Kiwi.com started with the kind of problem that produces good startups because it is both irritating and easy to understand. Oliver Dlouhý was trying to find an affordable route to Portugal and realised the best journey involved combining flights from carriers that did not normally cooperate. The idea became what Kiwi.com later called Virtual Interlining.
Dlouhý and Jozef Képesi founded the company in 2012, originally under the Skypicker name. Kiwi.com’s own history records the two meeting in Brno before formal registration and then building the algorithm that could combine separate carriers into bookable itineraries.
Brno produced a travel technology company, not a travel agency
The distinction matters. Kiwi.com was not simply reselling flights. Its core proposition depended on software, data and an algorithmic view of routes that traditional airline distribution systems did not always expose to customers. That technical layer gave the company something more defensible than a standard online booking interface.
For the Czech ecosystem, it became an early demonstration that globally relevant consumer technology could be built outside Prague. Brno already had strong universities and engineering talent, but Kiwi.com gave the city a visible scale-up story that international investors and founders could point to.
Dlouhý and Képesi combined product insight with technical execution
Dlouhý’s original insight came from the customer problem. Képesi, who became chief technology officer, was central to turning that idea into the technical system behind the company. That division is common in strong founding teams: one founder sees the market opportunity clearly while another can help turn it into infrastructure that works at scale.
The company later brought in broader management and investment, but the original founder story remained straightforward. A travel problem encountered by one Czech entrepreneur became a technical challenge that two founders believed software could solve better.
International capital followed international ambition
Growth investor General Atlantic took a strategic stake in Kiwi.com in 2019, with the company stating that both founders would remain significant shareholders. By that point the business was already processing a huge volume of flight searches and had become one of the best-known technology companies to emerge from Czechia.
The investment also reflected a broader shift in how international capital viewed CEE. The region was no longer simply a place to find engineering teams. It was producing founders capable of building consumer platforms with proprietary technology and international distribution.
A founder story that still matters for Brno
Kiwi.com has faced the same pressures that come with operating in a volatile global travel market, but its origin remains one of the strongest founder stories in Czech technology. It is specific, technical and rooted in a real customer problem.
For Brno, that matters. Successful companies help cities build confidence as startup centres. They give ambitious engineers a local example of global scale, help investors take the region more seriously and make it easier for the next founder to believe that an international company can begin with a conversation in a local bar.