News - ZAKA VC

Sygaldry, backed by ZAKA VC, raises $139M to build quantum-accelerated AI infrastructure

Big ideas. Hard truths. And one of the sharpest minds in venture capital. We’re excited to share a new interview with our partner and friend Alex Dang, where he reflects on what real failure in startups actually means.

Ateios Systems Closes $7.25M Series A to Scale Next-Generation Battery Electrode Manufacturing

We’re bringing the Venture Mindset to Bratislava. On April 28, we’re hosting an event at the Bratislava Old Market Hall focused on how founders and investors make decisions under uncertainty — and what it takes to build with asymmetric upside in mind.

ZAKA VC Backs DeepSeq.AI’s Functional Approach to Protein Drug Discovery

Slovak AceON Accelerator Invests €40,000 in Italian MedTech Startup JST 3D

Elucidate Bio: Advancing Spatial Multi-Omics in Oncology

🚀 What does it really take to get into Y Combinator — and build a venture-backed biotech company from Europe? (conversation with our portfolio founder Miroslav Gasparek, CEO & co-founder of Sensible Biotechnologies)

ZAKA VC Invests in Cirrus Therapeutics to Advance Gene Therapies for Blinding Eye Diseases

Huge congratulations to Mews on their landmark $300M Series D funding round! 🎉

When AI Enters the Operating Room: AceON Accelerator Backs JST 3D’s AI Vision for the Future of Surgery

Zaka VC Invests in DeepSeq.AI to Transform AI-Based Protein Drug Discovery

As the year comes to an end, it would be expected to write a classic reflection post. But just this once, allow us to do something different — to look back through the lens of our FIRSTS. 👍

Vetstor: She led a billion-Czech-crown pet-store chain, now she’s watching over the health of pets. [article in Czech]

Exactly one week ago, we wrapped up the AceON Accelerator Demo Day for Batch #5 — and it’s safe to say this has been the strongest cohort in the history of the program. 🚀

ZAKA VC Backs Nephrogen’s Kidney-Focused Gene Therapy Platform

Mews and Flexkeeping Unite for Operational Excellence at Smarter, Connected Hotels

💬 Great discussions this week at the Forbes AI Summit, where ZAKA VC’s Partner Ján Búza joined a panel on AI and the future of innovation.

We’d like to feature a recent addition to our portfolio in the robotics space: Verne Robotics. 🤖

🎉 We’re proud to see our portfolio companies, Nephrogen and Mbodi AI, named among the Top 20 Finalists in the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200

Ján Búza from ZAKA VC: Slovak origin is not an obstacle in Silicon Valley [article in Slovak]

🚀 Q3 Recap: Our Most Active Investment Quarter Yet. Let us spotlight some of the remarkable teams we’ve recently partnered with – one of them is Bullseye Biosciences

Mews acquires Slovenia’s Flexkeeping to automate hotel housekeeping

ZAKA VC-backed Flexkeeping acquired by Mews

Introducing Alixia : Strengthening Our Biotech Portfolio 🧬

🚀 Applications for the 5th batch of AceON Accelerator are now closed.From October 2 to December 11, idea and pre-seed stage founders from 49 countries will join an online program

🌟 Continuing our spotlight on startups from Y Combinator’s Spring 2025 batch that we’re proud to have backed — today we’re featuring Bluejay (YC X25) 🐦

🚀 While the Demo Day of Y Combinator’s Summer 2025 batch is slowly approaching, we’d like to spotlight one of the startups from the Spring 2025 batch that we’re proud to have backed — Sygaldry Technologies.

We’d like to extend a big thank you to Alex Dang and Lamia Youseff, PhD 🙌 for hosting an insightful workshop for ZAKA VC & friends!

Turn your vision into a funded venture: Join the AceON Accelerator!

🚀 PORTFOLIO UPDATE: DESKREE LAUNCHES TETRIX AI

From Lisbon to Tbilisi: How AceON Connects the Dots Across Europe’s Early-Stage Startup Ecosystem

AceON launches Autumn Accelerator for European startups: scale fast with €40k and world-class mentorship

🚀 Doubling Down on DeepTech: Meet Inversion Semiconductor (YC W25)

Pozvánka na valnou hromadu ZAKA VC I, osoba rizikového kapitálu, a.s., 25.8.2025

Born Global: Building from Abroad

Sensible Biotechnologies Slashes Time Taken to Optimize Novel Cell-Based mRNA Therapeutics by More Than 90% with AI Platform Built on NVIDIA Technology

Bridging Continents: Filip Shares ZAKA VC’s North American Vision on TA3

CZ/SK Founders in UK! We are co-hosting the Czech & Slovak Tech Founders Meet-up, a special networking side event of London Tech Week 2025 happening on 9. June at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London.

TACKLING AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE TREATMENT 🔬We would like to introduce you to another recently invested startup in our biotech portfolio: Promakhos Therapeutics

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Richard Kopunik, who has recently joined ZAKA VC as our new Chief Operations Officer 👏

Congratulations to VETSTOR on its official entry into the pet longevity market! 🦮

ZAKA VC Supports Yenmo’s Good Loans in India

Pozvánka na valnou hromadu ZAKA VC I, osoba rizikového kapitálu, a.s., 12.5.2025

ZAKA VC Invests in KiraGen Bio: Pioneering the Next Generation of CAR-T Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors

Olio Labs: Landmark Study Explains Why Obesity Drugs Work Differently for Women and Men

Reflections from YC Demo Day W25

Czech ZAKA VC joins $1.1M round for Indian fintech startup Yenmo

YENMO Secures $1M in Funding

We are excited to warmly welcome a new company to our portfolio – please meet Superlinked 🙌

ZAKA VC’s US Expansion: Silicon Valley Office and a New Principal

Czech ZAKA VC expands to North America — Q/A with Filip Orth, a Principal of the Silicon Valley office

Readmio Nabs EUR 500K from Simpact Ventures for Further International Expansion

ZAKA Expands to North America with New Office in Silicon Valley

11 Slovak Startups Tackling Climate, Energy And Sustainability

Jan Kasper: The Venture Capitalist

ARtttify’s Gamified Campaigns Shine at AceON Accelerator’s Demo Day

What a great start of 2️⃣ 0️⃣ 2️⃣ 5️⃣ to see our Managing Partner Ján Kasper on the January cover of Forbes Slovensko! ✨

2️⃣ 0️⃣ 2️⃣ 4️⃣ will always be marked as a significant year in the history of our VC fund and we will be always thankful for what it has brought. Here’s why

Concluding a significant week for Sensible Biotechnologies 🎉

Well deserved moment of excitement for Eduard Oravkin and Michal Pándy standing behind our portfolio company MediSearch 👏

15 SpaceTech, Robotics & DefenseTech Startups with Slovak Founders

Two startups secure €40,000 investment at AceON Accelerator’s Fourth Program

14 Slovak-Founded HealthTech & BioTech Startups

CONGRATULATIONS TO ARtttify and SentiVue ! 🎉 The two were selected by AceON Accelerator’s committee to receive €40K each!

25 Slovak B2B SaaS & E-comm Startups Worth Knowing About

ZAKA VC Helps Webel’s Gig Economy Go International

ZAKA VC Fuels ExoMatter’s Accelerated R&D of New Materials

ZAKA VC, From CEE to Silicon Valley: How Going Global Strengthens Local Impact?

WE LOVE TRUESDAYS! 💜

Madrid-based Webel has secured €1.4 million to support its international expansion

BioTech Power United in Herálec 🤝

Our Portfolio Company Miros Raises €6M 🎉

Pozvánka na valnou hromadu ZAKA VC I, a.s., 12.12.2024.

“Great idea and desire to succeed in the USA. That’s kind of startups we are looking for.” Interview with Jan Kasper, Managing Partner of ZAKA VC [article in Czech]

NEW INVESTMENT: Munich-Based ExoMatter Raises €1.7 Million Pre-Seed Round 🚀

We have partnered up with Startup Kitchen and Accace Slovakia and are happy to bring the legendary TRUESDAYS event to 🇸🇰 Bratislava on 5.11. again, for its second international edition.

Just a kind reminder to all the founders out there – you have less than 24 hours to apply for Focal’s W24 demo day ⏰

We are happy to share that we have partner up with Slovak PRO – Slovak Professionals

AceON Autumn Accelerator 2024: A perfect opportunity for European pre-seed tech startups

Ján and Andrej are spending the next few weeks in 🇺🇸 Silicon Valley to gather some fresh insights and inspiration, but most of all, to network 🤝

ZAKA VC Starts Fund I to Expand Regional and Global Presence

Here are all the new funds launched in July 2024 to invest in Europe [siliconcanals.com]

Is the European out-of-office-summer a real phenomenon or just an urban legend? 🏖️ Article on CzechCrunch

Czech family office ZAKA turns into a VC, raising a €15m fund

Unveiling ZAKA Fund I: 15M for bridging the US with the EU market

Huge congrats to our portfolio company StoryBox GmbH on raising of their 5.5M Series A round!

AceOn Accelerator awarded another startups (article in Czech)

Wrapping Up AceON Accelerator’s Spring Batch 2024

💡 Yesterday we held the first webinar for our portfolio founders and invited Stefan Köppl form Samira Advisors to talk about the Tech M&A basics every founder should now, regardless of the stage they reached.

Dzień dobry! 🇵🇱 A part of our team is heading to Infoshare this week!

After a successful launch in the UK 🇬🇧 , the financial literacy platform for GenZ Prograd has announced a planned expansion to the US 🇺🇸 .

ZAKA VC Supports American Lime Therapeutics’ Accelerated Drug Discovery

Reinventing Family Business & Venture Capital: Deep Dive with JánKasper and Aleksandar Brdar

TRUESDAYS is coming to Bratislava on May 21st! Check the program and get your ticket

Congrats to Miroslav and Marian from Sensible Biotechnologies for being selected for Forbes 30u30 Europe in the Science & Healthcare category 👏 👏 👏

ZAKA VC invests in Lime Therapeutics, unlocking a new class of lipid-targeting medicines

Congrats to our portfolio company Rendin 👏on reaching an important fundraising milestone

ZAKA VC Invests in Eigen Therapeutics: Accelerating Precision Cancer Treatment with Vision and Speed

AceON Accelerator Calls Earliest-Stage Startups to Spring 2024 Batch

“We move forwards and don’t lose momentum” – an interview with Jan Kasper, Managing Director of ZAKA VC

Investors see potential in more profound and defensible innovations. The CEE region is gaining importance — opinion by ZAKA VC

The Ins and Outs of a Family Office Business: Insight From Founders

Minimum Viable Organization – MVO

Registration for the spring batch of our AceON Accelerator is now open! 🚀

An overview of CESAwards winners across all 12 categories

CESA pre-event hosted by ZAKA was full of valuable insights and fantastic atmosphere ✨

Interview with out Managing Partner Jan Kasper for AIN.Capital

Central European Startup Awards are happening next week and we are co-hosting a VC pre-event

8 Family Offices You Should Know in CEE

Talkie AI’s Patient Care Upgrade Through Voicebots

CC25: Startups from the POV of Investors (article in Czech)

LET’S KICK OFF 2024 🚀

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #29

SIFTED.EU: Want to raise from family offices? Ask these questions

NEW INVESTMENT: SpextreXR on their way to revolutionize the AR/VR space

Sci-fi Idea Bank

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #28

The hard truths about reporting and how to do it properly

See the top valuable insights from our Vestbee – VC of the month 🏆 Q&A session

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #27

Revolutionizing Therapeutics with AI: ZAKA Invests in Olio Labs

GREAT TIME TO INVEST 💸 An interview with our Head of Investment Committee Andrej on his perception of the current funding climate [article in Czech]

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #26

ZAKA became VC of the month on Vestbee

Looking back at the last few weeks, which were exceptionally busy and filled with investments in a number of exciting projects!

NEW INVESTMENT: Spanish marketplace app Webel raises €2.1M to bring any service to your doorstep

FOLLOW-ON INVETSMENT: Stackt Raises Over £1m In Latest Investment RoundFOLLOW-ON INVETSMENT:

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #25

Where to shake hands: How to Web (Bucharest) & Sifted Summit (London)

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #24

ZAKA VC participated in e-mobilio’s Series A €9.5 M round

Who’s up for some Bits & Pretzels? 🥨 Andrej is already packing, so make sure to ping him for a short chat!

New investment – DESKREE: This Ukrainian founded startup bags €1.4M to help developers create, scale backends easily

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #23

New investment: Blockmate, an open crypto API platform, raises 1.5M EUR (article in Czech)

ZAKA VC expands its global biotechnology portfolio and invests in ExcepGen in cooperation with RA Capital Management, Gravity Fund and Apollo Projects

Miros won the prestigious CogX 2023 Award for Best AI Product – Retail 🎉

New investment: SharpGrid on the way to become a global leader in HoReCa Data segment

Shoutout to our portfolio company Miros which got shortlisted for CogX Awards 👏

A few days left until the closing of applications for our AceON Accelerator autumn batch! ⏰ (article in Czech)

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #22

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #21

Our AceON Accelerator got featured as Accelerator of The Month by Vestbee! 🎉

LK-99 and Stagnation of scientific development in the past years

Interview with the winner of AceOn spring pre-accelerator – Mapheim for interactive map creation (article in Slovak)

Vienna-based Tripmakery.com bags seven-figure investment to expand its group bookings across Europe

AceON Accelerator launches Autumn program: up to €70k investment for startups

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #20

Revolutionising group accommodation. Tens of millions CZK invested in Tripmakery (article in Czech)

Applications for the Autumn AceON Accelerator are now open! 🔥

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #19

Tripmakery.com: Group booking startup from Vienna raises seven-figure investment (article in German)

Congrats to our portfolio company Alpha3D for being recognised as one of the generative AI leaders in the 3D asset creation category by CB Insights!

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew # 18

The #demoday in ON! 🚀 Fingers crossed for all the 13 presenting startups which participated in the spring pre-accelerator AceON Accelerator!

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #17

🚀 ACE ON DEMO DAY – JOIN ONLINE!

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch Brew #16

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE EXIT ⏭ – podcast with Heikki Haldre

Meet Andrej and Samo at Latitude59 / May 24-26 in Tallinn

Meet us at Podim Conference 2023 in Maribor!

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #15

Congratulations to Alpha3D on becoming finalist in “Best use of AI” category on the AWE conference!

Our new investment – retail media platform CRUXO from Czech Republic

Caffeine Capitalist – batch brew #14

ZAKA VC sponsors young talents at Young Entrepreneurs program by Startup Wise Guys

New investment – Sensible Biotechnologies revolutionises the production of mRNA

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #13

ZAKA VC supports Hello CleanTech Startup Challenge

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #12

How we see the SVB-aftermath (article in CZ)

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #11

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #10

Caffeine Capitalist – Batch brew #09

Interview with our CIO Andrej about current startup & investment trends (article in CZ)

Portfolio company Supliful got silver at CEE Startup Challenge 2022

New investment – Gen Z-focused credit marketplace Prograd raises $2.5 million