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In 2007 I wasrunning latefor my language at the Polish Stock Exchange , but the cool response I received there suggested I should perhaps not have bothered . verbalise about the new wave of technical school startups come out from Silicon Valley and how Europe was next , I was met with a lot of nonplused blink . That audience intelligibly was n’t the right one , or in the right place . But in the high schools and university , Poland ’s youth was meddling vacuum up engineering and concern grade to get their ecosystem afoot .
Fast - forward to 2024 and Poland ’s inauguration ( and passing ) ecosystem bear little resemblance to 2007 . Some extremely successful tech companies have emerge from the res publica , including Brainly , Booksy , Docplanner , Ramp and many others . Not to mention the on - fire games sphere . “ The Witcher ” games were published in Poland by CD Projekt and worldwide by Atari , for instance .
Poland ’s hot ecosystem even get to the item where there was so much to write about I had to separate my 2020 survey of Poland ’s VC view intotwoparts .
Further evidence that the view is still on a ringlet emerges today in the news that Poland’sSMOK Ventureshas close its second monetary fund at the $ 25 million mark .
Now , before you scoff at that digit , call up the geography it ’s deploying in . indorse other - stage software tools , SaaS , AI and gaming startups in Central and Eastern Europe , SMOK has been part of a new wave of VCs in the region .
And as you could see from the 2020 sketch , we countedat least 20 VCsoperating in Poland ( mostly out of Warsaw ) .
Poland is also poised to experience the economical welfare of ridding itself of a socially conservative governing , which has acted as a drag on society , in the wake of the triumph by former EU chief Donald Tusk .
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Borys Musielak , SMOK ’s oecumenical partner ( who sell Filmaster to Samba TV ) and whose atomic number 27 - founder isDiana Koziarska(former CEO at ReaktorX ) , told me over a call : “ Most of our investments are in software package growing tools and game development . Those are the two biggest sectors in Poland … It ’s the engineers understanding engineering tools and they build engineering tools for other engineers … Those are really Poland ’s strengths . ”
He said fundraising had been knotty because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its side effect amongst LPs aflutter about the region . Although Poland has assimilate 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees comparatively well , much of the tech endowment has stayed in Ukraine where it has pivot to defence , for obvious reasons .
That said , Musielak severalize me Ukrainian startups continue to come along and make investable prospects . Finmap is a Ukrainian - stock inauguration backed by SMOK , for instance . The immediate payment flow management creature for small business owners has raised around $ 2 million so far .
SMOK ’s first fund from 2019 was $ 10 million and was deploy in 24 startups and locomote into startups including SunRoof , Vue Storefront and inStreamly .
The legal age of that first store amount from Poland ’s governance - tie PFR Ventures , but this second fund is indorse by PFR ’s separate investing pocket which does not hold back EU funding . The new investment firm admit 60 + private LPs , with , says the business firm , most of the LPs being entrepreneurs come from CEE . OnDean Forward , with Andrew Sieja ( laminitis of Relativity , a Polish / Chicago unicorn ) and Marcin Wojtczak ( former administrator at Relativity and Bain ) are among the new major LPs , for instance .
SMOK will use the new store to invest in pre - seminal fluid and seed startup ( invest around $ 100,000-$1 million ) both from CEE , but also has the freedom to deploy anywhere in the mankind , now that it has less EU institutional funds as LPs .
The fund writes cheque of $ 100,000 to $ 1 million and , to day of the month , it has invested in 12 startups , propagate across countries such as Poland , Ukraine , Croatia , Bulgaria and others . investiture include Gotiva , 57hours and Ukraine ’s Finmap .
SMOK also has a utilitarian card up its arm when it wants to connection its portfolio in the U.S. or internationally . It is part of a internet of monetary resource wangle by the prolific — and somewhat idiosyncratic ( he ’s a U.S.-citizen who once competed in the Olympics for Columbia ) — U.S. investorPaul Bragiel . His investing web focalize on emerging market and includes Golden Gate Ventures ( Southeast Asia ) , Niu Ventures ( South America ) , Bragiel Brothers ( North America ) , Savannah ( Africa ) and Sisu Game Ventures ( gamedev focus ) .
Although a formal general practitioner in SMOK , Bragiel is not operational sidereal day - to - solar day , but because hewasan other investor in Uber , this no doubt comes in handy when SMOK needs to connection its portfolio in the U.S.
This latest news produce it clear that Poland ’s tech ecosystem is continue to punch above its weight both regionally and internationally .
