Presto Ventures

⚛️ It’s not every day you invest a quantum startup. ⚛️ It’s not every day you invest a Silicon Valley startup. ⚛️ And it’s definitely not every day you get to read about it in TechCrunch. We’re thrilled to join the $10M Seed round of BlueQubit, a SF-based #quantum software startup founded by Stanford alumni, Hrant Gharibyan, PhD and Hayk Tepanyan 👏🏼 Our world faces computational challenges that far surpass the limits of classical computing – particularly in sectors like finance, pharmaceuticals, and material discovery. Quantum computing is poised to unlock new solutions to old problems in the coming decade. This will be a true leap, and the time to get ready is now ⏰ As Hrant put it: “Quantum technology is not just a buzzword; it’s the next frontier of computational power” 🦾 🌐 Quantum technologies and their global adoption represent a core investment thesis for Presto Tech Horizons. Recent breakthroughs in the field have only strengthened our conviction. All signs point to quantum simulations becoming the first real-world application of this technology. Congratulations to the entire BlueQubit team and to our fellow investors – Nyca Partners, Restive Ventures, Chaac Ventures, NKM Capital, BigStory VC, DEPO Ventures, and others 🎉 #deeptech #newinvestment #PrestoTechHorizons | Czechoslovak Group | AMI Communications

☝🏼 What is Eda’s advice for the successors? Don’t wait up. ”If founders don't have a vision for the asset structure or seem unsure, the successors should give it a thought and come up with their own proposals.” 🔒 Eduard Kucera Jr. is an expert in business intelligence and cybersecurity, investor and partner at Presto’s second fund, and a member of the Kucera entrepreneurial family. As the son of one of Avast co-founders, he grew up immersed in #cybersecurity, shaping his future path. Today, alongside investments and venture capital, he oversees and manages his family’s wealth as one of the custodians of their family foundation. At the Engaged Investments Conference, Eda spoke with Wealth Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Eva Ulrichová, about intergenerational wealth transfer, entrepreneurial upbringing, and technological investing: 💡 Why did Eda intentionally infect a computer with a virus? 💡 What’s his first-hand experience with gambling? (spoiler alert: no family wealth was harmed, and the $1 loss taught Eduard a priceless lesson 🤓) 💡 Why did Eda and his sister renounce their inheritance in favour of the foundation? 💡 How are their family values – being honest and not cutting corners – reflected in the family structure? 💡 As a father of three, how is he preparing the next generation for their future responsibilities? …and so much more. Grab yourself a warm beverage and dive right into Eda’s fascinating journey: https://lnkd.in/ed3zKZDQ #wealthmanagement #succession #techinvesting

Scaling a business or scaling a mountain? 📈🧗🏼♀️ Turns out Lucie Bresova excels at both. Whether it’s a startup or a summit, Presto’s new Partner knows how to take things to the next level. ✈️ Soaring to success As Managing Director and COO, Lucie led Kiwi.com through an extraordinary period of growth – scaling the business from 10 employees to 2,000 and increasing turnover from zero to €1bn annually. As Kiwi’s CFO, she implemented financial systems transacting in 28 currencies, optimized cash flow, and built processes for reporting and budgeting. 🔄 Transforming corporations As SVP of Operations at Groupon, Lucie led a 1,600-strong team through a challenging turnaround, halving the budget within a year while maintaining operational effectiveness. Her work in automating processes and integrating AI helped improve both customer and merchant experiences. 🚀 Speak Traction to her If you want to catch Lucie’s attention as a startup founder, one word matters most: traction. Nothing speaks louder than customers willing to pay for your product. 🧗🏼♀️ Focus and clarity FTW Whether scaling a cliff or riding the waves, Lucie finds peace in adrenaline-filled sports. The complete concentration they demand allows her to recharge and bring her A-game to the boardroom. As our Partner Vojta Rocek put it: “Lucie’s extensive experience with high-growth companies, her dedication to supporting young people and startups, her CFO and MD expertise in later-stage firms, and her uniquely deep understanding of the deeptech market make her the perfect fit. You would have to look really, really hard to find someone else as uniquely suited for the Partner role.” Well, looks like we found ourselves a unicorn! 🦄 Curious to learn more about Lucie? 👉🏼 This way: https://lnkd.in/e45xWa_b

Are you team 🍕 or 🍤? The #eventseason didn’t slow down in November. Its short days and long nights hosted dimly lit, deep-focus hackathons, as well as shiny, big-production conferences. And our Presto team enjoyed them all! 🇫🇮 Slush | Helsinki Slush needs no introduction. Even the weather respects the brand. Aside from connecting with some of the brightest entrepreneurs (and occasionally impersonating our portco founders 😅), what were the #slush2024 highlights for our Associates Tichomir Jenkut and Matej Luhový? 🛡️ Impressive resilience-themed side event organized by Project A and IQT (In-Q-Tel) – that’s the one with the delicious shrimp canapes 🍤 🎤 Meaningful connections made during the dinner organized by Evli Growth Partners, followed by some unforgettable karaoke by Mashup – Britney’s Toxic and Robbie’s Angels topped the charts, and the rumour is that Oliver Bori and Jan Korous, CFA stole the show 😎 🌟 Spectacular performance by #Windows95man aka DJ Teemu Keisteri at the official Slush afterparty – google him now, thank us later. 🇩🇰 European Defense Tech Hackathon | Copenhagen More than 💯 participants split into 19 teams were working on a broad range of challenges – not just drones. How about building a concrete 3D printing robot for the frontline, or sensors for detecting landmines hidden 30 centimeters below the surface? This was our second #EDTH experience, great job Benjamin Wolba and the team! 🦾 Our Associate Oleksandr Bulatnikov really enjoyed the hackathon buzz, and we were happy to see a Czecho-Slovak student team from the Technical University of Denmark place 3rd with their BRUMBAAL solution: a control system for a fly-by-fiber drone swarm. 🇨🇿 8th #CASSINI #Hackathon | Prague Last but not least, and closer to home: our associates Tichomir Jenkut had the opportunity to mentor some really talented teams at the 8th CASSINI hackathon – organized by EUSPA - EU Agency for the Space Programme and Pražský inovační institut – that focused on leveraging space technologies to tackle critical challenges related to Europe’s defence and security. The hacker energy was great and pizza was plentiful 🍕👌🏼 Big thanks to Peter Deďo, Eliška Slámková and our friends at CSG Aerospace for having us, and kudos to Ivo Denemark for the great snapshot of the first night 📸 Congratulations to the winning team of the regional round, TerraLink, well-deserved! 🥇

💣 Only customers hold true expertise, not VCs. 💣 In CEE, the more successful you get, the lonelier you become. Especially if you work hard. 💣 Even the smartest salesperson in the world cannot realistically portray why sales aren’t going as planned. Founders must attend sales meetings. Vojta Rocek, an exited founder turned VC, is dropping insights and truth bombs on all things building, scaling, and selling 📈 👉🏼 Discover Vojta's transformation from founder to investor and his key insights on market importance, overcoming founder mistakes, and driving startup growth: https://lnkd.in/d9cFMxvF Thank you for the interview, Patricia Borlovan and SeedBlink – peer to peer learning is critical for early stage startups, and sharing is caring 🙌🏼 What you do for founders is great! #SteppingUp #scaling #lessonslearned #CEEstartups

🆕 Presto News for Q3 2024 is up 🆕 tinyurl.com/PrestoQ3news Q3 was an exceptionally productive period at Presto – no downtime, just relentless execution: 🔹 Who’s our new Partner and our new COO? 🔹 Which Fund II portfolio companies are on a roll? 🔹 What’s the future of resilience and impact investing? Without further ado, let’s dive right in! 🗞️ If you don't want to miss #VC and #startup news on technologies that protect the future + updates on all things Presto, make sure to subscribe 📨 We'll be happy to have you 🙌🏼 #SteppingUp #newsletter #PrestoTechHorizons

🙃 Basic? Everything but! The first official #CzechStartupWeek was nothing short of extraordinary – including its main pillar, Engaged Investments Conference, with its many side events. It’s hard to believe a month has flown by already, so let’s use this #TBT for the recap it deserves 📷 From day to night, this flagship event attracted 444+ attendees from all corners of the investor and startup world. They had a chance to engage with more than 40 speakers and enjoy 10+ side events, creating countless opportunities for meaningful connections and insights 👌🏼 As the Gold Partner of the conference, we loved the chance to connect with investors and startups across so many touchpoints: 🛡️ Peculiarities of Defense Investment Our partner Premysl Rubes and Tomáš Richtr, COO of CS SOFT a.s., member of CSG Aerospace, shared their insights on defense and dual-use tech investing. 🪖 DefSec Innovation Challenge This duo also joined the jury of a startup challenged posed by DefSec Innovation Hub, searching for ways to improve soldier resilience. 🎤 Investor Reverse Pitch Our partner Vojta Rocek took the stage to introduce Presto in his signature style – bold and unconventional. 🔒 Digital Armor: Where Cyber Security Meets Opportunity Our cybersec expert Eduard Kucera and Presto’s portfolio founder Simon Bauwens of OutKept explored the future of cybersecurity. 💡 Dual-Use Napkin Workshop Our Associate Tichomir Jenkut led an interactive workshop that dove into key metrics and expectations for startups bridging commercial and military sectors. 🏃🏼 Ready, Set, Run + Ready, Set, Wine 🍷  True to the dual-use spirit, this year we organized not one but two side events ✌🏼 Big thank you goes to our friends at Goodlok and SENS Foods for the morning fuel and evening snacks. Who knew flavoured 🦗 paired really well with wine!? And last but not least – a huge thank you belongs to the one and only Eliška Vámošová and her fantastic event team 👏🏼 Congratulations Petr Sima, Kateryna Kovalenko, Martyna Mąkowska, Martin Kešner, Annette Lovasová, Andrea Chocholova, Natalie Chladkova, and the entire DEPO Ventures and J&T Ventures crews behind the scenes – see you in 2025!

S Presto Ventures jedeme na vlně podcastů 🎙️ . ▪️ O tom, co nejvíce trápí startupy – Na vlně podnikání Týdeník Ekonom s Martin Petříček https://lnkd.in/dZUKnfn9 ▪️ O investicích do obrany – Agenda Seznam Zprávy, a.s. s Jan Richter  https://lnkd.in/d3Td4m-4 ▪️ O rozhýbání ekonomiky a podpoře investic – FocusOn.cz s Jiří Böhm https://lnkd.in/dh5fvs_r   A nemůžu samozřejmě zapomenout na duo Vojta Rocek & Vojta Žižka https://lnkd.in/dduYXRJi

📊 400 companies 🌍 17 countries 🏆 5 portfolio champions! Last Thursday, Deloitte announced the winners of their annual Technology #Fast50 CE competition – and we couldn’t be more #portfolioproud 💙 Congratulations to our portfolio founders and their hardworking teams 🎉  Let’s look at the 5️⃣ portco champions together: FAST 50 A landslide for 🇨🇿 startups! 17 Czech companies placed in the Top 50 fastest growing companies in Central Europe 💪🏼 Oddin.gg took the cake with a rocket growth of almost 8,000% over the last 3 years 💥 And Jeff App is celebrating again, shortly after winning the Sifted 30 Leaderboard: Eastern Europe & Baltics. 🥇 Oddin.gg | Vlastimil Venclik, Marek Suchar, Prokop Simon, Pavel Macháň 🥉 Jeff App | Toms Niparts, Reinis Tenis, Sandris Artemjevs 🏆 Woltair | Daniel Helcl, Karel Náprstek, Jiri Sveda COMPANIES TO WATCH Next year’s winners, perhaps? Make sure to keep an eye on these hustling teams: 🥈 Adam | Jakub Dvořák, Roman Sysel 🏆 Sloneek | Filip Lukac, Milan Rataj Congratulations to all the decorated companies, and thank-you to Jiri Sauer and his team! It’s great to see the CE entrepreneurial spirit going strong 📈 #DeloitteFast50 #CEEstartups #TechAwards #SteppingUp

🚀 Je to přesně týden, co jsme Asociaci vypustili do světa. Máme radost, že na představení Czech Startup Association v OPERO si udělali prostor první členové, novináři i zástupci startupové a investorské komunity. 🎯 Co je cílem Asociace? 🎯 Proč má Asociace smysl? 🎯 Jak a komu Asociace pomůže? Přesně to a mnohem více se ve videu dozvíte přímo od našeho předsedy Martin Jiránek a klíčových ambasadorů: 🎤 Vojta Rocek, partner Presto Ventures 🎤 Ondrej Kratky, spoluzakladatel Liftago a zakladatel grid.online 🎤 Jakub Císař, spoluzakladatel a partner NOVALIA A co dál? Toto jsou naše nejbližší mety: 📍 Dotažení mise #ESOP 📍 Zapojení do pracovních skupin CzechInvest (KRIS) a Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic 📍 Zahájení a rozvoj spolupráce s politickými stranami – startupy totiž v předvolebních programech potřebují ne jen pár slov, ale celé kapitoly, jinak se nepohneme Přidáte se? 👉🏼 startupczechia.cz 🙌🏼 Budete ve skvělé společnosti: Ondřej Zemek, Majo Porvažník, Sparring, Petr Chladek, JIC - business with a purpose, Andrea Chocholova, Michal Kratochvil, StartupYard, Pavel Dolezal, Keboola, Vlastimil Venclik, Oddin.gg, Jakub Krikava, Credo Ventures, Jan Davídek, Purple Ventures, Jaroslav Ton, P&J Capital, Vaclav Gregor, Martin Ayrer, Martina Součková, Eliška Radváková, AMI Communications a mnozí další – děkujeme!