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October 20, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
(€480) and claimed that the Agrofert owner wants to bring in 200,000 cheap-pay foreigners to under- cut Czechs demanding good pay amid the coun- try's surging economy and record-low unemploy- ment — but one gets the impression the party has failed to get in tune with the mean-spirited times.
The party's leader, Zaoralek, has little more than an ounce more charisma than his duller than dull predecessor, PM Bohuslav Sobotka — “These guys are boring, not corrupted, but rather boring, though at least they have a genuine traditional party programme,” a public relations agency top executive told bne IntelliNews on October 18 —
Poland retains its title as CEE’s tech champion
overall, Kiwi.com, founded by youthful college dropout turned entrepreneur Oliver Dlouhý in 2012 to provide users with the cheapest fight itineraries and combinations. As bne Intel- liNews reported earlier this year, Kiwi.com is fast achieving “unicorn” status to rival the country’s previous breakthrough success Avast Software.
Kiwi.com, which is based in Brno, the Czech second city that is rated CEE's best destina- tion for tech startups, has grown by a stag- gering 7,165% over the last four years.
“If any startup has a chance to succeed, then it is almost certain to be one that manages to perfect something we deal with on a regu- lar basis – such as cutting costs when buying airline tickets. But in order to achieve large- scale success, it also has to find a gap in the market. And that’s exactly what Kiwi.com has been able to do,” the report commented.
Deloitte orders companies according to their reve- nue growth over the four years from 2013 to 2016, discovering that this year their average growth
whom he took over from when it became clear the CSSD was becoming a little desperate for an upswing in the polls.
That could prove fatal, along with the fact that to nowadays remember much of living in Com- munist Czechoslovakia you have to be at least older than 35. Whether the most doom laden warnings concerning the Czech Republic's trajectory over the coming years prove over the top or not, it is worth repeating that tire- some old aphorism from George Santayana one more time: “Those who cannot remem- ber the past are doomed to repeat it.”
outstripped last year’s. “I found many things about the participants impressive. For example, the av- erage growth rate of the companies in this year’s ranking has exceeded last year’s outstanding 1,057% to hit 1,127%,” commented Zielinska.
Poland — the largest economy in the region and a long-established tech hub — dominated the latest ranking, with Polish companies account- ing for 19 of the fastest growing tech companies in the region up from 17 on the 2016 ranking.
Still there were some surprises. Croatia was the home of eight fast growing tech compa- nies, putting it into second place, and it was the only country to produce companies across all three market segments monitored by De- loitte — Clean Tech & Energy, IT & Digital So- lutions, and Internet Media and Telecoms.
The top ranked Croatian company on the list was Rimac Automobili, which in just six years went from a small business operating out of founder Mate Rimac’s garage to the producer of world’s fastest electric car — arguably the fastest-accel- erating car of any sort in production — Concept_ One. In a 2016 interview with bne IntelliNews, Rimac said he was committed to keeping Ri- mac Automobili a Croatian company and would never move production or development abroad.