Over 150 high-profile decision-makers and professionals in the CEE private equity and venture capital industry assembled on the 16th of October 2019 for 0100 Conferences Prague.
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PE&VC Conference by 0100 Conferences, Prague 16 October 2019 Grandium Hotel, Prague |
The one-day event was packed with condensed expertise from real-life PE/VC practitioners, both on stage and in the audience. It was like a mini executive MBA course with a focus on PE/VC:).
We’ll share just a few pearls of hard-earned wisdom and witty remarks that are good take-aways.
On CEE:
Everybody agreed the CEE region is very fragmented, with every country having its own legal system and based on various models: French for Romania, Austrian for the Czech Republic, etc.)
From all EU Hubs, Berlin is said to be the most important, US funds base there and cover Europe, next city Probably Barcelona. CEE is just around 1,5% of EU investment volume, so the perception is that CEE can be covered from Western EU HQs.
CEE doesn’t ‘produce’ too many good products so sizeable VCs look at it only from an opportunistic angle. What they see is a few targets for investment, little ambition and lack of global potential. The best way to generate your deal-flow is by actually making deals. This, among others, attracts the advisors: “Now that you’ve done that, why don’t you do that”.
A very positive trend has been gaining momentum: Raising more and more local LP money. Everybody agreed that ‘Smart money is local money”.
On building value:
- VC (provocative thought): Positive cash flows mean the concept is proven already, so hard to get 100x growth
- PE: The goal is to invest in already strong companies, usually they don’t actually need money. How to make them accept our investment? A good approach is the nurture relations with a Target for a couple of years. A PE investor helped a Target with recruitment (CFO), organized workshops for specific skills, suggested alternative investments, even if entirely aligned with the investor’s interest. That approach gives a pretty high conversion rate, the investor mentioned.
- PE: There’s a high demand for big tickets and the supply is very low in the CEE region. A PE investor is usually the first institutional investor in a startup. They help with governance, help them to create proper reporting, management culture. So the next investor knows what to expect.
Future trends:
- More unicorns will rise in the CEE region
- More grown companies stay here in the region
- Some companies come here from outside of CEE
Twitter-storm:
[easy-tweet tweet=”How do you spot a private investor in the room. First thing he does is look for the Exit sign:)” usehashtags=”no” template=”light”]
[easy-tweet tweet=”In CEE startups, the usual buzzwords are actual features of products” usehashtags=”no” template=”light”]
[easy-tweet tweet=”
Moderator: Big tech companies are buying companies to ‘kill’ them.
PE Investor: Well, I wouldn’t mind to be bought by Google.” usehashtags=”no” template=”light”]
[easy-tweet tweet=”The Rule of 40 should be The Rule of 60 in the CEE region” usehashtags=”no” template=”light”]
[easy-tweet tweet=”M&A always boring, lots of work and when it’s done you’re too exhausted to celebrate” usehashtags=”no” template=”light”]
Read up
- We were right when we recommended CEE PE&VC Statistics Report 2018 as part of the preparation for the event. The research was quoted and referred to so many times by PE/VC community, we now think if you haven’t read it you’re missing on something important. Don’t.
- Have you heard of The Rule of 40? If not, just like us, here’s a good intro by Thierry Depeyrot, and Simon Heap, both Silicon Vallery Partners for Bain&Company:Article: Hacking Software’s Rule of 40
Complete Speaker Line-up:
- Aman Ghei, Principal @Finch Capital
- Andre Dravecky, Founder @Shipvio
- Bill Watson, Managing Partner @Value4Capital
- Boris Hardi, Founder @Capmatcher
- Brian Wardrop, Managing Partner @ARX Equity Partners
- Cathy Logue, Global Leader, CFO & Financial Execs Practice Group, MD @Stanton Chase
- Csaba Kakosy, Managing Partner @Day One Capital
- David Jeffrey, Partner, Head of Europe @StepStone
- Elbruz Yilmaz, Investment Director @3TS Capital Partners
- Emilia Mamajova, Founding Partner @ESPIRA Investments
- Ewa Abel, Investment Manager @EIF
- Guillaume Fournier, Investor @Credo Ventures
- Guillaume Lautour, Managing Partner @Level-Up
- Henri Tilloy, Investor @Partech Partners
- Hristo Stoykov, Head of Growth Capital and Innovation Finance Division @EIB
- Jan Tauber, Managing Partner @Genesis Capital
- Jana Zurkova, CEE Chief Transformation Officer @Microsoft
- Josef Sachta, CEO & Co-Founder @Sharry Europe
- Marek Huml, Managing Partner @Stanton Chase
- Martin Hudecek, Asset Manager @RSJ Investment
- Max Lyadvinsky, CEO @Bloomio
- Petr Suchy, Partner @Deloitte Legal
- Przemyslaw Glebocki, Co-Managing Partner @Mezzanine Management
- Przemyslaw Raczka, Investment Director @Resource Partners
- Radan Hanzl, Partner @Genesis Capital
- Rumen Iliev, Partner @LAUNCHub Ventures
- Tomas Casa, Investment Manager @CEE Equity Partners
- Tomas Koraus, Head Of Structured Finance & CSOB Match´it @CSOB Slovakia
- Tomas Czechowicz, Managing Partner @MCI Capital
- Uwe Fleischhauer, Founding Partner @YIELCO Investments
- Vaclav Pavlecka, Managing Partner @Air Ventures
- Vasile Tofan, Partner @Horizon Capital
- Viktor Fischer, Investment Partner @Rockaway Ventures
- Vjačeslav Lypko, Investment Director @Enterprise Investors
