Rockaway Ventures, from Jakub Havrlant‘s investment group, has announced the closing of its second fund with a total amount of “just under” 55 million euros, or almost 1.4 billion crowns. Almost a quarter comes directly from Rockaway, the rest is made up of private and mainly Czech investors. The fund focuses on technology startups in the so-called late-seed and series A stages from areas around the internet economy and practical applications of artificial intelligence, for example in the energy, manufacturing or defense industries.
“We are interested in founders across Europe and the United States who want to grow and advance their business using modern transformative technologies,” says Rockaway Ventures partner Dušan Zábrodský. “A few years ago, investors often did not understand or did not believe in AI. Today, we can show its concrete impact on individual industries, and investors are more willing to invest in these solutions,” adds the second partner Petr Šmíd.
Rockaway Ventures has its roots in 2014, when it invested in the first startups such as Productboard or Brand Embassy without a formal fund. It currently has eleven companies in its portfolio, including the German hotel management platform Apaleo and the American-Slovak CulturePulse, which uses artificial intelligence for behavioral modeling.
