Backed by prominent Czech entrepreneurs and operating in cooperation with the investment group J&T and the investment company Amista, Spinoffy represents a rare attempt to modernize the Czech innovation ecosystem from within structurally. Every year, tens of billions of Czech crowns are invested in science and research. Hundreds of applied research projects are successfully completed. Yet only a fraction reach the market as viable companies.
“The Czech Republic excels in science, but we are not sufficiently successful in translating research results into functioning companies. The biggest gap emerges precisely when grant funding ends and the project is not yet mature enough for traditional venture capital.”
That gap, widely known as the “valley of death”, is where many promising discoveries fail. While basic research and public grants are relatively well developed in the Czech Republic, and venture capital is available for more advanced startups, early-stage commercialization remains underfunded and under-managed. Spinoffy’s strategy is to intervene precisely at that fragile moment.
The fund was founded by three equal partners: Alexandra Kala, entrepreneur and co-founder of Profimed and Swissdent, who brings international business experience and a global investor network. Jana Soukupová, a specialist in knowledge transfer and the founder of the Academy of Transfer at the National Technical Library. And Aleš Bělohradský, economist, co-founder of the Centre for Public Finance at Charles University, and an expert in early-stage technology valuations.
Kala also leads the research and innovation working group within the platform “Second Economic Transformation,” where the founding team first began collaborating on initiatives connecting industry with top-tier research, including the so-called Industrial Chairs program.
“Western innovation ecosystems like Cambridge did not arise from top-down policy decisions. They evolved through gradual, organic connections between universities, investors, and industry. Spinoffy aims to become the missing link in the Czech environment.”
According to their interview with Czech Hospodarske Noviny, the team drew inspiration not only from Cambridge but also from university and entrepreneurial environments in Oxford, Munich, and Zurich — particularly from the Swiss experience of structured spin-off support. Spinoffy enters projects at the Proof of Concept stage — often before a company is formally established.
Over roughly a year, the fund provides early-stage capital, assigns a dedicated project manager, supports technological and market validation, assists with IP strategy and patent protection, and connects researchers with industrial partners.
Only after validating market viability does the spin-off company get formally established. The founding scientists retain a majority stake, while the fund and the parent university take minority shares. The project can then proceed toward pre-seed and seed rounds, potentially attracting traditional venture capital. Importantly, the fund does not seek to bypass universities or the Czech Academy of Sciences. On the contrary, they are considered key partners.
“We created a specific mechanism that enables financing promising projects before a company even exists. We want to function as a natural bridge between academia and private capital.”
Spinoffy primarily targets deep-tech innovations with global potential, including Artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, Quantum technologies, Advanced materials and chemistry, Advanced manufacturing and robotics, Clean technologies and energy. The fund does not plan to focus on biotechnology or healthcare.
While the Czech Republic is its primary market, Spinoffy also considers projects from the broader Central and Eastern European region — provided there is a strong Czech footprint, such as a Czech co-founder or collaboration with Czech research institutions. The fund aims to invest in six to ten projects annually, reviewing dozens more.
Spinoffy is structured as a Czech qualified investor fund (SICAV) managed by Amista, part of the J&T financial group, which has waived management fees for ten years to maximize capital directed toward research projects. The target fund size is CZK 400 million (approximately €16 million), with more than half already secured. The minimum investment per investor is CZK 12.5 million, and the average investment per project is expected to range between €100,000 and €300,000.
Among the first investors are prominent Czech entrepreneurs, including Jan Barta (Pale Fire Capital), Martin Vohánka (Eurowag), Václav Dejčmar (RSJ), Libor Winkler (RSJ), Martin Hájek (Livesport), and Ondřej Tomek (Impulse Ventures). The fund is also in discussions with billionaire industrialist Daniel Křetínský, whose EP Group is evaluating a potential direct investment. These backers provide not only capital but also “smart money” — experience in building global companies, international networks, and industrial partnerships.
Spinoffy has already made its first investment in the Czech-German startup PangeAI, co-founded by Marek Mitner and Johanna von der Leyen. The company develops an AI platform for geospatial data analysis, allowing users to generate risk maps — for floods, traffic accidents, or industrial exposure — through chatbot-style queries.
The investment places Spinoffy alongside international backers, including Stanford University and U.S. investors such as Plug and Play and RTP Global, as well as Czech investors Miton and Tensor Ventures.
Other projects currently under evaluation include plasma-based water purification, quantum sensors for diagnostics and industry, and muon-based non-invasive material scanning for mining and nuclear waste applications.
According to Soukupová and her interview for Czech Hospodářské Noviny, international data confirms the viability of academic spin-offs when properly supported. A long-term study by ETH Zurich tracking 429 academic spin-offs found a five-year survival rate of 92.9% — above the Swiss startup ecosystem average. The primary risk, she notes, lies not in the technology itself but in the lack of structured early-stage support.
In the long term, such spin-offs have generated billions of Swiss francs in aggregated valuation. Over the first six years, Spinoffy plans to support approximately 60 projects and help establish nearly 30 spin-off companies, targeting portfolio value exceeding CZK 5 billion.
