Multilingual fairytale app wins top Czech startup prize

An application that brings fairytales to life with sounds and music has picked up the top prize at the Czech national version of the Creative Business Cup.

The competition for start-ups is held by CzechInvest with the storytelling app finishing ahead of the rest. This was the national round of the event with Readmio going forward to represent the Czech Republic on the International stage, with an online ceremony based from Denmark.

The Readmio mobile app was developed by Ilya Novodvorskiy, a developer who has now lived in Prague for over half a decade. The app has around 1,756 voice-activated sounds with 100 traditional fairy tales originating from the Czech Republic as well as around the world.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and restrictions in place to tackle it, the event took place online with the winner announced at the Tomáš Baťa Memorial in Zlín. It was live-streamed on the CzechInvest Facebook page.

Patrik Reichl, CEO of CzechInvest, added, "CzechInvest's mission is to help Czech entrepreneurs to live in a prosperous, confident country thanks to them. All entrepreneurs need to have determination, enthusiasm for ideas. However, yesterday's competitors showed something extra; a societal overlap, the ability to find market niches, or even create them. They managed to show that Czech creativity has global potential."

Second place at the Creative Business Cup was won by the company Kave Footwear, which produces sneakers from recycled materials while Leitners Watch, a company that produces smartwatches, finished in third place. 

The global finals of the Creative Business Cup, where representatives from more than 70 countries will compete, will take place at the end of June.

Due to the circumstances, it will take place online twice, as last year's finals will take place this year as well. The Czech Republic will be represented in last year's edition by faceUp, a platform for combating bullying in schools and wrongdoing in companies.