The Czech startup and venture capital scene has reached puberty & December news from the world of VC

Into e-mail You have just received the twelfth issue of the CzechCrunch Venture Capital (CCVC) newsletter, which deals with everything that has happened in the world of domestic venture capital in the last month. Below you will find an overview of all transactions that saw the light of day in December.

However, with the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, we cannot omit a bit of balancing. H main topic of the current issue of the CCVC, which you can subscribe to here here , is therefore looking back at last year – a turning point for the Czech startup scene.

The Czech startup scene is maturing

The domestic startup scene has experienced another, this time a truly turning point. Together, Czech startups received record funding of 17 billion crowns , but investments across the continent were also record-breaking. And although the year 2021 was less generous to the exits of domestic founders exceeding a billion crowns (only Twisto achieved it), the more interesting were the closed investments of some startups that exceeded the billion mark (Rohlík & Rossum).

• We wrote an overview of the most important last year’s deals in of a separate article .
• In the next you will find a list of all investments and exits in one place .

But what does the evaluation of 2021 look like from the point of view of startups and venture capital funds? In this case, we can help with the comparison – while after the last major economic crisis, which began in 2008, the domestic startup ecosystem was in its infancy, after more than a decade it reached puberty.

The first Czech unicorn appeared on the scene, ie a startup with a valuation exceeding one billion US dollars – domestic online supermarket Rohlík . The Czechia has thus (finally) ranked among the countries where these mythical beings with a horn on their heads are running, but globally there are almost

Congratulations to Tomáš Čupr, his expansion ride is just beginning. But as we wrote in the July issue of CCVC , for the domestic scene the existence of the first unicorn can have several positive effects:

• Greater attention of large foreign funds, which can have a positive effect on valuations and easier acquisition of the necessary capital for other startups.
• Founders from the Czech Republic see that it works, and it helps grow their ambitions.
• People working in Rohlík gain important experience with rapid growth and scaling, and over time they can use both, for example, in their further business.
• Its domestic investors can also make money at a possible exit from Rohlík, which will help support their credibility and visibility.

Other startups are then billion valuation is slowly approaching and this year we can expect great things from them – among candidates based in the Czech Republic or with land founders and roots are ShipMonk, Productboard, Mews, Rossum, Pricefx or Cera. And others will undoubtedly surprise us.

Venture capital funds like to do that, after all. Credo Ventures, with its Romanian UiPath catch at the time of listing, recorded one of the highest investment returns among VC funds in Europe ever, namely in the amount of 220 thousand percent

CEZ’s investment fund Inven Capital – German Forto exceeded one billion dollars in June .

After a record year, expectations are high and we will see how local innovative entrepreneurs manage to overcome record investments and high exits. We wish them all good luck and look forward to all the interesting deals.

You can read the continuation of the CCVC newsletter here .

You can subscribe to the monthly news from the world of domestic venture capital here , other issues of the CCVC newsletter can be found here .