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Rockaway Ventures has led a $4.2 million (approximately €3.9 million) seed round in Filuta AI, a Czech startup based in Prague that is developing advanced AI solutions for automated game testing. The round also included participation from LionBeat Capital, TARPAN Partners, and several strategic angel investors.

Filuta AI is focused on redefining game testing through the use of Composite AI, which integrates symbolic AI methods such as logic and planning with subsymbolic techniques like machine learning and large language models. This combination enables the creation of autonomous, engine-agnostic testing agents that can significantly outperform traditional QA approaches. According to the company, their technology delivers 17.5 times more testing output per euro compared to standard methods, offering both speed and cost efficiency.

While gaming remains the company’s primary focus, Filuta AI’s platform has broader potential. The technology has been designed from the start to be adaptable across industries — particularly in defense, automotive, and other sectors where advanced automation and testing are essential. This cross-industry flexibility positions Filuta AI as a scalable deep tech solution with long-term global relevance.

The company is led by CEO Filip Dvořák and CTO Slavomír Švancár, and currently employs around 43 people. Notably, the team includes approximately 20 PhDs and four professors, underscoring the company’s strong academic and research foundation. Filuta AI is already in late-stage negotiations with several major players in the gaming industry, with commercial deployment expected in the near future.

Rockaway Ventures’ investment reflects a belief in both the company’s technical vision and its capacity for broader impact. Filuta AI addresses a critical bottleneck in the game development lifecycle, while also demonstrating the economic viability of Composite AI at scale. The experienced team and strong early traction suggest readiness not only for product delivery, but for cross-sector expansion in the years ahead.

With this funding, Filuta AI plans to accelerate product deployment in gaming and explore pilot projects in new verticals. Rockaway Ventures is proud to support the next generation of European deep tech — and Filuta AI is a strong example of the kind of transformative innovation we seek to back.

By Ondřej Kinkor (Forbes Česko):

Jakub Havrlant’s Rockaway Capital is no longer a one-man vehicle. The group is entering a new phase defined by a clearer structure, greater autonomy across its divisions, and increased openness toward investors. There’s also a growing emphasis on artificial intelligence and a stronger role for external capital. After more than a decade, Rockaway is evolving.

Two key figures in this transformation are Dušan Zábrodský and Petr Šmíd. Zábrodský has worked alongside Jakub Havrlant for over ten years, while Šmíd joined the group in October last year, after more than a decade at Google. Both are based at Rockaway Capital’s headquarters in Prague’s Dejvice district, just steps from the PPF offices.

Their titles — Investment Partner — place them at the top of Havrlant’s investment team, with a shared focus on startup investments within the Rockaway Ventures portfolio.

The difference in their tenure is evident in a recent joint interview with Forbes. Zábrodský reflects on the structural and strategic changes Rockaway Capital has undergone, while Šmíd outlines a forward-looking vision for how Rockaway Ventures will approach technology and startup investments in the years to come.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Major e-commerce players in Europe are embracing the trend of optimizing their advertising space, where the potential for high-margin revenue lies—a game-changer in a competitive landscape where every percentage counts. Cruxo’s services are already being used by e-shops with annual revenues exceeding CZK 1 billion, such as Lekarna.cz, Dr.Max. EU, Astratex.EU, and Greece’s Kotsovolos. Cruxo’s founders now report further achievements: The platform has customers in 6 countries, supports multiple languages, and has secured investment from Czech Founders VC, Rockaway Ventures, and angel investors for further growth.

Retail media is a rapidly expanding sector within digital advertising, allowing brands to communicate with consumers directly on e-commerce sites through various ad formats. As people spend more time shopping online, retail media presents an opportunity to reach customers right at the decision-making point. Thanks to its high efficiency and targeting capabilities, e-commerce advertising is an effective tool for brands to influence their sales immediately. According to a recent AIB Europe study published in October, the European retail media market is expected to surpass €25 billion within two years (https://iabeurope.eu/the-retail-media-revolution-2024-state-of-play-and-outlook-in-europe/).

With growing ad investments on e-commerce sites, there is an increasing need to transform today’s manual ad ordering, placement, and optimization processes. CRUXO is a technology platform that significantly simplifies the planning, ordering, deployment, and evaluation processes. Beyond straightforward administration, it also uses data-driven optimization to maximize the effectiveness of an e-shop’s ad space. For both brands and e-shops, this results in higher sales revenue with less time spent on ad setup. CRUXO has recently introduced features to schedule ads within specific time intervals throughout the day, expanding targeting options.

“In the past year, we’ve confirmed that supplier marketing can be managed more efficiently and with higher performance. Large e-shops often run hundreds of campaigns monthly across various ad formats, requiring substantial manual input on both sides. Our platform automates this process for retailers, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives. With data-based optimization of ad formats and contextual targeting, we deliver substantial value to retailers and suppliers,” says Michal Trunkát, co-founder and CEO.

“Rockaway has rich experience in the field of e-commerce thanks to investments in companies such as Mall.cz, Košík.cz and Bringmeister, which deal with similar challenges as Cruxo is addressing today. We are convinced that Cruxo, thanks to its technology and focus on process automation, will help e-shops increase their competitiveness and effectively respond to the changing needs of the market,” said Dušan Zábrodský, partner of Rockaway Ventures.

The CRUXO team is led by seasoned professionals from the advertising and retail industries, with a recent focus on customer-oriented operations targeting retailers and their suppliers. The technology behind the CRUXO platform is essential. Still, an in-depth understanding of retail business and ecosystem is equally important. Since the beginning of the year, CRUXO has been joined by partners Jakub Špryngl and Hana Pavlíková, who bring extensive management experience in retail and customer experience in Central Europe. Recently, Pavel Jančovič, who has held positions at Mall and CNC, joined the team as Chief Product Officer.

Raus has become the fourth German startup in the current portfolio of Rockaway Ventures, joining Apaleo, a cloud platform for the hotel industry, Freeway Camper, which specializes in motorhome rentals, and Vivere, a company providing comprehensive e-commerce services. Raus, the newest addition to the portfolio, brings an innovative approach to recreational accommodation with its network of portable and sustainable living units that can be easily installed in various locations.

Raus addresses the rapidly growing demand for flexible and eco-friendly nature stays, offering an escape from urban life. In the investment round led by ROCH Ventures, Raus raised €8.5 million, with participation from Rockaway Ventures, Speedinvest, 10x Founders, and others. As part of the investment, Raus secured an asset-backed loan from Germany’s Varengold Bank, which marks a significant step toward expanding its growth, strengthening its position in Germany, developing its online platform, innovating products, and, notably, pursuing geographic expansion across Europe, beginning in neighboring Austria in the coming weeks.

The expansion into Austria coincides with the launch of the new Cabin 2.0 model, which features a lighter and more compact design. In 2024, Raus aims to consolidate its presence in Germany, establish more community locations, enhance its proprietary technology for seamless stays, and expand its platform with additional products and services.

“We are extremely grateful for the support and trust of our investors in our business model and vision. With Raus, we are addressing critical challenges in the travel industry, meeting the ongoing demand for responsibility and sustainability, which will continue to be important for many years to come,” says Julian Trautwein, co-founder and CEO of Raus.

In the past year, Raus experienced a 500% year-on-year increase in revenue, a fivefold increase in guest numbers compared to the previous year, and a tripling in new bookings, demonstrating a sustained demand. Additionally, through close collaboration with farmers and foresters, Raus has positively impacted agricultural businesses, providing local partners with an average additional income of €1,500 per month.

“Raus has an exceptionally experienced and talented team that has succeeded in taking a leading position in a newly emerging vertical in the tourism and housing market. This is an area where we see long-term potential for innovation and growth. For Rockaway Ventures, this is another significant step as we continue to expand our portfolio in the dynamically developing German startup ecosystem with a company that has strong potential for geographic expansion,” explains Dušan Zábrodský, General Partner at Rockaway Ventures.

After recent investments in the German FreewayCamper, the Czech platform Campiri or the Greek startup Spotawheel, Rockaway Ventures announced another interesting investment. This time to the German startup Apaleo, which focuses on developing a modern cloud platform for the hotel industry that allows accommodation facilities to easily manage their reservations, operations and invoicing. 

The company raised a total of EUR 9 million in two tranches in Series A funding. Rockaway Ventures was the lead equity investor in this round along with Swiss fund Serpentine Ventures, supplemented by a number of angel investors.  Apaleo is successfully disrupting the area of ​​software solutions for the hotel industry and property management. It offers modern cloud technology based on open interfaces (API) and easily connects various internal and external hotel systems and applications. This allows hotels and accommodation facilities to gain more flexibility and easily adapt their services to the specific needs of customers. 

Thanks to this, hotels and accommodation facilities can easily integrate their existing systems with the new Apaleo technology and thus build their unique proposition for their end customers.  Startup Apaleo is experiencing strong expansion, achieving more than 100% year-over-year ARR growth during 2022. The platform is used by technologically progressive hotel groups and digital accommodation establishments in more than 15 countries. These include, for example, numa, Mollie’s by Soho House, mk hotels, Zetter Hotels & co, Limehome, SV Group, HR Group, Vagabond Club or Lindemann Hotels.

“As a long-term investor in European online travel, we appreciate how well Apaleo responds to current hospitality trends and the changing demands of modern customers. We strongly believe that Apaleo has the potential to become an important player in the global hospitality technology ecosystem,” adds Andrea Lauren, General Partner of Rockaway Ventures.  

Martin Reichenbach, Co-CEO and co-founder of Apaleo, adds: “Apaleo is exactly what hotel groups and alternative accommodation providers have been asking for for a long time: a real platform where they can access their preferred technology package. During 2022, we saw clear signs that the hotel industry is ready and hungry for transformation. The new funding will allow us to continue our mission: to give every hospitality business the freedom to create their vision. We stand ready to continue to provide the technology core while our forward-thinking community helps hospitality companies innovate.”