BigHub scored in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 CE 2021 competition

Bridging academia and real-world practice is key

At the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of CVUT (FJFI), we are changing that. Since the 2021/2022 academic year, BigHub has been teaching full-semester courses that connect academia with the real world of data. And it’s not just lectures—students get hands-on experience with real technologies in a business-like environment, guided by professionals who deal with such projects every day.

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What brought us to FJFI

BigHub has a personal connection to CVUT FJFI. Many of us—including CEO Karel Šimánek, COO Ing. Tomáš Hubínek, and more than ten other colleagues—studied there ourselves. We know the faculty produces top-tier mathematicians, physicists, and engineers. But we also know that these students often lack insight into how data and AI function in business contexts.

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That’s why we decided to change it. Not as a recruitment campaign, but as a long-term contribution to Czech education. We want students to see real examples, try modern tools, and be better prepared for their careers.

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Two courses, two semesters

18AAD – Applied Data Analysis (summer semester)

The first course launched in the 2021/2022 academic year, led by Ing. Tomáš Hubínek. Its goal is to give students an overview of how large-scale data work looks in practice. Topics include:

• data organization and storage,
• frameworks for big data computation,
• graph analysis,
• cloud services,
• basics of AI and ML.

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Strong emphasis is placed on practical exercises. Students work in Microsoft Azure, explore different technologies, and have room for discussion. Selected lectures also feature BigHub experts who share insights from real projects.

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18BIG – Data in Business (winter semester)

In 2024, we added a second course that builds on 18AAD. It is taught by doc. Ing. Jan Kučera, CSc. and doc. Ing. Petr Pokorný, Ph.D. The course goes deeper and focuses on:

• data governance and data management in organizations,
• integration architectures,
• data platforms and AI readiness,
• best practices from real-world projects.

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While 18AAD shows what can be done with data, 18BIG demonstrates how it actually works inside companies.

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Above-average student interest

Elective courses at FJFI usually attract only a few students. Our courses, however, enroll 20–35 students every year—an above-average number for the faculty.

Feedback is consistent: students appreciate the practical focus, open discussions, and the chance to ask professionals about real-world situations. For many, it’s their first encounter with technologies actually used in business.

Beyond the classroom

Our involvement doesn’t end with teaching. Together with the Department of Software Engineering, we’ve helped revise curricula and graduate profiles, enabling the faculty to respond more flexibly to what companies in the data and AI fields really need. This improves the quality of education across the entire faculty, not just for students who take our electives.

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It’s not about recruitment

Sometimes, a student later joins BigHub — but that’s not the goal. The goal is to ensure graduates aren’t surprised by how data work really looks. We want them to have broader, more practical knowledge and hands-on experience with modern tools. It’s our way of giving back to the institution that shaped us and contributing to the Czech tech ecosystem as a whole.

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Collaboration with FJFI goes beyond teaching. Since BigHub’s founding, we’ve supported the student union and regularly participated in the faculty’s Dean’s Cup sports event, playing futsal, beach volleyball, and more. This year, we also submitted several grant applications together and hope to soon collaborate on joint technical projects. We believe a strong community and informal connections between students and professionals are just as important as textbook knowledge.

What’s next?

Our cooperation with CVUT FJFI is long-term. Courses 18AAD and 18BIG will continue, and we are exploring ways to expand their scope. We see that students crave practical experience and that bridging academia with real-world practice truly works. If this helps improve the quality of data and AI projects in Czech companies, it will be the best proof that our effort is worthwhile.

We've always focused on leveraging the latest technologies to deliver top-notch solutions. From the start, one of our most important partnerships has been with a tech leader in cloud and AI – Microsoft. This year has been full of exciting updates, from becoming a Microsoft Managed Partner to achieving the latest Fabric Featured Partner status.

_{What is Microsoft Fabric?}

Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Fabric in public preview – an exciting end-to-end analytics solution that combines Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI. This all-in-one analytics powerhouse features seven core workloads seamlessly integrated into a single architecture, enhancing data governance with Microsoft Purview, simplifying data management with OneLake, and empowering users through Microsoft 365 integration. With advanced AI features like Copilot, Fabric boosts productivity and offers partners opportunities to create innovative, value-driven solutions, making data environments more secure, compliant, and cost-effective.

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Being a Fabric Featured Partner means we’re skilled in using Fabric and ready to guide our clients through its implementation. Our team has undergone extensive training and with many clients where Fabric is already running, we can provide top-notch support and insights.

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_{What this means for our customers}

Microsoft Fabric is a comprehensive data platform designed to streamline your organization's data processes. By unifying various data operations, it significantly reduces the costs associated with operating, integrating, managing, and securing your data.

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• Stay ahead with cutting-edge tech: Partnering with BigHub, you can access advanced features and updates that will keep your solutions state-of-the-art.
• Better support: Our close relationship with Microsoft, and access to their experts and resources, enables us to resolve even the trickiest issues quickly and solve everything correctly.
• Boosted productivity with AI: Using Fabric helps both our customers and our team to enhance productivity, and enjoy significantly faster data access and time-to-delivery.

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Back in 2016, two friends, Karel Šimánek and Tomáš Hubínek, decided to take a different path. They were passionate about artificial intelligence long before it became trendy, and despite everyone advising them against it, they stuck to their vision. The result? BigHub—a company specializing in advanced data solutions born out of their determination to do things their way.

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Clients that trust us

Our unique journey and perseverance were recognized first abroad, with first clients from Germany, and the US, thanks to our cooperation with GoodData. But our domestic market quickly matured and we started to work for enterprise clients in Czechia and Slovakia. The first clients were mainly and quite surprisingly from the energy sector, ČEZ, E.ON, PPAS, and VSE. But we always saw the potential of AI technology for transforming every business. Our goal has always been to make AI accessible for all kinds of businesses, big or small.

While large enterprise clients are still our primary clientele, thanks to the enormous growth of opportunities that came with GPT, we've been opening up to small and medium-sized businesses too. Our GPT-based solutions offer clients better access to data analytics, powerful automation of back-office processes, and upgrade of their services - for a fraction of the price it would cost 8 years ago.

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Wide recognition of our expertise

We’ve had some incredible milestones along the way, which helped BigHub to be recognized as a leader in applied AI. In 2021, BigHub ranked among the top ten fastest-growing tech companies in Central Europe in the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 CE ranking. Not bad for a company that started with just a few friends and a lot of ambition!

BigHub became widely recognized in 2023 when we won the Readers' Choice Award for the best business story in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Apart from the successes in awards, we gained recognition in prestigious outlets like Forbes, Hospodářské noviny, CzechCrunch, and EURO.cz.

Both of our founders have shared their expertise on major platforms like CNN Prima NEWS, where they provided valuable tips on spotting and protecting against deepfake and how to spot them, and in a series of interviews for Roklen24, where Karel Šimánek and Tomáš Hubínek discussed their insights on AI and the evolving digital landscape. 

Our story shows how following your vision pays off, even when nobody else on the market sees it through.

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Business growth

We built the BigHub on a strong team, friendly culture, and meaningful work. These foundations have helped us to grow sustainably over the years, growing approximately 20+ percent each year. This year, we’ll reach the big milestone of CZK 100 million in revenue.

We’ve evolved from offering custom-tailored projects to scalable products that still allow for client customization. It’s about finding that sweet spot between prefabricated solutions and personalized service, like automating insurance claim processes to save time for our clients.

Our growth is based on the smart and motivated people we have the privilege to work with daily. Our team now consists of 46 amazing individuals. Whether it’s football matches, cycling trips, or summer parties, we succeeded in building and maintaining a culture that turns colleagues into lifelong friends.

We’ve always believed that education is key to staying ahead in such a fast-moving industry. That's why we not only work hard for our clients but also focus on our development. We regularly host internal workshops and hackathons, where our team can learn new upcoming technologies as well as come up with fresh ideas and innovative applications.

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Acknowledged Partners

None of this would be possible without the support of our great partners. Microsoft has been a key technology vendor for many of our enterprise clients, and our partnership with them continues to thrive as our business grows. With time our partnership deepened and we are proud to gain multiple statuses - Microsoft Managed Partner, Microsoft Solution Partner for Data & AI on Azure, or the latest Fabric Featured Partner, to name but a few.

As our client base has expanded, we’ve become technology agnostic, working seamlessly with all the major platforms and gaining their partnerships as well, including AWS, Google Cloud, and Databricks. These partnerships are just another proof of our team's hard work and their never-ending will to learn. At the same time, proficiency in all the major technologies helps us to pick and deliver the very best solutions to our clients.

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Giving back

Our connection to CTU – our alma mater – remains strong. For the past three years, we’ve been teaching a course on Applied Data Analysis, and this year we’re excited to launch a new follow-up course on Big Data tools and architecture. We sponsor student activities and provide both financial and non-financial support to initiatives like the Hlávka Foundation. We’re proud to say that our commitment to giving back remains unwavering. Whether it’s supporting the Data Talk community as a proud partner of the Data Mesh meetup for all the data enthusiasts out there, teaching, or mentoring students, we’re always looking for ways to inspire and contribute to the next generation of tech talent.

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BigHub beyond the big puddle 

This year we are strengthening our US presence! It represents a significant step forward in expanding our global reach, with a dedicated sales representative starting in October 2023 and multiple US clients already on board. It’s a bold move, and we couldn’t be more proud of the incredible team that made it happen. This is a big step for us in sharing our AI and data expertise with the largest market in the world!

As we look ahead, we’re more excited than ever for what the future holds and the new opportunities to innovate, grow, and give back. Our journey just started, and what a ride it has been so far!

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