The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide €30 million in financing to Czech online grocery retailer Rohlik Group to support its development of automation and artificial intelligence.
The funding is a top-up to a €90 million package the bank provided to Rohlik in 2024, bringing total EIB support to €120 million, the bank emphasised in a statement.
The EIB said the money will be used to accelerate the commercial scale-up of Veloq, Rohlik’s AI-powered technology platform designed for same-day grocery fulfilment — the process of preparing and dispatching customer orders.
Rohlik plans to expand Veloq to grocers across Europe and the United States.
The EIB said the support is being provided as scale-up venture debt, which it described as long-term financing for fast-growing companies.
Rohlik founded in Prague in 2014
Rohlik was founded in Prague in 2014 and has expanded beyond the Czech Republic into Hungary, Austria, Germany and Romania, the EIB said.
Rohlik is one of three Czech startups valued at more than $1 billion — a level often referred to as “unicorn” status.
EIB Vice President Marek Mora said Rohlik had moved from rapid market expansion to developing “proprietary, scalable technology.”
Rohlik chief executive and founder Tomáš Čupr said the company had spent a decade building technology to deliver “fresh, full-basket groceries” across five markets, adding that the EIB’s backing would help make the technology available to other grocers through Veloq.
The EIB said the operation is backed by the European Union’s InvestEU programme through an EIB financing window for “Future Technologies.”
