Benefiting from the lively community of start-up companies here

Czech national Petr Pridal studied information technology and cartography in his homeland, completing his studies with a doctoral thesis about a 17^th century Czech map, not necessarily as accurate as would be produced today, but all set out artistically and with distances measured in the revolutions of wheels, as it was done in those days; a copy of it hangs on his office wall.

It was when presenting his doctoral thesis in Switzerland that lecturers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich advised him to set up his own cartographic company here, which he duly did, Pridal now the proud CEO of his own company, Klokan Technologies.

The company produces bespoke maps for those who have a specific need for them, very much a gap in the market, despite satellite maps of virtually anywhere available from Google.

For example, for those interested in seeing a map of Switzerland highlighting railways as opposed to the motorway network, the former can be accentuated with the latter blocked out. In fact it was with the technology Pridal developed for such a map that he was awarded the Prix Carto Innovation Prize by the Swiss Cartographic Association last year. Now the software developed by Pridal to make such maps is in use at renowned companies such as Siemens, the SBB and IBM, his system also used in digital treasure hunts. “From a software point of view, it does not make that much difference whether the map is made up of lots of satellite photographs, or from old maps themselves,” he explained.

It is widely known that it is as a result of the high level of stability in Switzerland and low taxes in Zug that the canton enjoys a good reputation as a location to set up a business, indeed, the BBC recently included the city of Zug as one of best five places in the world to do this, Klokan Technologies being an example par excellence of this.

Not that Pridal was attracted here solely through the financial and beneficial framework conditions. “There is a very lively community of start-up businesses here, all benefiting from exchanging ideas with each other,” he said. “And when you come here and do not know the language, you are still made to feel welcome, something which is not to be taken for granted.”