In 1988, Pavel Baudiš found a virus (called ‘Vienna’) on a computer diskette, and his curiosity led him to create an antivirus program that would remove it. In those days he was studying mathematics and computer science at the Research Institute of Mathematical Machines of Czechoslovakia, due to he cannot study physics as he was not affiliated with the Communist Party (something mandatory in order to do such a subject). Shortly after he met Eduard Kučera and both of them decided to create, in 1991, a small cooperative which they called ‘Alwil’.

From that union, their main product that catapulted them was created: the ‘Anti-Virus Advanced Set’, which became known by its acronym ‘Avast’. One of their most important successes of ‘Alwil’ was developed an antivirus available to private users for free, which made them famous with millions of downloads of their software at the end of that decade.

Over the years, they achieved a great financial investment that led them to become a solid company, changing the old name (Alwil) for its flagship product ‘Avast Software’ and being one of the leading companies in its sector in Europe.

Pavel Baudiš and Eduard Kučera are currently among the top 10 richest men in the Czech Republic.