Aukro entered five new markets in 2025 and completed its first ever foreign acquisition. Further details were reported by CzechCrunch.
After several difficult years, Aukro has regained momentum following its takeover by Jan Barta and his partners and has now embarked on its first acquisition drive.
11 December 2025, CzechCrunch, Filip Magalhães
One of the Czech Republic’s largest auction platforms … Read more
At Pale Fire Capital, we believe that Czech capital should aspire to succeed under the toughest conditions on global markets. We are convinced that the same ambition is relevant for Czech science. Sharing knowledge, research methods, and experience with leading international scholars is one of the key ways to strengthen the innovation capacity and competitiveness of the Czech Republic.
This … Read more
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 … Read more
Today, teamIT ranks among the most respected recruitment agencies in the Czech Republic specializing in IT professionals. After six years of partnership, the investment group Pale Fire Capital is selling its stake in the company back to its original founders and existing co-owners — Jan Birás, Michal Tomek, and Petr Kropáček.
The teamIT agency connects top experts in information technology … Read more
Pale Fire Capital has become an official partner of the Czech Paralympic Team. The first joint activity is the establishment of a new Paralympic Day, which will be celebrated for the first time on October 6, 2025.
Its aim is to honor the history of parasport in the Czech Republic, to recall its core values, and to express respect for … Read more
Martin Toma is one of the founders of itrinity, a company that today forms an important part of the Pale Fire Capital portfolio. In an interview for Slovak Forbes, he described the roots of itrinity’s success and the DNA on which it continues to build to this day.
Slovaks Quietly Build Their Software Empire
Forbes.sk, September 1, 2025, Simona Gulisová… Read more
An article in Hospodářské noviny summarizes Groupon’s journey from “the fastest-growing start-up in history” through crisis to its transition into the hands of Dušan Šenkypl and Pale Fire Capital.
Since the slump, Groupon’s value has risen by more than 800 percent. How did Šenkypl’s team and others manage to achieve this, and why might the stock still soar?
Hospodářské noviny, … Read more
Semantic Visions was part of the Pale Fire Capital portfolio for more than a decade. At the time, large-scale semantic text analysis was still more of an emerging vision than an established business segment. Today, Semantic Visions is one of the leading providers of open-source data analytics, serving banks, investment firms, global manufacturers, media outlets, and multinational corporations, including SAP … Read more
Pale Fire Capital entered Aukro in 2019. Over the past five years, the auction platform has undergone a deep strategic transformation, bringing significant changes to the user experience, a return to its auction roots, international expansion, and a new approach to marketing. This article from Hospodářské noviny summarizes Aukro’s journey to its current state, where more than 6 million products … Read more
As of today, Burda International CZ is the only owner of Extra Online Media. We previously owned Extra Online Media through Pale Fire Capital (75%), with CEO Tomáš Kačena holding a 25% stake. Kačena will remain the CEO of EOM and will report to Petra Fundová, the CEO of Burda International CZ. Burda and Extra Online Media will continue to
