Creative Business Czechia Celebrates the Top Ten Startups for the Tenth Time
A record 65 startups entered this year’s edition of the competition organised by CzechInvest in partnership with Creative Business Czechia and other partners. The awards recognise the best projects that combine technology, creativity, and entrepreneurship. The ten finalists were evaluated by an expert jury made up of industry representatives and investors based on product or service quality, scalability potential, team strength, and a clearly defined business model.
This year’s competition final took place on 15 April at the Gočár Gallery in Pardubice. Representatives of the ten startups had to defend not only their innovative ideas and creative approaches in front of the jury and audience, but also demonstrate the strong business potential and global ambitions of their projects.
The winner of the competition was startup NABERIUS TECH, which presented a technology that combines geolocation data with advanced rendering to create realistic digital environments where artificial intelligence can be tested and trained. The project’s founder, Lukáš Herrmann, has more than twenty years of experience in visual effects, including work on Hollywood film productions.
Second place went to FLAE Robotics with its virtual receptionist BE-A. Third place was awarded to QuaternAR for its technology enabling existing 3D applications to be transferred into augmented and virtual reality environments without the need for reprogramming.
Among the finalists, projects that build bridges between technological approaches and traditional art also stood out. The Audience Award went to Oldřich Voyta and his brand KNITHER, which develops a technologically innovative material that fully replaces leather. Its unique design and functionality have already been tested in practice – for example, in dance footwear created for the ballet company of the National Theatre.
The VIVELO.AI platform also attracted attention by creating digital replicas of professional actors. Its key element is an ethical approach: the technology serves actors as a tool to expand their creative possibilities while allowing them to maintain full control over their “digital selves” and ensuring fair compensation.
The world of digital comics is being developed by Panel Labs, a tool that uniquely combines animation, gaming principles, and artificial intelligence.
The final evening was preceded by the conference Future Trends in Creative Tech, which presented an overview of current trends in the cultural and creative industries, focusing particularly on examples from video games, the event industry, and audio content production.
Although interest in the field of Creative Tech is rapidly growing in the Czech Republic, the evening confirmed one fundamental point: technology itself is only a tool, not the goal. The success of the nominated projects is built above all on human vision and the courage to step beyond established paths.
