Prague: One of Europe’s Most Interesting Emerging Destinations for Tech Industry
Over the years, Europe has become a hub for tech industries and startups. While this may not be surprising, what is interesting is technology industries in the continent are no longer found only in the main European metropolises like London and Paris. On the contrary, some of the fascinating emerging tech industries and startups in the EU are thriving in Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
Europe is consumer-focused tech applications leaders
According to Atomico, European start-ups are taking the lead in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and chip design. In the article, the Financial Times’ reports that venture capital fund, Atomico, has found that European industrial tech applications and technical platforms that support more consumer-focused services – AI, VR, AR, robotics, chip design, etc. – are drawing record levels of investment and activity.
According to Localglobe founder and seed-stage investor Saul Klein, artificial intelligence, in particular, has been one of the top drivers of growth in the European tech industry. Cities like Paris, Zurich, and Berlin are known for AI research, and the UK is home to world leading artificial intelligence company DeepMind. European companies are creatively using AI for everything from healthcare to music creation and fashion design.
Augmented reality is another area where Europe shines. The website Entrepreneur listed 9 International Startup Hubs to Watch and one of these hubs is the Netherlands, where Layar calls home. Layar is based in Amsterdam and is the global leader in augmented reality and interactive print technology. The Dutch company was the first to create an app that revolutionized AR by merging smartphone cameras with location-based data. What’s more, the Nonprofit Appsterdam is considered by many to be the best place in the world to become an app developer and has helped provide support and infrastructure for the growing community of indie programmers.
The rise of tech in Prague
The Czech tech industry has picked up momentum, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. Prague, in particular, has become one of Central and Eastern Europe’s largest startup ecosystems, proving to be a very friendly environment for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Some of the reason include the city’s low living costs and labor force costs as well as the country’s specialists who are not only knowledgeable of high-tech but also have a strong command of the English language.
As a result, entrepreneurs are flocking to our beautiful city. Prague has become a hub that offers tremendous untapped growth potential for both existing and emerging companies.
With that in mind, some notable tech startups based in Prague include:
Skypicker – This startup enables air travelers to find and book the lowest costing flights. The company’s unique technology is changing the online air travel industry with its data collection and combination algorithm that integrates cheap flights with traditional airlines and creates new routes that are up to 90% less expensive than the current offer on the market.
Endrophina – Here’s another example of a successful Prague-based startup. This award-winning online gambling company known for producing virtual slot games has made quite the name for itself in the iGaming industry. Since its inception in 2012, the company has supplied its content to several top brands including, among others, a unique X rated casino game library of a famous entertainment company.
Invea- Tech – T-Mobile, Konica Minolta, and Siemens, among other companies, use Invea-Tech products to secure and know their networks. The company reports on traffic structure analyze network traffic and alerts on threats that cannot be detected by a standard signature-based approach.
