The founder of Prague-based pop-up retail and gastronomic space Manifesto Market talks about urban redevelopment and retail innovation opportunities.

Since opening in June 2018, Prague’s Manifesto Market – a pop-up, cashless venue housed in containers – has pulled in the crowds. It boasted 650,000 visitors in its first year and won Mastercard’s 2018 Retailer of the Year award for customer experience.

Following on from this success in the Czech Republic, Manifesto Market recently secured a seven-figure growth equity investment from Rockaway Capital, a multi-stage investment firm with a portfolio that includes e-commerce platform Mall Group and pan-European online travel agency Invia Group.

Manifesto is the brainchild of Martin Barry, a former landscape architect and founder of reSITE, a global non-profit organisation that is focused on improving the urban environment and runs some of Europe’s largest self-organised conferences on architecture and planning. The business has evolved a ‘pre-development’ model that provides benefits for real estate developers and cities alike.