Our History Is the Foundation of Your Future

Over the past thirty years, we have become synonymous with quality, innovation and reliability in IT.

Since our founding, we have undergone a dynamic transformation—from a small software company into a leading international group that connects top-tier IT services, develops proprietary products, and builds a system for modern education. Our journey is a story of continual innovation, strategic milestones, and a steadfast commitment to delivering solutions that provide clients with a competitive edge and added value, thereby helping companies and institutions around the world to grow and succeed.

1990 – 1995

Founding and Early Growth

Our journey began in 1990, when Vladimír Kovář founded Unicorn, and we started delivering software and training to our first clients. Within two years, we had surpassed a turnover of one million dollars, confirming our rapid growth and the rising demand for our services.

In 1995, we founded the company Vigour, which to this day looks after our co-workers and their careers and supports our internal processes.

Photograph of an office team from the company’s early years, complemented by graphic elements symbolizing growth, technology, and company development.

1996 – 2006

Building Our Market Position

In 1996, we delivered one of our first projects in banking for Česká spořitelna. Two years later, we began a partnership in the energy sector with PRE (Pražská energetika), and in 1999 we broadened our industry focus with a project for Česká pojišťovna. That year, we also opened our first overseas development centre in Bratislava. At the same time, we continued to grow at home: by opening new centres during this period in Hradec Králové, Plzeň and Brno, we gradually brought attractive jobs to additional regions.

The year 2000 was significant in energy, when ČEPS began using the Damas information system. Four years later, the Slovak transmission system operator SEPS became the first foreign user of Damas. We achieved a 20% share of the custom software development market, and clients from other sectors began adopting our cutting-edge solutions, bringing top references not only from banking, insurance, energy and utilities, but also from telecommunications, manufacturing, retail and public administration.

Photograph of a team in an office meeting, complemented by graphic elements symbolizing banking, energy, and industry.

2007 – 2014

Expansion, Innovation and Education

In the field of education, a pivotal year was 2007, when Unicorn College was founded—a higher-education institution focused on IT, economics and management. Three years later, the first graduates left Unicorn College, and the internal training program Unicorn Top Gun Academy was launched, aimed at systematic, long-term development of our co-workers — because even then we knew that “it’s better to be smart than stupid.”

During this period, our software solutions began to expand into other European countries. In 2009, the Damas system was delivered to clients in the United Kingdom and France, and within eight years further deliveries followed in Switzerland, Albania, Ukraine and Finland. Gradually, we transformed from a Czech IT company into an international player.

Over the years, the quality of our work has been supported by numerous certifications—from ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 to ISO 10006, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001.

Given our dynamic growth and the fact that, for the first time, more than a thousand co-workers were involved in Unicorn projects, it again became necessary to expand our branch network. In 2011, we opened a development centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, followed two years later by Mladá Boleslav, and then Arnhem in the Netherlands and Ostrava.

Acquisitions also played an important role—from the addition of Cygni Software, iCom Vision and the NAV and BSC divisions of WBI Systems, which expanded our technological and product portfolio.

Photograph showing a university classroom environment where students work together at computers, complemented by graphic elements symbolizing technology, innovation, and education.

2015 – 2020

The Architecture That Changes the Game

From a technology perspective, a pivotal year was 2015, when we created a new version of our production technology featuring the modern Unicorn Mobile-First IoT-Ready Cloud Architecture. We then built our further growth on solutions based on this architecture.

Two years later, when our number of co-workers exceeded 2,000, we continued developing our regional and international network of branches—adding Prešov and Ternopil, followed by Chrudim, Liberec, Pardubice, and Písek, Česká Třebová, and Oslo in Norway. In parallel, we again expanded our know-how and product portfolio through the acquisitions of HSI, Edookit, IndSoft and TelcoOSS.

In 2020, the university became the first in the Czech Republic to receive accreditation for a fully distance form of study, enabling students to begin their first semester entirely online. It also began operating under the Unicorn University brand. As part of the Red Monster project, a wide range of online courses were created to educate tens of thousands of primary and secondary school pupils. Subsequently, Unicorn University extended its accreditation to include fully online study in English.

Photograph of the company’s founder presenting on stage in front of a projection screen, complemented by graphic elements symbolizing cloud architecture, technology, and innovation.

2021 – present

The Road to an Intelligent Future

During this period, we increasingly focused on a product-led approach, and new products emerged—such as ChargeUp, Lancelot, Certigy, Enelane, Inca, and Griffin—supporting the single European energy market. We also turned our attention to cybersecurity and founded axelum.

With the advent of AI technologies, we developed uuBusinessChat, an AI tool for internal documentation. In 2024, we strengthened our AI technologies by integrating uuAiChat (“Terri”) into uuTerritory, and we received an award from Gartner for Unicorn Mobile-First IoT-Ready AI-Boosted Cloud Architecture (a world-class cloud architecture that is mobile-first, IoT-ready and supported by artificial intelligence). We also expanded beyond Europe and delivered an energy project for six Gulf states. We broadened Unicorn University’s offering with international micro-certificates and MBA program.

Photograph of a conference presentation, complemented by graphic elements symbolizing artificial intelligence, technology, and innovation.

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Executive Briefing Centre - Classic 7
Jankovcova 1037/49
170 00 Praha 7, Czech Republic

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