Engaged Investments, the leading international conference for investors and startups, will offer an even richer programme this autumn than last year. The aim of this unique event in the Czech Republic, which will bring together up to 350 participants from all over Europe, as well as major investors from the USA, is to promote cross-border investment and mutual cooperation between startups and investors across regions. The fifth edition, co-organised by DEPO Ventures and J&T Ventures, will take place on 23 and 24 October in Prague. In addition to investment topics, it will also focus on current technologies from the defence and cybersecurity industry, space technology, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
The Engaged Investments conference provides a space for sharing knowledge, experience and best practices of leading investors in the venture capital world. In addition to the main areas mentioned above, it will also focus on how to bridge the gap between investing in startups and access to venture capital in the US and CEE, or the importance of exits in the startup environment.
Confirmed speakers include former Chief Technology Officer of Avast Michal Pěchouček, angel investor in Czech unicorn Mews and founder of Odeon startup Ory Weihs, Czech entrepreneur and investor Michael Rozstok Poplar, RSJ Investments Martin Hudeček, director of Romanian unicorn UiPath and now angel investor Gabriel Panna, founder of MariaDB and general partner of the Norwegian fund Open Ocean,Tony Nysten, investor of the German fund 10X Founders with a value of CZK 4 billion, Nico Schoenenberger, American investor with more than 460 startups in his portfolio and partner of the fund Diaspora Ventures, Marvin Liao, general partner of the Polish deep tech fund OTB Ventures, Marcin Hejka. The conference will also be attended by members of the European Commission and the NATO Innovation Network.
The first day of the conference is dedicated to investors, discussions and networking. The second day will focus mainly on startups. Hundreds of technology companies from different industries looking for investors will present. There will also be a startup competition or Defence Innovation challenge. In view of the current global situation, the conference will also put an emphasis on defence technology. Engaged Investments has thus teamed up with DefSec Innovation Hub and the new domestic fund Presto Tech Horizons.
“Five years ago, defence technologies and their development were mainly the domain of states, financed mainly by governments. Thanks to the European Union and NATO, this is changing. Their senior leaders are interested in getting the private sector involved in this area and in getting more venture capital to support it as well. It is envisaged that new technologies will have dual use, in addition to defence, in the civilian sector. All this helps to reduce the risk for investors,” says Petr Šíma, partner at DEPO Ventures.
Regional Finale of the global competition Startup World Cup
The highlight of the second day will be the regional final of the prestigious global competition Startup World Cup, organized by the American fund Pegasus Tech Ventures. A pre-selected conference of the top ten startups will determine the winner, who will advance to the finals in Silicon Valley and compete to win one million dollars. Last year, startup LayAI advanced to the grand finals, but did not take home the prize. This year, conference partner VISA will also be involved with a prize of 50,000 CZK for flights to the USA. Another significant prize will be an investment from DEPO Ventures worth two and a half million crowns.
The conference will also offer a complementary programme for different groups of investors and startup founders – this will be gradually published on its website. “We place a major emphasis on the high level of both the participants and the program offered. We provide a space for investors to gain new investment opportunities and expand their knowledge, but also to establish new professional contacts not only from the Czech Republic or Europe. We see more and more interest from foreign investors in this format and in cooperation with the Czech startup ecosystem, so we are pleased that the international representation will be much stronger than in previous years,” says Eliška Vámošová, Engaged Investments conference director.
Other partners include the law firm Bird&Bird, the global payments company Visa in cooperation with Česká Spořitelna’s Seed Starter programme, one of the best-known domestic funds Credo Ventures, the Budapest-based fund Lead Ventures, the support agency Uniqa Ventures, the Austrian Uniqa Ventures, the innovation agency Powerhub, the business and investment support agency CzechInvest, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Prague Innovation Institute.
More about DEPO Ventures
DEPO Ventures is an investment group focused on early stage startups in the CEE region, backed by a community of angel investors. With the third angel fund in the pipeline, their portfolio includes more than 40 investments. Notable projects include the global blockchain platform Tatum, an innovative solution for heart monitoring from home via Kardi AI, smart business financing from Flowpay, the mobile guide SmartGuide or the groundbreaking logistics platform Ringil.
The investment group also runs DEPO Angels, an international syndicate that connects investors with quality startups and simplifies the investment process.
DEPO Venture’s vision is to teach entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals that investing in startups should be a natural part of any qualified investor’s portfolio.
source: Depo Ventures
