EMAKINA Central & Eastern Europe
EMAKINA Central & Eastern Europe is a company.
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Leadership Team
Key people at EMAKINA Central & Eastern Europe.
EMAKINA Central & Eastern Europe is a company.
Key people at EMAKINA Central & Eastern Europe.
Key people at EMAKINA Central & Eastern Europe.
Emakina Central & Eastern Europe is a regional division of the Emakina Group, a Belgium-based digital agency network specializing in digital transformation, marketing, e-commerce, and technology services, now integrated into EPAM Systems since 2021.[1][2][3] It operates as "the User Agency," focusing on user-centric digital experiences through engineering, design, and strategy, with a strong presence in countries like Serbia (Emakina.RS), Poland, Croatia, Austria, Sweden, and others in Central and Eastern Europe.[1][3][4][5] The division serves global brands in retail, automotive, finance, and energy, building e-commerce platforms, applications, and analytics solutions on technologies like JavaScript, .NET, Kubernetes, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Salesforce), and more, while solving challenges in customer engagement, sales, and digital operations.[3][4][7]
Growth has been robust, expanding from mergers and acquisitions to over 1,100 employees group-wide pre-acquisition, with Emakina.RS alone generating $9.7 million in revenue and earning recognition for top employee selection processes.[1][2][4] Post-EPAM acquisition, it leverages enhanced engineering for high-performance marketing and creative services across EMEA.[2]
Emakina Group, parent of the Central & Eastern Europe division, originated in 2001 from the merger of digital design studio Ex Machina (founded 1999 by Brice Le Blevennec at age 23) and e-business agency Emalaya (started 1998 by Denis Steisel), initially with 35 employees.[1][3] Expansion into Central & Eastern Europe accelerated post-2006 Euronext listing (ALEMK), with acquisitions of agencies in Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Sweden, and beyond, reaching 26 offices in 18 countries by 2021.[1][3]
A pivotal moment came in December 2021 when EPAM Systems acquired the group, boosting its tech capabilities; locally, Emakina.RS in Novi Sad, Serbia, emerged as a key engineering hub focused on e-commerce for global brands.[2][4] This evolution shifted from independent agencies to an EPAM-backed powerhouse, recently rebranded elements toward "Empathy Lab" emphasizing AI-native, human-first approaches.[8]
Emakina Central & Eastern Europe rides the wave of digital transformation in EMEA, blending creative agencies with engineering amid rising demand for composable commerce, AI-driven personalization, and cloud-native e-commerce.[2][3][7][8] Timing aligns with post-pandemic shifts to omnichannel retail and data analytics, where CEE's cost-effective talent pools (e.g., Serbia's engineering hubs) fuel scalable solutions for global brands.[4]
Market forces like EPAM's scale enable competition against pure tech giants, while influencing ecosystems through partnerships (e.g., commercetools, Contentful) and proactive customer orchestration—pioneering "AI-native" models that merge human insight with tech precision.[3][7][8]
Emakina Central & Eastern Europe is poised for accelerated growth within EPAM, expanding AI-native services like Empathy Lab to lead in predictive marketing and hyper-personalized e-commerce.[8] Trends in composable architecture, edge computing, and regulated AI will shape its path, amplifying CEE's role as Europe's engineering backbone amid talent shortages elsewhere.[4][7]
Its influence may evolve from regional executor to global innovator, empowering brands in volatile markets—reinforcing the user-first ethos that defined its rise from a 2001 merger to EPAM powerhouse.[1][2][8]
