Oliver Dlouhy, founder, and co-owner of Kiwi.com, won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award for 2019. Kiwi.com is one of the most successful Czech startups with customers around the world.
The organizers announced the results in the evening in Žofín Palace in Prague. The consulting firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) has been organizing a competition in the world since 1986. It is currently held in almost 60 countries, this year for the twentieth time in the Czech Republic. Dlouhy will represent the Czech Republic in June at the Monte Carlo World Finals.
Oliver Dlouhy founded the current company Kiwi.com under the name SkyPicker.com in 2012 as a search engine for cheap flights. Now his company is a global ticket seller, but Dlouhy would like to become a global virtual carrier.
The company is profiled mainly as a technology that brings modern technology to travel. They are intended to make it easier for customers to purchase travel documents and travel. It includes air, rail, and bus transport.
Kiwi.com employs 2,800 people worldwide but has its headquarters in Brno. It processes 100 million searches a day, and its sales in 2018 reached 28 billion crowns and a profit of CZK 111 million. Last June, the US General Atlantic fund bought a majority stake.
Among the five finalists were, along with Dlouhý, the owner of the Central Bohemian company DEK Vít Kutnar, Alessandro Pasquale, director and co-owner of the Mattoni family 1873, Libor Musil, who is chairman of the board Aerospace.
Twenty-two-year-old Vaclav Stanek, the founder of Vasky trade, a company specializing in handmade leather shoes and accessories, was awarded the prize for new entrepreneurs. The trophy for the technology entrepreneur was won by Michal Tresner from the Brno company ThreatMark, a cybersecurity firm. The award for the best socially beneficial entrepreneur was given to Antonín Nekvinda and Josef Suchár from the civic association Neratov Association.
Last year, Radka Prokopová and František Fabičovič, the founders and owners of the Alcaplast company, which produces sanitary technology in Břeclav, were the national winners of the competition. Previous winners also include Unicorn owner Vladimír Kovář, Eduard Kučera from Avast, head of student company Transport Agency Radim Jančura, owner of medical bed Linet Zbyněk Frolík and director of Kofola Jannis Samaras.