They have more and more opportunities to obtain money
Polish start-ups develop mainly from their own resources, but they also want to attract foreign investors. It is also becoming easier for them to obtain support from the state budget or EU funds. The two-day Wolves Summit conference devoted to start-ups has just ended in Warsaw - one of the largest networking events in Central and Eastern Europe. The event, which is an opportunity to establish business contacts, attracted approx. 1,2 thousand people to the capital. business wolves and 200 start-ups from the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
Education
- The start-up market in Poland is developing at a fast pace, but there is still no education. There are numerous examples of obtaining financing on the market, but we have not yet observed too many major exits from investments by investors - says the news agency Newseria Biznes Piotr Piasek, co-founder of Wolves Summit.
The latest report of the Startup Poland Foundation ("Polish Startups. Report 2017") shows that in comparison to previous years, in 2017 fewer start-ups developed with the help of external capital. The main model of financing is bootstrapping, i.e. savings and reinvestment of revenues. At the moment, 62 percent of them live from their own resources. Polish start-ups (compared to 50% last year). However, as much as 77 percent. companies plan to obtain external financing in the next six months.
source of capital
The most popular source of external capital is venture capital (domestic or foreign). Immediately after that, public money from EU funds (PARP or NCBiR). Equally popular as the EU is private capital obtained from domestic and foreign business angels. Slightly fewer start-ups are financed with funds obtained under acceleration programs.
Development,
Every fifth start-up that has acquired external capital for development uses a foreign source of financing: an accelerator, a business angel or a venture capital fund. On the other hand, among the companies that are just planning to obtain investment capital, 44 percent. wants to cooperate with a foreign investor. The co-founder of Wolves Summit also notes that in the near future it will be easier to obtain funds from national and EU programs.
- In the previous year we had a slowdown, we found ourselves between one and the other chain of European financing. A financial hole has been created that is currently being filled. The first funds from NCBiR and PARP were launched. The Polish Development Fund will contribute a great deal of value. A lot of different vehicles are being built. This will greatly boost the dynamics of growth in financing start-ups. There will also be financing for the next stage, which was somewhat lacking on the market. This, in turn, will take the Polish start-up ecosystem to the next stage - says Piotr Piasek.
Technology
Polish start-ups create technologies primarily in the areas of: big data, analytics, internet of things, development tools and life sciences. They are becoming more and more internationalized: 28 percent of start-ups employ foreign workers, and nearly half of them sell their products and services abroad. The data of the Startup Poland Foundation also show that 17 percent. of such companies is growing at a rate exceeding 50 percent. monthly.
- I think that the Polish market has a very high growth potential. We have very good programmers, the right universities. However, more entrepreneurship is needed, which is natural for Poles, because we do what we need to do on a daily basis. However, there is a lack of business knowledge, experiences of other people who can show how to do this business - says Piotr Pasek.
Innovations
The sixth edition of one of the largest networking events in Central and Eastern Europe dedicated to start-ups, technology companies, investors and corporations planning to cooperate with innovative, smaller entities ended yesterday in Warsaw. The annual Wolves Summit conference attracted several hundred investors and global concerns as well as start-ups from around the world, for whom this meeting is an opportunity to verify their idea, check whether it arouses market interest and establish business contacts.
- We organized the Wolves Summit in Gdynia for the first time two years ago. We then had the opportunity to see the potential of this market. We decided to go in this direction - to help corporations and investors in looking for better and better projects. Start-ups can now participate in the conference for free, thanks to which better projects come to us - says Piotr Pasek.
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As the co-founder of Wolves Summit emphasizes, this year's edition of the conference emphasized cooperation in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
- When it comes to innovation, cooperation in the region of Central and Eastern Europe is currently in an upward trend. EU funds help in this. There will be a very large increase in the availability of such funds and financing in Poland. We want to focus on popularizing innovation in this region - says Piotr Pasek.
Symposium
About 1,2 thousand people came to Warsaw for the two-day Wolves Summit conference. business wolves - about 200 start-ups from the CEE region and over 400 representatives of corporations and investors, including managers of the largest companies in the financial, energy and technology sectors. The agenda envisaged over 2,5 thousand. one-on-one meetings to establish a business relationship. This year, the Warsaw Stock Exchange has also become a partner of Wolves Summit for the first time.
- In the West, it is a natural direction for the development of the stock exchange business, which consists in introducing new companies. The development of NewConnect in Poland is getting stronger. We can see from the experience of the West that the involvement of the stock exchange at an earlier stage allows for better preparation and delivery of more companies in a shorter time, opening and encouraging them to debut - so that more companies debut on our stock exchange, instead of looking for financing abroad -says Piotr Piasek.
