Aukro, a leading online auction and marketplace platform in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and part of the Pale Fire Capital portfolio, expanded into five new countries this year. As a result, Aukro listings are now available in markets with over 120 million people. The company has made significant progress in its strategy to become a unique international platform connecting collectors across Central and Eastern Europe.

The Old Empire Comes Alive: Aukro Aims to Cover the Austro-Hungarian Region

21 November 2025, Seznam Zprávy, Jiří Zatloukal

The online marketplace Aukro wants to dominate the markets of Central Europe. This year, the company will facilitate the sale of goods worth three billion CZK, and its revenues are growing by
one-fifth year-on-year.

The Czech online marketplace has undergone a demanding transformation and is now expanding its platform to Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Germany. Thanks to extensive technological automation, the expansion is managed mostly from the Czech Republic.

“Because of this, Aukro’s fixed operating and personnel costs are not rising this year, despite entering five new regions,” says David Holý, partner at the investment group Pale Fire Capital, which
entered Aukro in 2019.

A key element of the expansion has been a robust technological infrastructure, into which the company has heavily invested in recent years. “As part of the regional expansion, we built our own
platform at Aukro that automates and unifies processes across all markets. Simply put, whether a user is posting an item in Zlín, Vienna, or Budapest, the listing, translation, payment options, and
international shipping logistics are coordinated automatically by the Aukro platform,” says Holý.

The company uses automated language translation, and automation also applies to the management of marketing campaigns across regions. The expansion is most advanced in Hungary, where the platform launched a localized version in April this year. In July, Aukro opened up to local Hungarian sellers, whose listings are now available to users in the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well.

“If you live in Hungary, you can list your goods on Aukro not only for the Hungarian market but also for all users in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. And you don’t need to worry about who will buy your item. Just take the package to the nearest parcel drop-off point, and you’ll receive payment in your local currency. It’s as simple as sending it to the next town,” says Aukro CEO Peter Topor.

As of November, more than 18,000 transactions have taken place on the Hungarian Aukro. In the collectibles category, numismatics and model-building dominate. There is also strong interest in
second-hand goods, particularly mobile phones and toys.

The results show that Aukro’s transformation is working. In 2024, the company reported revenue from its own services of 258.6 million CZK, representing year-on-year growth of 8.1% compared with 2023.

The company continued to grow this year as well. “Revenues for the first nine months of 2025 exceeded 220 million CZK, a year-on-year increase of more than 22%. Even though we are heavily
investing in marketing in new markets, we are still managing to increase our profit year-on-year,” says Topor. The number of successful sales on Aukro has already surpassed 5.25 million, and the
company continues to record double-digit year-on-year growth in total traded volume.

Overall, the company will facilitate the sale of goods worth more than three billion CZK this year. When Pale Fire Capital invested in Aukro six years ago, turnover was about 1.5 billion CZK. “Aukro is poised to become the leader in its segment—at least in the Central European region—in the coming years. Expansion into new countries is therefore a key direction for us. But we build all our companies with long-term sustainability and value in mind, so even during regional expansion, we maintain reasonable profitability,” Holý adds.

Austro-Hungarian Roots

The choice of region for business expansion has its historical reasons. “The Austro-Hungarian period significantly shaped collecting communities in these countries, making the region a natural space for the first phase of Aukro’s expansion. Aukro’s ambition is to establish itself as a major Central European collector hub and online marketplace,” says Topor.

Aukro collaborates on logistics with the international shipping company Packeta, which operates in seven countries and delivers parcels to 33 countries. For payments, it partners with Barion, which began in Hungary and now operates in 15 countries.

Aukro considers security,especially payment security,its key competitive advantage. While last year 37% of all transactions used Aukro’s secured payment system, today most payments on the platform go through it.

In Germany and Austria, the platform is currently open only for purchases; full seller functionality is still being prepared. The only limitation in market interconnection is oversized items, though these represent only a tiny fraction of listings. “Collectors in Hungary currently have access to ninety percent of all items listed on Aukro. And cross-border shipping of collectibles includes parcel
insurance, which is a rare service in Central Europe,” concludes Topor.

In the Czech market, alongside Aukro, platforms such as Bazoš.cz, Sbazar, and the Vinted app also operate.