Prague tech sector expands as world cybersecurity titan aims to triple staff

An international tech and network-security company is set to move to a larger, new R&D center in the Czech capital to facilitate its expansion, Cato Networks founder and serial Israeli entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer confirmed at a press conference in Prague last week. 

Based in Prague since 2024, the tech firm says Prague's strategic location, open labor market, and well-established tech presence make the Czech capital the best location to help meet global need for AI-powered security.

The current global tech landscape requires constant adaptation and change, according to Kramer, who helped build global tech company Check Point, which created the world’s first-ever firewall.

Kramer told Expats.cz: “The urgency of this wave in security is unlike anything I have seen in the last 20 years due to AI.” According to Czechia’s Office for Cyber ​​and Information Security, the number of cyberattacks hitting the country’s firms and domestic institutions rose 84 percent year on year between 2022 and 2024.

The entrepreneur, who also co-founded American cybersecurity software Imperva, adds: “Cybersecurity attacks are among the most significant and rapidly evolving threats facing organizations in Czechia and globally. The emergence of AI-driven attacks, combined with hybrid work models and cloud adoption, has significantly expanded the threat landscape.”

The USD 4.8 billion (CZK 104 billion)-valued firm, which Kramer founded in 2015 and specializes in cloud-based cybersecurity platform SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), previously chose Prague as its first R&D site outside Israel due to Prague’s “international character, high quality of life, and strong technology ecosystem,” Kramer tells Expats.cz.

The new head of Cato’s Prague R&D office Lukáš Mrázek says the firm aims to triple its Prague-based workforce within the next 12 months. Mrázek states that one of his central goals is “to attract top regional talent, offering them an excellent working environment; ​​modern facilities, transparent processes, and a strong mentoring culture.”

Cato Chief Technology Officer Eyal Heiman adds that Czechia’s “open and practical labor market framework ensures we can attract talent…without unnecessary barriers.”

When asked about the types of people Cato needs most, Heiman states: “It’s all about technology and people who use it.” Roles like software and DevOps engineers, frontend engineers, developers in C language, and security researchers are highly sought-after, he says. According to Grafton Recruitment, newly emerging tech-based roles are seeing among the fastest salary growth in all of Czechia.

The Cato chief warns that AI is reshaping the threat landscape, forcing companies to protect not just their networks but also the growing web of interactions between staff, cloud platforms, and AI tools. He believes that Czechia's tech industry now requires AI-aware platforms that can stop threats across all digital environments.

For Kramer, the overarching aim is to increase global security, safeguard companies, and create jobs. In his own words: “I like to make things; from zero to one, nothing to something.”