Credo Ventures Announces New Investors and a Partnership with Benson Oak

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) July 25, 2011 -- Prague, July 25, 2011 – Credo Ventures, a Prague-based venture capital firm, announced today the second closing of Credo Stage 1, its first fund which focuses on early stage companies in the internet, IT and healthcare sectors in Central Europe, primarily the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Credo Ventures now has approximately €17.5M under management and is targeting €20M for the final close of Credo Stage 1.

Credo Stage 1´s new investors include, among others, Petr Koblic, CEO of the Prague Stock Exchange and Gabriel Eichler and Robert Cohen, partners of Benson Oak Capital. New investors are joining a group which already includes Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis, founders of AVAST!; Zbynek Frolik, founder of LINET; Jan Cervinka, director of AdAstra and Technology Entrepreneur of 2006; Jan Barta, founder and chairman of Elephant Orchestra; Karel Janecek, Vaclav Dejcmar, Libor Winkler and Michal Sanak, owners of RSJ Algorithmics Trading; Petr Cichon, CEO of Crocodille amongst others.
Ondrej Bartos, Partner of Credo Ventures comments, “We are very pleased to welcome these new investors to Credo Stage 1, and also feel honoured that four of our existing investors decided to increase their commitments. We believe it is due to our ability to identify interesting investment opportunities as well as their assessment.”

Credo Ventures also announced its alliance with Benson Oak Capital, an investment group that was founded almost 20 years ago by Gabriel Eichler. Benson Oak is widely recognised for their successful investment into the anti-virus company Grisoft that became AVG Technologies; their portfolio currently includes also Bochemie and ETA.

“Gabriel Eichler, founder of Benson Oak, with his partners have been fans of startups and innovation which can be confirmed by their part in AVG’s global success,” says Markus Pedriks a long time co-investor in deals with Gabriel and Robert and Investment Committee Chairman and Credo Ventures Partner.

The partnership between Credo Ventures and Benson Oak Capital will be a close cooperation where Credo Ventures will focus on early stage investments up to €2M and Benson Oak Capital will continue to specialize in growth and expansion private equity transactions.

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About Credo Ventures
Credo Ventures, based in Prague, is a venture capital firm founded in 2009. Our aim is to become Central Europe’s leading venture capital investor in early stage companies, particularly in the areas of internet, IT and healthcare. Credo Ventures believes in entrepreneurship and the ability to take Central European projects and companies from zero to the global success. The portfolio includes Cognitive Security, Klick2Contact, WordWatch and Beepl. More information can be found at www.credoventures.com or through inquiries to info@credoventures.com.

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For press inquiries please contact Ondrej Bartos, Partner and Chairman of the Board, Credo Ventures:
Lomnickeho 7, Prague 4 | mob +420 602 378 701 | email bartos@credoventures.com | skype obartos

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