working abroad for several months, Lea was certified as a lifeguard and an Emergency Medical Technician.

Linda Klímová

Receptionist
Linda has been providing office support to her colleagues and taking care of the reception since 2018. Prior to joining our team, she worked as a receptionist at companies in the e-commerce segment or the financial sector, and also took an English course after graduating from high school. As she herself says, the things she considers most important at work are orderliness, a pleasant environment, and above all the satisfaction of her colleagues.

Viktória Firmentová

Receptionist
Viktoria came to Prague 5 years ago to study at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, where she studied Aesthetics and Russian Language and Literature. During her studies she had an internship in Russia and Iceland. She worked in galleries, design shop and also helped at various events. She enjoys design, art, fashion, travel and literature.

ROCKAWAY VENTURES FUND

Petr Šmíd

Investment Partner
Before becoming General Partner at Rockaway Ventures, Petr spent 11 years at Google, where he led the launch and adoption of products like Google Pay and Google Assistant, gaining millions of users across more than ten CEE countries. Under his leadership, Google Pay demonstrated that Central and Eastern Europe could become a leader in the tech sector, surpassing even the Western world. Petr also played a key role in building Google’s B2B advertising business, growing it tenfold, helping numerous digital companies from the CEE region scale and expand to international markets. Before Google, Petr gained extensive experience at McKinsey as an Engagement Manager, working in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Western Europe, Albania, the Middle East, and South Africa. His aim is to build innovative, confident, and competitive companies that can succeed on a global scale.

Dušan Zábrodský

Investment Partner
Dušan joined the Rockaway team in 2014. As an investment partner, he focuses primarily on Mall Group, Heureka and certain start-ups. Even though his role is developing, thanks to his knowledge of start-up business and know-how in the area of transformation strategies for large portfolio units, he has long been seeking out new opportunities and cultivating existing projects in our portfolio.

Prior to joining Rockaway, Dušan focused on consulting for international start-ups, where he was involved in company development and entry into international markets. Before that, he spent seven years at AVG Technologies, where he was part of the company’s management, which listed AVG on the New York Stock Exchange.

Karin Louženská

COO
As the COO of the Rockaway Ventures Fund, Karin makes sure the fund runs efficiently, meaning that she’s in charge of all areas of its operation – communicating with investors and third parties, capital calls, cash flow, and portfolio management. Prior to joining Rockaway, she spent more than 7 years at PwC, where she was a member of an audit expert group focusing on complex accounting and reporting cases, where thanks to being responsible for performing audits of the financial statements of local and international groups and companies, she gained much useful experience. Karin holds ACCA certification. The graduated from the Faculty of Business and Economics at Mendel University in Brno and the Université Catholique de Lyon.

Max Palko

Investment Associate
Max is part of the Rockaway Ventures team. As an investment associate, he examines and evaluates investment opportunities, monitors the start-up market, creates financial models and assists with maintaining the current portfolio. He previously spent a year and a half in the Rockaway Academy programme, where he worked for Košík.cz in addition to start-ups.

Prior to joining Rockaway, he worked for three years in the sales and controlling departments at the pharmaceutical company Sandoz. Max also served as president of the student consulting organisation Club 307, where he collaborated with companies such as the Boston Consulting Group, AT Kearney and Arthur D Little.

Anna Kreml

Investment Associate
Anna has been a member of the Rockaway Ventures team since January 2022 and, as an Investment Associate, seeks out and analyzes new relevant opportunities and startups that have the potential to change the market, and explores their potential. In addition, Anna manages the entire investment process, from the initial contact with the founder through the investment itself to the subsequent assistance with their growth or fundraising of the next rounds.

Anna is no stranger to seizing the opportunity, and she has already shown this at the university: her excellent results have enabled her to take part in competitions from McKinsey or EY, which have helped her get into several foreign summer schools and internships. Anna’s drive opened the door to a world full of opportunities – she worked full-time at EY during her last years at the university, then a job offer came from the Swiss startup Viso.ai. She later joined WOOD & Company in Prague and finally anchored the Rockaway team.

ROCKAWAYQ

Michal Šmída

CEO RockawayQ
Michal joined Rockaway Capital as the CEO of the newly established RockawayQ division, focusing on technological advancement and business digitalization. With over 10 years of experience in fintech and startups, he is the founder and former CEO of Twisto, one of the leading fintech companies in Central Europe. Under his leadership, Twisto secured more than EUR 60 million in funding and served over one million customers. At RockawayQ, Michal aims to leverage his expertise to help companies across the Rockaway portfolio scale their digital operations and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. He holds a degree from the University of Warwick and is a recipient of prestigious awards, including Forbes 30 Under 30. Michal is also actively involved in supporting the startup ecosystem and mentoring young entrepreneurs.

Petr Mahdal

Executive Leader, Technologist & Advisor
Petr has been part of the Rockaway story since the very beginning, when he was enticed by Jakub Havrlant’s vision, for which he left AVG Technologies, where he’d been for seven years. He specializes in technologies, product development, IT and project/programme management, both directly for Rockaway and for its portfolio companies and projects. His most recent mission involved three years with the Košík.cz on-line supermarket, where he was in charge of R&D and IT, including product development. At the beginning of 2021 he rejoined the Rockaway team. In the past Petr worked for Sunnysoft, a Czech company developing products and software for the precursors of today’s smartphones, and then for AVG, which he took to the New York Stock Exchange and participated in the acquisition of US and Israeli companies.

Dušan Zábrodský

Investment Partner
Dušan joined the Rockaway team in 2014. As an investment partner, he focuses primarily on Mall Group, Heureka and certain start-ups. Even though his role is developing, thanks to his knowledge of start-up business and know-how in the area of transformation strategies for large portfolio units, he has long been seeking out new opportunities and cultivating existing projects in our portfolio.

Prior to joining Rockaway, Dušan focused on consulting for international start-ups, where he was involved in company development and entry into international markets. Before that, he spent seven years at AVG Technologies, where he was part of the company’s management, which listed AVG on the New York Stock Exchange.

Arman Avetisyan

Investment Associate RockawayQ
Arman joined Rockaway Ventures as an investment analyst in the summer of 2022. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Finance and Business Valuation from the University of Economics in Prague, where he graduated with honors; during his studies he also completed a program at the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan. He gained valuable experience during a several-month internship at Ernst&Young in the Valuations team and also at Redwood Capital, where he mainly worked on the Dotykačka and Mindpax projects. Arman is involved in identifying and evaluating investment opportunities and also works on corporate development at late-stage portfolio companies with a focus on M&A and fundraising, including robust financial modeling. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, his passion is photography, and most importantly he is the guitarist in the Hochi&East band.

Kristýna Coufalová

Investment Analyst RockawayQ
Kristýna holds an MSc in Statistical Science from the University of Oxford. Prior to that, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from the Institute of Economic Studies (IES) in Prague, her hometown. During her academic journey, Kristýna gained valuable experience through internships, including a role in data science at Moody’s. Kristýna is a sports enthusiast who spent 12 years in athletics and now enjoys recreational running, cycling, and swimming. She loves adventurous travel, preferring hitchhiking and mountain climbing over traditional tourism, and has visited over 35 countries so far.

ROCKAWAYX

Viktor Fischer

Investment Partner / Managing Partner at RockawayX
Viktor is an investment partner at Rockaway whose areas of expertise are start-ups and blockchain. He came to Rockaway from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, having previously lived for eleven years in France, where he cofounded Innovatrics, a start-up focused on biometric identification, which won several awards and was ranked in the Deloitte Top 50 with 344% growth. Viktor has taught project management at a university in Paris, and the accelerators StartupYard and Wayra in Prague and The Spot in Slovakia know him as a mentor. He is also an investor in several technology start-ups and runs the club Le Valmont in the very centre of Prague.

Samantha Bohbot

Chief Growth Officer and Partner
Samantha is RockawayX’s Chief Growth Officer. She oversees the firm’s VC post-investment engine and strategy and growth efforts across our business lines. Samantha invests across stages and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Samantha brings vast crypto industry experience and connectivity to our team, having previously spent four years as Head of Growth at DCG (parent company of CoinDesk, Grayscale, Luno, Foundry, Genesis and Tradeblock.) In that position, Samantha led the firm’s tracking and support for its 250+ company venture portfolio and ran strategic growth initiatives on behalf of the firm and its network of businesses. Prior to DCG, Samantha led business development efforts at Elder, a London-based health tech company, and spent four years at Orbis Investments, the global asset manager, working on its emerging market equity fund and spearheading the roll-out of an innovative online retail investment platform. Samantha is a graduate of Georgetown University (BA) and London School of Economics (Masters).

Hassan Bassiri

Partner
Hassan started his career in 2008 as an attorney in the KPMG NY international practice where he structured M&A deals on behalf of PE Funds and multinational clients and even passed his CFA. He left KPMG to focus on crypto full time in late 2018, joining Arca – a digital asset hedge fund – and helping the firm grow AUM from $5M —> $750M in the peak of 2021. While at Arca, he focused on trading /derivatives, yield farming / DeFi and VC and led seed deals in Axie Infinity, SNX and Thorchain (RUNE). He left Arca in 2021 to join Nima Capital, a family office, to help guide the firm’s investments in the digital asset space focusing on VC and onchain trading. While at Nima, he’s led seed deals in Botanix at $18M, Morpho at $120M and Eversify at $10M.

Marek Šandrik

Principal
Marek is responsible for investments and portfolio management. Prior to Rockaway, Marek worked at McKinsey & Co focusing on financial institutions and building digital products enabled by advanced analytics. Marek holds an MBA from LBS and Bachelor degree in economics from University College London.

Líba Vošahlíková

Chief Operating Officer
Liba Vosahlikova serves as Chief Operating Officer at RockawayX, overseeing firm management, investor relations, fundraising initiatives, thought leadership, and regulatory compliance. She brings experience from her time at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey&Co in New York, as well as contributing to the growth of healthtech unicorn Clarify Health as an early team member. Liba has also supported M&A due diligences at Bain Private Equity Group and established her own consulting practice. Engaged in the blockchain space since 2018, Liba has participated as a crypto investor and NFT enthusiast. A US-Czech dual citizen, she holds an MBA from Harvard University, an MSc in International Finance from the University of Amsterdam, and a BSc in Economic Theories from Charles University.

Alex Laughton-Scott

Head of Capital Formation
Alex brings a wealth of experience with 12 years in finance and six in crypto, spending the last six years at CoinShares, Europe’s largest digital asset manager (publicly traded on Nasdaq Stockholm), where he helped build the sales team and grow AUM from $300m to over $6bn.

Radek Horák

CFO / Operations
Radek Horak is Chief Financial and Operating Officer at RockawayX, responsible for operations and finances. Prior to RockawayX, he worked in asset management for Macquarie Investment Management, a global wealth manager with over $340B in assets under management. Radek started his career with PwC as an auditor and holds an EMBA degree from IMD, and a Master’s degree in Economics from Charles University.

David Rakušan

Investment Manager
David is responsible primarily for portfolio management. Prior to this, he worked as an Investment Analyst at RSJ Investments (€500M AUM), where he was responsible for analysing both direct investment opportunities and indirect fund of funds investments in the VC sector. David holds a CFA charter and a Master’s Degree from the University of Birmingham.

Tomáš Fanta

Investment Manager
Tomas is primarily responsible for investment analysis and portfolio management. Prior to joining the team, Tomas worked as an Investment Banking Associate at WOOD & Company (a leading CEE-based investment bank) focusing on the credit markets. He started off his career at Berkeley Research Group, a global consulting firm, as a Senior Associate in the company’s valuation advisory practice. Tomas holds a CFA charter and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and finance from Northeastern University in Boston.

Martin Kupka

Investment Analyst
Martin is responsible for the investment analysis. Previously he worked at Barclays, developing a bond trading system. Martin holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Anar Bayramov

DeFi Specialist
Anar is responsible for research and investments within Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Prior to RockawayX, Anar was responsible for building yield strategies, risk systems and conducting research within the Labs division of a London-based VC. He started his career building systematic trading strategies at a crypto trading house. He holds an MSc in Financial Technology from Imperial College London, where he was also the co-CIO of the Student Investment Fund.

Adam Bilko

Asset Manager
Adam is in charge of managing a yield fund, which uses strategies to preserve capital and generate a steady return in the crypto world. Prior to joining the RBF team, he was Investment Director and Portfolio Manager at Aakon Capital. Adam holds a M.Sc. degree from RANEPA, Moscow.

Kirill Pyzhyanov

Quantitative Analyst
Kirill’s responsibility is to research and implement new strategies for the Credit Fund. Previously he worked at a propriety trading firm as an analyst and in technical positions in different software development companies. Kirill holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Informatics from the University of Economics in Prague.

Jan Landfeld

Investments
Jan is responsible for research and analysis of investment strategies for the Yield Fund. Meanwhile, he is also finishing his studies at the Prague University of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Law at Charles University. After that, he will be attending a masters program in Banking and Finance at the University of St. Gallen.

Tomáš Eminger

Head of Staking Infrastructure / Staking
Tomas is responsible for operating validation servers, including for projects in which the Fund has invested, and analyzing blockchain technologies. Prior to working with RBF, he worked within Rockaway Capital as an Enterprise Architect for Košík.cz, and before that he was in charge of connection of ICT acquisition services within Mall Group after starting at Kolonial.cz.

Dušan Fedorčák

AI Engineer / Labs
Dusan is responsible for research and development in RockawayX Labs. Prior to that, he led machine learning teams in several startups, including NeuronSoundware, CEAi’s Merlon Intelligence and GoodAI. Dusan holds a Ph.D. degree in Neural Networks, teaches at Machine Learning College and is interested in computer graphics and visual arts.

Robert Brada

Software Engineer / Labs
Robert is a builder and joined the Labs team at its launch. Before that, Robert worked as software developer at SatoshiLabs and he co-founded Croco Finance, a tool analysing Uniswap impermanent loss. Robert holds master’s degree in Cybernetics and Control Engineering from University of West Bohemia.

Tomáš Livora

Software Engineer / Labs
Tomas is a software developer who specializes in building modern web UIs. Prior to joining RockawayX Labs, he was working as a freelancer for various clients around the world. He also co-founded Lumeer.io, a small startup which helps companies to better organize their data. Tomas holds a master’s degree in Information Systems from Masaryk University.

Kryštof Kosina

Software Engineer / Labs
Krystof is a software developer interested in anything related to the web. In the past he has been working both with backend and frontend but mostly he specialize in UIs. His experience as a freelancer involved building apps used for real estate appraisals, detecting personal information in large data storages, or testing aviation students to help them achieve their certifications.
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