Recapitulation of the SLOVCA Flagship event 2022

Every year, this year too the SLOVCA Flagship event was organized in HubHub Twin City C, Bratislava, consisting of a Members' Meeting and then a Flagship event open to the general public.

The membership meeting was attended by members of the SLOVCA association, i.e. regular and associate members.

The SLOVCA members' meeting consisted of a recap of last year's activity and a plan for the next activity, a status report, LTC activities presented by the chairman Tomáš Búry and the current state of finances and accounting, as well as agreeing on the financial statements for 2023 presented by Branislav Kováč from VGD Slovakia.

The most important part of the members' meeting was the introduction of new members of SLOVCA, who became members after the per-roll vote in July 2022. Investment companies ESPIRA investments and Vision Ventures were welcomed among the regular members of SLOVCA.

Subsequently, the new associate members of SLOVCA were voted out and welcomed: Wezeo and Bolder.

As in previous years, the flagship event was opened by Ján Kutan, chairman of the board of SLOVCA, who welcomed the participants. He briefly presented the activities of SLOVCA and highlighted the establishment and activity of the Legal & Tax Committee (LTC) as an advisory body to the Board of Directors of SLOVCA.

ESOP and Slovak reality?

The first panel was moderated by Tomáš Búry (Counsel at Allen & Overy) and together with panellists Roman Čmelík (Managing Partner at Limerock Fund Manager), Miroslav Marcinčin (Tax Manager at VGD Slovakia) and Šimon Šicka (Co-founder Pixel Federation) explained how to motivate people through ESOP, used schemes in Slovakia, emerging pitfalls and many other topics.

Instroduction of the WEZEO

Grigor Ayrumyan (CEO WEZEO) followed and presented his company as a new associate member.

Turbulent times on the PE/VC market

Subsequently, the panel continued, whose moderator Tomáš Demo (Co-Founder and CEO at Highgate Law & Tax) interviewed leading players from the PE&VC world: Tomáš Bel (Partner at Vision Ventures), Jaroslav Lupták (Investment Manager at Neulogy Ventures), Miroslav Tabernaus (Investment Manager at ESPIRA Investments) and Andrej Petrus (Investment Manager at ZAKA VC). The panellists focused on "hot" topics: ESG, investors' reaction to the current energy uncertainty, interest rate growth and many others.

At the end, the chairman of the association, Ján Kutan, additionally presented the prizes from the first CVCA&SLOVCA AWARDS 2022 in Prague (due to non-participation), namely for the PE deal of the year Slovakia: TITANS freelancers, in conjunction with Sandberg Capital, KPMG, PwC and BARGER PREKOP and for the VC deal of the year Slovakia - Photoneo, in conjunction with IPM Group, Credo Ventures, Mazars, Highgate Law & Tax, Majerník & Miháliková and HAVEL & PARTNERS.

We would like to thank all participants for their participation and positive feedback. We consider one of the tasks of SLOVCA to connect the ecosystem in Slovakia, i.e. all stakeholders from the field of venture capital and private equity, we want to continue to organize networking opportunities for our members. Another task that we followed with this discussion evening is informing the public about venture capital and private equity investment options.

After the end of the work part of the program, the networking mixer continued. All connected with a relaxed mood, small catering and wine tasting by Rob Páleník.