Czech internet infrastructure company CDN77 has achieved unicorn status following a major equity sale by its founder, Zdeněk Cendra. According to a broadcast of the business program Nothing personal, just business! by journalists Petr Šimůnek and Jana Klímová on Czech Radio’s Plus station, Cendra sold a thirty percent stake in the company for an estimated 10 to 13 billion crowns, placing the overall company valuation at approximately 40 billion crowns.
CDN77 Valuation and Global Market Standing
Founded more than a decade ago, CDN77 operates a content delivery network that routes data across a global server footprint. The company maintains servers worldwide to deliver content from locations closest to end users, operating across 135 countries. According to data cited by Petr Šimůnek on Czech Radio, CDN77 ranks as the fifth-largest company globally by revenue in its specific segment, making it larger than Google within that market niche. The transaction values the business at roughly 40 miliard crowns, aligning it with other Czech unicorns such as Mews, Productboard, and Rohlík, as reported by iROZHLAS.
Corporate Structure and Workplace Practices
The 40-year-old founder maintains distinct operational practices within the company. CDN77 enforces a policy of holding no morning meetings to give employees dedicated time for focused work and ideation. Despite operating with roughly half the headcount of competitors handling comparable workloads, the firm prioritizes workflow efficiency. Cendra himself takes approximately 100 days of vacation annually, a practice he attributes to avoiding operational overload to maintain strategic focus, as detailed in the Nothing personal, just business! broadcast.
Sanctions and Russian Business Ties in the Czech Republic
In the same broadcast, journalists Jana Klímová and Petr Šimůnek examined broader economic connections, including the historical and current ties of Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman to the Czech Republic. The European Union recently removed Fridman and Alisher Usmanov from its list of sanctioned individuals. Fridman established economic links in the Czech Republic during the 1990s through the Alfa Group, utilizing local entities for investments that included luxury housing construction in Prague 5, according to Klímová’s report on iROZHLAS.
In 2022, Czech authorities froze assets tied to Fridman that had been invested through the Cypriot holding company ABH into the Enern Sprout II fund, which operates under the Enern group. Petr Šmída, who once headed Fridman’s Russian Alfa Bank, serves as a partner and primary founder of Enern. Jan Husták, a spokesperson for Enern Sprout II, confirmed to the radio program that due to measures by the Financial Analytical Office, the holding’s fund status remains unchanged, and the fund will continue to act in accordance with regulatory instructions. Husták stated that Petr Šmída never planned investments with Fridman, explaining that the initial investment into Enern Sprout II originated from a Luxembourg fund whose position was subsequently assumed by ABH Holding following the fund’s liquidation.
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