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A new incubator for Czech companies opened Wednesday in Gwinnett County, setting the stage for what organizers hope will be an influx of manufacturing and tech firms from the Central European nation into Georgia.
Organizers welcomed dignitaries and a delegation of 14 Czech companies to a ribbon-cutting within the Atlanta Technology Park in Peachtree Corners.
The Czech Business Incubator Atlanta Inc. has taken an office adjacent to the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic, which moved to a new home inside the Gwinnett tech hub run by investor and entrepreneur Robin Bienfait from its prior digs in Sandy Springs earlier this year.
After the grand opening, the companies were invited to pitch to potential investors and community leaders on their products and services, which included systems integrators, platforms for data analytics and retail tech, and providers of hydroponic systems, electric motors, footwear, seat foam and more. See the full list of companies
“Some were looking for investors here in the U.S., so these were serious, and the others just wanted to introduce their product to the audience and to the potential partners,” said Monika Vintrlikova, a manufacturing entrepreneur and the honorary consul for the Czech Republic in Georgia, who organized the visit.
Seven of the 14 firms were taking part in the Georgia Tech Soft Landings program within the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Ms. Vintrlikova said. The virtual training program helps international companies evaluate their readiness to enter the U.S. market, culminating in an Atlanta residency that helps companies explore the city’s ecosystem and build connections.
Ms. Vintrlikova said some companies realized during a week of visits to Georgia manufacturers that they needed more time to prep for U.S. market entry. Others, however, were ready to go.
“Some of them are more confident and are using Georgia Tech’s mentorship and network to already start some action,” she said.
Ms. Vintrlikova, who is a shareholder in the incubator through the Czech North America Chamber of Commerce and Culture, which she started, said she hopes to organize similar delegations in the future.
Four to five companies from the inbound group are expected sign up with the incubator as their first concrete step toward success in the U.S.
Her partner in the venture is the Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce in the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Brno has its own incubator, the JIC, but doesn’t have a U.S. market-entry mentorship program. Brno is located in the state of South Moravia, where Ms. Vintrlikova hails from. Brno chamber President Ladislav Chodák, who visited Atlanta last month for a forum with the Czech ambassador to the U.S., also returned with the companies on this trip.
Later this week, the group got a chance to see a wide breadth of the manufacturing sector in Georgia. On Thursday, some went to local facilities of Zyci (Chamblee), Woodbridge (Lithonia), Okabashi (Buford) and Hansgrohe.
During a visit to Zyci, a manufacturer of precision parts in Chamblee, the Czech got to see cutting-edge CNC machines at work making automotive transmission cases, metal parts for airplane engines and more.
Jan Petlach, technical sales director for Edmund, a startup using AI to transform industrial maintenance, said fewer young workers are replenishing experienced operators retiring from factories. Edmund uses a blend of human feedback and data from machines to create manuals and capture institutional knowledge to aid in onboarding new technicians, thereby increasing uptime.
The more complex the mix of equipment on an assembly line, the more utility his solution has, so Zyci, with its shiny new machines, probably wouldn’t make a good sales prospect.
“It’s better when the machines are not from a catalog — if they’re older, tailor-made production lines that were invented or constructed for a special purpose,” Mr. Petlach told Global Atlanta.
That said, the Ostrava-based startup had a clear sense for what it will take to enter the U.S. market: customers.
On Friday, companies that were not receiving training at Georgia Tech had another day of factory visits at Zebra Technologies (Alpharetta), Albaform (Ms. Vintrlikova’s company in Flowery Branch), and King’s Hawaiian, VDL Groep and Murray Plastics, also in Hall County.
The trip was the latest in a flurry of activity from the Czech Republic, from a newly announced $20 million facility by PBS Aerospace in Roswell to the expansion of the Silon facility in Peachtree City. Two other companies will soon locate in Hall County, while the Czech Minister of Transportation Martin Kupka, is set to visit Atlanta with some 30 companies in tow March 24.
Atlanta still lacks a nonstop flight to the Czech Republic, a challenge that Ambassador Miloslav Stasek and business leaders said need to be overcome during a Jan. 31 forum with Global Atlanta. Read/watch more from that event here
See the full list of Czech companies in town this week below:
Companies.docx-1
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