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JIC has launched a venture capital fund for startups. President Pavel Lukashenko came to Brno to support the development of innovation and knowledge economy

09.04. 2026
line-arrow JIC has launched a venture capital fund for startups. President Pavel Lukashenko came to Brno to support the development of innovation and knowledge economy

Innovation agency JIC has officially launched a new venture capital fund JIC Ventures, which will invest in early-stage technology startups from the Czech Republic and Central Europe. The CZK 400 million fund intends to contribute to the transformation of the Czech economy. The official launch in Brno was attended by President Petr Pavel and representatives of investors and innovation centres from across the country.

The JIC Ventures Fund is unique in the Czech environment due to its structure. Most of it is private capital, but it was created on the initiative of the innovation agency JIC, whose founders are the South Moravian Region, the City of Brno and four Brno universities. In addition, the region has entered the fund as an investor.

“We have been systematically supporting innovation and technological entrepreneurship inSouth Moravia for more than twenty years. However, if we want to compete in the European and global competition, we must look for new tools to support the creation of companies and their development. It is this fund that takes innovation policy to a qualitatively higher level,” said Jan Grolich, the Governor of the South Moravian Region,explaining the purpose of the merger of a public institution and venture capital.

“In the last five years alone, JIC-supported companies have achieved exits worth CZK 16 billion. We initiated the new fund so that globally successful startups would be created even more and lay the foundation for the new economy of the Czech Republic and strengthen the whole Europe”, confirmed Petr Chládek, Director of the innovation agency JIC.

The creation of the Fund fits into a broader effort to develop an economy based on innovation, research and technological entrepreneurship. It is the ability to create innovative products and services that determines whether a country moves towards higher added value and can compete globally. Startups and technology companies are one of the main drivers of such a shift.

The region has long been among the priorities of the President of the Czech Republic, who expressed his support for the development of the local innovation environment in Brno and other regions. He described the model created by the JIC as an inspiring example that can contribute to strengthening technology entrepreneurship across the Czech Republic and Europe.

Private capital from big companies and successful founders

This vision is shared by private investors who have invested the majority of their capital in the fund. In total, there are forty of them and they include both big players on the European market – the largest European developer and owner of industrial parks CTP, Česká spořitelna or investor Jan Barta, as well as successful entrepreneurs from the technological environment of South Moravia – for example, the family holding of owners IDEA StatiCa, Artin, Kinalisoft, founder of Sewio Milan Šimek, founder of NenoVision Jan Neuman, etc. The entry of the Bishopric of Brno is also interesting.

CTP sees JIC Ventures as an opportunity to systematically strengthen the creation and growth of technology companies in the region and to support the transformation of the economy towards higher added value – in the spirit of the trend “in Europe, for Europe”, i.e. development and production closer to European customers.

“We have long believed that the future of Europe is based on innovation, technology and the ability to translate know-how into real production and global business. This is what Brno and the whole region of South Moravia can do. Thanks to strong universities, technical talent and a functioning ecosystem around JIC. We see joining the fund as a concrete step to strengthen this ecosystem and help create more companies. We at CTP are building the infrastructure for growth and we want to be a partner for innovative companies from the start,” said Jakub Kodr, CEO of CTP for the Czech Republic.

Česká spořitelna decided to become one of the main investors of the venture capital fund. Among other things, because it is a great example of real support for the second economic transformation, emphasized Tomáš Salomon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Česká spořitelna.

“Today, few people doubt the necessity of an economic transformation based on innovation and high added value. However, we are looking for ways to support this transformation as effectively as possible. Linking private capital with the initiative of an innovation agency set up by public sector institutions can be a blueprint for effective cooperation and a model for other similar projects,” says Tomáš Salomon. “It is also crucial that this initiative is being created ‘from below’ – in the South Moravian Region, which has quality universities. We are glad that we can support the functional transfer of knowledge from the scientific academic environment to business.”

The impact of the fund also increases the involvement of successful entrepreneurs who have decided to put part of their capital back into the innovation environment. “We started at JIC years ago as a tech startup and we know how important it is to have the support of experienced mentors at an early stage. We want to contribute not only capital but also experience,” said Juraj Šabatka, CEO of IDEA StatiCa.

At the same time, JIC Ventures has not yet closed and thus represents an opportunity for other qualified investors to enter.

Strong background for startup growth

The fund will support startups in growth and international expansion not only through the founders involved, but also through a network of other experts and mentors, including the entire infrastructure of the JIC innovation agency.

“We work closely with universities where there is great potential for deep tech projects, and we have a strong proprietary approach to investment opportunities. We have been working with a number of startups for a long time in incubation and acceleration programs,” said managing partner Radim Kocourek, who runs the fund together with Miloš Sochor.

JIC Ventures will focus primarily on pre-seed and seed stage startups and plans to invest in approximately twenty technology companies from Central and Eastern Europe over four years, with a natural priority on the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Individual investments in deep tech, SaaS and other advanced technology projects can reach up to EUR 1 million.

JIC has been developing its investment activities since 2015, when it invested small amounts in fourteen startups as a co-investor. The new fund represents the next step – significantly more capital and the role of a lead investor, which not only finances startups, but also actively helps their growth to a global level.

Source: JIC Press Release

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