Prague, January 22, 2025 - The jubilee year of the competition for Earnst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year has its first laureate. Jan Curn, co-founder of Apify Technologies, which develops software for clients from more than a hundred countries worldwide, received the prestigious award today from Martina Kneiflova, Managing Partner of EY Czech Republic. The company specializes in web scraping and automation, which involves collecting data from websites that can then be used in marketing or e-commerce. In the future, it aims to become the world's largest marketplace for automation software. The announcement of the Prague competition results took place with Zdenek Kovarik, Prague City Council member for finance, budget, funds, and business support; this year's competition was supported by the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel.
Jan Curn is a prime example of an entrepreneur who built his business from the ground up. He founded his first company in 2009, focusing on private consulting in custom software development. Six years later, he and his partner, Jakub Balada, submitted their own web scraper to the Y Combinator startup program. Out of 6,000 applicants, they were among 30 selected projects and moved to California for experience. After two years, they launched their platform in the Czech Republic, which laid the foundation for how Apify operates today. It's a steadily growing company that's grown by 60% since the beginning of 2023 alone. Jan Curn's vision is to make Apify the world's largest marketplace for automation software - a place where developers can publish their tools and customers can buy them.
"I thank you on behalf of myself and, of course, our entire team. To succeed among such strong competition of amazing projects, especially as one of the few software companies in the competition, makes us very happy. I realize that we have it somewhat easier compared to the competition. If something happens to go wrong, we can pivot relatively quickly - when you make a mistake in manufacturing, it's much harder to fix. So we value the award even more," said Jan Curn after receiving the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 award for Prague.
As in previous years, this year's laureate was selected by an expert jury also composed of national winners from previous years, chaired by Sotirios Zavalianis, founder of the AKESO healthcare holding and EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 for the Czech Republic.
"This year we are organizing the competition in the Czech Republic for the twenty-fifth time. This year's nominees included exceptional personalities. The jury was particularly impressed by Jan Curn's entrepreneurial story due to its highly current focus, which is closely connected with artificial intelligence. This opens a completely new chapter in business across various fields. Moreover, Jan Curn is also active internationally, which fulfills the international character of the competition," said Martina Kneiflova, Managing Partner of EY Czech Republic, during the ceremonial announcement at the Kunsthalle Praha art center.
The winners of other regional rounds will be announced in the coming weeks. The main awards in five categories will be presented on March 4, 2025. The top winner will then compete in the world finals in Monaco in June for the title of EY World Entrepreneur of the Year for 2024.
EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 Partners:
The official car of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 is BMW Czech Republic. The main partner is Česká Spořitelna. The partner is SAP. The main co-organizer is MF DNES and iDNES.cz. The main media partners are Czech Television and Forbes magazine, and the media partner is Seznam Zprávy. CzechInvest and the Association of Social Responsibility support the competition. The competition is held with the support of the President of the Czech Republic.
Profile of the 2024 EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Prague
Apify
Jan Curn was drawn to entrepreneurship as a teenager. He wanted to be his own boss – and although, as he says, he soon discovered that instead of a traditional boss, he now has every customer as his boss, he doesn't regret it. Through entrepreneurship, he can pursue things that make sense to him. His first attempt came quickly. In 2003, at twenty years old, he obtained a trade license and, six years later, founded his first company. Today, he leads Apify Technologies, which specializes in web scraping – collecting data from websites that can be used in marketing or e-commerce – with customers from more than 100 countries.
Jan Curn came to founding Apify after several years of private consulting in custom software development. His Apify platform started taking shape before 2015, and in that year, Jan Curn and his partner submitted their own web scraper to the Y Combinator startup program. They were selected among 30 projects from 6,000 applications. The pair headed to California to start some very hard work – a year later, they founded the company in the Czech Republic and a year later launched the platform that laid the foundation for what Apify is today.
Success in the American startup program brought Jan Curn and Apify its necessary initial investments, though not astronomical amounts. Jan Curn financed the company and its growth gradually, striving to be as efficient as possible. He took advantage of his previous profession with consulting services, initially bringing up to 80% of the company's revenue, which is now only around 15% of the company's total. Apify has grown steadily since its founding, with only 2022 seeing a slight market downturn, when the company had to slow down after major investments and hiring. Jan Curn calls this moment a great learning experience, and since then, Apify has again achieved record results, growing by 60% since early 2023.
But Jan Curn doesn't want to settle for that. He plans expansion. Apify has operated in English since day one, and the structured data collection field has no geographic boundaries, so growth is poised with new areas and services. Apify focuses on AI and is working on its own AI agent sales platform. However, the ultimate vision is transforming Apify into the world's largest automation software marketplace, where developers can publish their tools and customers can buy them.
About the EY Entrepreneur of the Year
EY Entrepreneur of the Year is the world's most prestigious entrepreneurial competition that honors exceptional individuals. It aims to showcase outstanding examples in the field of business to the public, which can serve as role models for young aspiring entrepreneurs. The EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition is designed as international. Therefore, the criteria for evaluating individual participants are comparable across all countries. Currently, as the only globally recognized competition of its kind, it is regularly held in nearly 60 countries across six continents. More detailed information can be found at www.podnikatelroku.cz.
This article was translated from the original Czech version.
