Central & Eastern Europe is a hotbed of exciting entrepreneurial innovations, as this sample of success stories testifies:

Systinet (Czech Republic) – a leading provider of web services infrastructure software, founded by Czech entrepreneur Roman Staněk in 2000 and developed thanks to a €2.3M VC investment, sold in 2006 to Mercury Interactive for €84M.
iWiW (Hungary) – a social networking web service founded by Hungarian entrepreneur Zsolt Várady in 2002 and developed thanks to a business angel investment estimated at ≈€400k, sold in 2006 to T-Online for nearly €4M.
MojPosao (Croatia) – an innovative job portal founded in 2000 and financed by business angels with ≈€1.3M, sold in 2007 to the Daily Mail group for €6.8M.

At the EASY Central Europe Investment Marketplace, early stage investors will have the opportunity to access 30 of Central Europe’s exciting newly emerging businesses, identified for their innovation and high growth potential. Investors will be able to meet and talk with the individual companies, view their products and services and see pitch presentations from 15 of them.

The EASY Central Europe Investment Marketplace will be jointly hosted by Microsoft, the Angel Investor Association, the South Moravian Innovation Centre and the Microsoft Innovation Centre as key sources of innovating high growth companies. The event will be held at the Prague Congress Centre in Nusle opening at 1:00 PM and will close at 6:00 PM after drinks and a networking session.

The event’s companies will come from the following sectors: ICT, medical technology, media, design, and clean technology.

Please use this site for registrations. Here you will then be able to follow the event’s updates.

EASY stands for “Early Stage Investors Action” and since April 2007 it has held six events for entrepreneurs and angel investors. At these events, 850 investors from 25 countries and 95 selected entrepreneurs from 25 countries have participated. 13 deals have been closed, with a total volume of €15.5M, while 5 additional deals are in the ‘heads of terms’ stage, with a value of €4M. For more information, visit www.earlystageinvestors.org.

Draft Agenda

13:00 – 14:00  Registration, Welcome Drinks,  Networking

14:00 – 14:10  Welcome by Anthony Clarke, EASY Project Director

14:10 – 14:20  Jane Gilson, General Manager, Microsoft Czech Republic

14:20 – 14:50  5 Company Presentations

14:50 – 15:20  Networking & Exhibition

15:20 – 15:30  Michal Kostka, Deputy Director, South Moravian Innovation Centre

15:30 – 15:40  Mojmír Vacek, Manager, Microsoft Innovation Centre 

15:40 – 16:10  5 Company Presentations

16:10 – 16:20  Vladislav Jež, Chairman, Czech Venture Capital Association

16:20 – 16:30  Dušan Stojanović, full-time angel investor, Paris Business Angels

16:30 – 17:00  5 Company Presentations

17:00 – 18:00  Networking and Drinks Reception,  and closing remarks

You can download the PDF invitation here.

The EASY project is supported by the EU Pro Inno programme.