State development bank and EU invest €85m in Polish tech funds

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Poland’s state National Development Bank (BGK) and the European Union’s European Investment Fund (EIF) have announced their first investments under a joint programme that funds Polish companies operating in the advanced technology sector.

They are providing €85 million (365 million zloty) to three Polish venture capital funds that specialise in identifying and financing early-stage technology companies in industries such as defence, cyber-security, and space.

The investments fall under Future Tech Poland (FTP), a joint BGK and EIF scheme that is part of the wider Innovate Poland programme and aims to close a funding gap in Poland’s venture capital market. BGK has committed around 1 billion zloty to the programme, with the EIF to provide a further 500 million zloty.

On Tuesday, BGK announce that it has, along with its EU partner, signed deals to disburse the first tranche of funds under the programme.

Around €31 million will go to Expeditions, which mostly invests in defence technology start-ups. Cogito Capital, which helps young AI and financial technology firms expand abroad, will receive €30 million. And Balnord, an investor in tech firms in the Baltic Sea region, is to get €24 million.

The investments are “an important step in strengthening Poland’s venture capital ecosystem”, said EIF chief executive Marjut Falkstedt.

Meanwhile, Mirosław Czekaj, president of the management board of BGK, said that FTP is a “strategic opportunity to strengthen Poland’s innovation ecosystem by bridging the funding gap that has hindered [the] dynamic development of tech companies”.

Poland’s technology sector has enjoyed significant recent growth, in areas including financial technology, software development and artificial intelligence. The country has been a European pioneer in mobile and internet banking transactions and is becoming a growing player in the space industry.

Poland’s AI startups have also recently been attracting more international attention and investment from abroad. OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, recently announced the acquisition of Neptune.ai, a Polish-founded startup that helps track the training of AI models.

Similarly, ElevenLabs, a startup focused on AI voice generation software, has recently been valued at $11 billion after receiving the financial backing of several investment firms from the US, reported Reuters in February.

In November, the government unveiled the Innovate Poland programme, which aims to combine public and private funds to support the growth of Polish innovative companies. With an initial budget of 4 billion zloty, it is supported by Polish public institutions, the partially state-owned Polish insurer PZU, the EU.

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Ministerstwo Rozwoju i Technologii

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.