Every month StartuppersClub brings you the unmissable news about Polish startups. Here is the summary in some points of the month of January 2020. And if you are interested in the subject, don’t forget to find out why Poland is the next European startup nation .
Venture capital funds invest 5 times more in 2019 than in 2017
Funding for Polish startups is booming after a decade of stagnation. Venture capital investment in 2019 was 1.3 billion zlotys, or 300 million euros. This is 8 times more than in 2018!
However, three Polish startups account for almost half of the investments. Around 134 million euros were invested in the following companies:
- DocPlanner, a mobile application to make an appointment with a doctor, 78 million euros.
- Brainly, a platform for the exchange of knowledge between students, 30 million euros in July 2019.
- Booksy, a mobile application to make an appointment with a hairdresser or a beautician, 26 million euros in September 2019
Of course, this is still much less than in Spain: Spanish start-ups have raised around 8.5 billion euros in 2019. Finally, a peculiarity of the Polish market for financing start-ups is that it is mainly… public! Given the shortage of funds investing in venture capital in Poland, the state has taken matters into its own hands. Two thirds of Polish startups have received public funding. But this aid is limited to 125,000 euros. Too little to develop a project.
A 6 month sabbatical to create a startup
According to the Polish Minister of Development, employers are reluctant to grant long-term leave to their employees. However, the government is considering giving this possibility to computer scientists, engineers and programmers employed in large companies who are hesitant to start a business.
«We would like to prepare a solution such as maternity leave for a certain period of time, so that the employer can try to test his idea» – explained the minister. The regulation aims to ensure that startuppers have access to the sabbatical period and ensure reintegration in case the project is unsuccessful
Boomerun, a Polish startup that pays you to walk!
Boomerun wants to motivate you to stay active. Every hundred steps recorded in the application gives one point. And the points are transformed into vouchers. It is a new field of economics that is opening according to its founder Tomasz Uściński: #Walkonomics. More specifically, the application works with Google Fit or Apple Health to count the steps. The app is financed in part with public funds at the moment, waiting to perfect the business model.
In terms of profitability for the user, you still have to be a good walker. For the equivalent of 16 euros (70 PLN), you have to walk for 2 months about 7000 steps per day! The founder makes sure that you only have to walk to the next bus stop instead of choosing the closest one to make it easy to reach! We are waiting to see if it works!
Many companies have shown interest, including: Apple, Garmin, Xiaomi, Bose, Decathlon, Zara, Zalando, Spotify, Netflix, Google Play, PlayStation, Xbox, Nitendo …
The Tauron Progres incubator will host 12 Polish startups …
The Tauron incubator was created by Tauron Polska Energia, a leading Polish energy group. After studying 300 ideas and meeting 35 startups, Tauron Progres has chosen 12 projects in which it will collaborate. The group wishes to develop new services related to the connected home in particular. Some companies that make up this incubator have already benefited from the KPT ScaleUp acceleration program in Krakow.