In addition to foreign companies, however, a full range of ICT companies of Czech origin, such as Avast, GoodData, Y Soft, Seznam.cz, Socialbakers and STRV, operate in the Czech Republic. These companies have succeeded in expanding and are now known practically worldwide. The Czech Republic is also home to several top-level research centres that have achieved outstanding results and won awards in the area of information and communication technologies. This refers to, for example, the Artificial Intelligence Centre, the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics, IT4Innovations, the Research Centre for Informatics and the National Cybersecurity Centre. Nearly six thousand creative, innovative and qualified students in ICT study programmes graduate from Czech universities every year. 

The Czech Republic’s ICT-friendly policies and skilled workforce, good infrastructure and well-developed optical fiber network make it the most prominent ICT location in the CEE region. ICT has a bright future in the Czech Republic. There is over 27,000 university students and graduates in ICT study programmes, 200,000 people employed in the ICT sector and over 13,000 ICT companies with annual turnover of more than CZK 500,000.

Thanks to investments in infrastructure, Czech regions outside the Prague are gaining attractiveness, especially in the ICT sector. Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, is considered to be the Czech IT hub, where companies’ needs are fulfilled by qualified professionals, R&D facilities and institutions, and advanced ICT infrastructure. Ostrava has also received international recognition in recent years thanks to projects such as IT4Innovations. 

Gaming industry represents another fast growing, ICT-related sector of the Czech economy. The beginnings of Czech computer game development date back to the 1980s, when the first 8-Bit games were created by Czech developers. Since then, many Czech gaming companies have reached international success with games like Hidden & Dangerous, and Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (Illusion Softworks, nowadays 2K Czech), Kingdome Come: Deliverance (Warhorse Studios), Samorost (Amanita Design) and many others.

Reasons to invest

• well-developed IT infrastructure, robust fibre-optic network
• more than 700 research workers at 12 public institutions and universities, hundreds of others at private research and development centres
• high level of expertise in speech, sound and image recognition, general artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, machine learning and other fields
• growing presence of leading IT companies such as Red Hat, Cisco, Microsoft, Skype, CA Technologies, Oracle and IBM
• globally known Czech companies such as Avast, GoodData, Y Soft, Socialbakers, STRV, Flowmon Networks and Kiwi.com
• national and European institutional support in the form of nationwide development strategies, support programmes, startup incubators and accelerators
• excellent initiatives and platforms, such as prg.ai, AICzechia and AiCenter, that promote the development of artificial intelligence in the Czech Republic