IBM and the CzechInvest Spur Innovation through the First Cloud-Based Digital City Hub for Startups in Central and Eastern Europe

16 Sep. 2015 | CzechInvest | New Digital City – CzechStartups.org built on IBM Cloud matches resources from IBM, the CzechInvest and its partners to drive growth of the startups and developers.

Together with the CzechInvest and range of the partners IBM (NYSE: IBM) introduced today CzechStartups.org – first Digital City in Central and Eastern Europe; a new online hub built on IBM Cloud and designed for startups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and technology enthusiast to meet, establish new connections, and create new partnerships that will foster innovation and stimulate local economic activity.

Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic is located in the center of Central and Eastern European countries, with the large developer population in Europe. The Czech Republic has a long tradition of excellence in technical fields and very good education system which serves as a basis for future skills development and produces a very capable workforce. City of Prague and the local universities supports entrepreneurs activities with seven startup accelerators and incubators.

General Director of the Czech Invest Karel Kucera and the General Manager of the IBM Czech Republic Branislav Sebo today launched the portal CzechStartups.org – the new digital city and helpdesk for startups. This digital platform will offer an insight into the entire startup ecosystem of the Czech Republic, provide startups with a complete overview of investors, and give technical support and resources, fiscal information and an overview of the financial regulations.

“The innovative government and partner initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe are spurring economic growth in the region and quickly positioning it as a top market for developers. This is a driving force in why IBM continues to invest in the local digital communities, better shaping the startup and developer experience," said IBM General Manger for Cloud Ecosystems and Developers Sandy Carter. "IBM's partnership with Czechstartups.org will help these technology innovators build skills, network, and get the tools and resources to shape their business for growth – not just in the Czech republic, but in CEE and even internationally."

Built with IBM Bluemix, IBM's Platform-as-a-Service and hosted on SoftLayer cloud infrastructure, CzechStartups.org is an interactive platform that provides a central location for visitors to learn about new startups; read about innovation success stories, tech news; sign up for tech-focused events and meet-ups. The CzechInvest, Czech ICT Alliance, IBM and Rockaway Capital provided content and additional resources for building the portal, and will use it to as its main platform for communicating with startups, incubators and application developers. The site will also offer a comprehensive interactive map with Prague’s startups and related events.

Bluemix is built on Cloud Foundry and combines over 100 cloud based development services from IBM and its partner ecosystem – including tools for social, mobile, analytics, cloud integration, Internet of Things, and more. Developers have the opportunity to use Bluemix to rapidly iterate on new applications and speed up time to market for their services.

“Startups play an important role in the economy, as they quickly innovate, find market gaps and create new jobs. We only need to give them chance to succeed. The new website portal will offer a meeting and information platform for better communication between startups, incubators and investors. Under one roof, we want to offer environment that will help them focus on innovation and creating new products – sharing information, incubation possibilities, contacts and consulting provided by more experienced entrepreneurs, as well as possibilities of financing,” said Karel Kucera, CEO of CzechInvest.

Along with the online digital hub, IBM is partnering with the local ecosystem partners on many events, i.e. hackathons to accelerate innovation in Czech Republic. Later this year IBM also plans to launch a physical location in Prague which will be coupled with Czechstartups.org online portal to offer local startups, hans-on support and resources they need to turn their ideas into profitable businesses.

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