Dušan Šenkypl

EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2026 finalist, Czech Republic
Partner, Pale Fire Capital, and CEO, Groupon

Dušan Šenkypl is building global technology businesses used by millions worldwide.

Progress, for Dušan Šenkypl, begins with the willingness to go first. He learned that lesson early in socialist Czechoslovakia, where a teenage quest to buy the village’s first computer pushed him to start a small business and to treat limits as opportunities.

While still at university, he founded an IT company that built the first internet banking platform in Czechia. He later moved to the United States, then the center of the global technology world, to launch another IT company that developed products for more than 200 million users and worked with leading players. This period cemented his belief that Central Eastern European entrepreneurs can compete on the global stage.

Today, as co-founder and partner of Pale Fire Capital, Dušan leads an investment platform spanning private equity, a hedge fund and Nasdaq-listed Groupon, which he personally manages. Under his leadership, Groupon returned to profitability, and Pale Fire has supported the global expansion of innovators such as indoor cycling app Rouvy, SaaS builder itrinity and e-insurance service Mubi. Dušan builds companies that return real value to society, not as a marketing claim, but in practice.

For Dušan, entrepreneurship is a tool for leaving systems and people stronger than he found them.