A boutique team
built like an internal AI lab
your CFO can afford.
Apexa is twelve people across Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, and Munich. No offshore subcontractors. Everyone EU-resident, on payroll. We exist because Big-4 quotes for mid-market AI work were 4× too high and four months too slow.
“AI projects don't fail because the tools are wrong. They fail because nobody is running the project. That's what I've spent twenty years getting right.”
Twenty years delivering enterprise programs across DACH and CEE. Certified PMP and AI Strategist - one of the rare practitioners who reads a SoW in DE, EN, CZ, SK and has led engagements on both sides of the table. Career built in banking and insurance — Vienna Insurance Group, Tatra banka, ČSOB/KBC Group — before cross-border rollouts for IBM, UniCredit (GWS Internet Banking across CIS), and ABB's Pan-European infrastructure programme. Parallel track in Slovak public-sector portfolios across three ministries.
Most recent corporate role: Program Manager at UNIQA, leading the post-merger integration with AXA across Czech and Slovak markets. Seven projects. 200+ professionals. 23,700 mandays. Delivered on time and on scope.
Watched mid-sized companies across Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Switzerland spend €200K–€400K on consulting engagements that produced roadmaps, not results. The same outcomes were achievable in 6–16 weeks with a focused team. That gap is why Apexa exists.
Founded Apexa to give $20M+ companies access to enterprise-grade AI at a scale and price that makes sense for their business — automating their most expensive manual processes. Hosts every Clarity Call personally. Will tell you in minute three if the problem is solvable in the timeline.
The two-paragraph
founder story.
2023. Richard is finishing three years leading the UNIQA–AXA post-merger programme across Czech and Slovak markets. Two hundred professionals coordinated. 23,700 mandays managed. Delivered. Alongside that, he's watching what mid-market companies around him are doing with AI. The pattern is consistent: a strategy workshop, a tool subscription, an enthusiastic kickoff — and six months later, adoption close to zero and the whole thing quietly shelved. Not because the AI didn't work. Because nobody ran the project.
Enterprise programmes live or die on PM discipline: clear scope, sprint structure, stakeholder alignment, adoption plans built in from day one. Mid-market AI projects were getting none of that. They were getting a demo and a login link.
Apexa launched in early 2024 with a single thesis: the AI work mid-market companies actually need is shippable in weeks, not quarters; fixed-price, not utilisation-billed; and owned by the client, not licensed back to them. The methodology combines 20+ years of PMP-certified programme management with hands-on AI implementation — the same governance and adoption discipline that kept a 23,700-manday insurance merger on track, applied to a six-week AI workflow build. Apexa bets the company on publishing prices — something the consulting industry treats like sharing nuclear codes. It turned out to be a moat.
Serving companies with €50M–€350M annual revenue across SK, CZ, AT, DE and CH. Twenty-five-plus AI projects delivered. 95% average user adoption across all deployments. Specialising in workflow automation, process intelligence and AI implementation. Fixed price, EU-hosted, code owned by the client from day one. The thesis held. Test it on a 20-minute call.