Out of 189 early-stage companies, a jury of entrepreneurs and investors selected the projects they saw as the most innovative and promising. The overall winner was PangeAI, founded by Stanford PhD Marek Miltner. Miltner’s PangeAI is building a model of planet Earth that AI agents can understand. The platform combines satellite imagery with drone, sensor, climate and internal company data, allowing AI agents to understand geospatial relationships and answer questions about risks, infrastructure, land and assets.
The company currently has a team of eight and is targeting industries including insurance, real estate development and energy. “It is incredibly encouraging to see how many entrepreneurial talents with global ambitions are working hard on their companies in the Czech Republic,” said Czech entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Simona Kijonková, who founded JSK Investments together with her husband Jaromír.
Kijonková presented the winning team with a CZK 300,000 prize. Beyond the cash prize, participants in Nápad roku can access investment of up to CZK 50 million, while finalists receive mentoring from internationally successful entrepreneurs and investors. In total, companies participating in the competition have already raised nearly CZK 500 million in investment.
From AI commerce to space
The Startup of the Year 2026 award went to Vojtěch Oravec and Ranketta, a platform focused on the emerging field of AI commerce. Ranketta helps retailers make their products discoverable and recommendable by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Amazon Alexa; and, ultimately, turn those recommendations into sales.
The startup already has more than 100 customers, closed a new investment round over the summer and is now expanding into the US, where Oravec himself is relocating.
Second place went to Matěj Schmalz and Elredo Voice, which uses AI to help publishers produce and distribute audiobooks up to 10 times faster and at a fraction of the cost while maintaining quality. The opportunity is significant: according to the company, only around 15% of books currently have an audio version. Elredo Voice has recently joined Audible’s accelerator, raised €1 million and is now producing around 200 books per month.
Third place went to Adam Pruška and Lab On Card, which is bringing laboratory-grade infectious disease diagnostics into the field. The company has developed a portable diagnostic card designed to deliver accurate results without electricity, complex equipment or specialist personnel — potentially making advanced diagnostics available in places where traditional laboratory infrastructure is unavailable.
The Kooperativa Safety Has a Green Light special award went to Martin Tyburec and Advaspace. Its chips, deployed in space and on aircraft, are designed to protect satellite technology from cosmic radiation. The need for such technology is growing rapidly. Around 14,000 active satellites currently orbit Earth, while that number is expected to reach approximately 100,000 by 2030. Radiation and other high-energy particles can damage or destroy satellite electronics, making radiation protection increasingly important for the expanding space industry.
“Modern technologies, led by AI, are bringing incredible progress, but they also create new demands for safety,” said Jindřich Skrip, Marketing and Communications Director at Kooperativa. “We value projects that make the world safer, approach innovation responsibly and find business opportunities in reducing risks.”
Czech founders are getting more ambitious
According to Nápad roku founder Martin Kešner, the Czech startup ecosystem has changed significantly since the competition launched almost two decades ago. “When Nápad roku started nearly 20 years ago, the Czech Republic was a country of makers and DIY enthusiasts. Today, it is a country of innovators and entrepreneurs,” Kešner said.
This year’s competition attracted almost 200 projects, significantly more than in previous years. Kešner also pointed to a growing share of experienced founders in their 30s and 40s. “Everything is accelerating, not least because of technology. Czech companies are managing to keep up, and many of the finalists have grown incredibly quickly in just the past few months,” he concluded.
