With PLN 1 billion being invested in Polish startups in 2019, the year has witnessed a spectacular growth for the startup scene in Poland. A four-fold increase in investment by VC funds has given a strong boost to the Polish startups that are spread all across the country. Krakow-based startups have also attracted the eyes of investors. While the acclaimed EdTech startup, Brainly, raked in a big investment of PLN 114 million from international investors such as Naspers; Runa Capital and Manta Ray, some of Krakow’s most innovative tech startups were also able to raise decent funding.
Let’s take a look at some of the innovative Krakow-based startups that received funding in 2019.
Talent Alpha
The 13-month-old HRTech company made history by raising a significant amount of PLN 18.5 million in its seed round in May 2019. VC firms, Aper Ventures and PR Ventures, backed the company along with private investors including the likes of Jacek Kłeczek – a seasoned investor and entrepreneur.
Defining themselves as Human Cloud Platform, Talent Alpha matches big international enterprises, that continuously seek IT professionals, with smaller service providers particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. It has introduced the innovative model,‘Tech Talent as a Service’ and uses AI for the matching process. Know more about Talent Alpha here.
HCM Deck
Attracting investment from mAccelerator and Innovation nest, HCM Deck raised PLN 12 million in its second round of funding. Founded in Krakow in 2016, the startup has previously received seed funding of PLN 3 million from Innovation Nest and Rafał Sonik.
The startup offers an HR SaaS enterprise platform that lets companies manage, automate and analyze employee development in three key areas — learning, communication and feedback, by combining complex enterprise processes with user experience, automation, and data analytics. They are growing 100% YoY, having over 100k employees on their platform and acquired customers like T-mobile, Allianz, Volkswagen or Nationale Nederlanden. Learn more.
Luna
This Krakow startup has created a new programming language to visualize big data. Its innovative platform has been recognized by Singularity University and NASA as one of the 20 most breakthrough technologies in the world. Founded by the young alumni of Krakow’s popular AGH Univerisity, Wojciech Daniło, the startup raised USD 9.5 million in its seed round in early December.
Kima Ventures, Black Pearls and Passion Capital tops the list of VC firms that backed the company. For the London-based VC firm, Passion Capital, it marked their debut in Polish market. This is the first time that the 9-year-old VC firm has backed a Polish startup.
Perfops
Known for its proprietary FlexBalancer tool – an innovative solution for balancing server load, based on the cloud, Perfops raised a total of PLN 4 million this year taking its total funding to date to PLN 5 million. Sunfish Partners and Finch Capital are the lead VC firms backing the company.
PerfOps is a flexible load balancer and data analytics platform that simplifies global traffic management. In addition, PerfOps does smart routing of internet traffic for optimized performance and uptime. This includes multi-CDN and multi-CDN. It monitors and provides performance data for all CDN and DNS services and other distributed internet infrastructure. Interestingly, Perfops’ Krakow-based founder, Dimitry, was only 22 years old when he founded the company in 2015. To know more, click here.
Krakow Startups Attracting VC Funds: Opportunities and Challenges
If you would like to know more about the growth trajectory of Krakow startups and the funding challenges that the ecosystem currently faces, watch this interesting panel discussion that took place during Innovative Krakow Forum – the ecosystem summit organized by OMGKRK.
You can also learn more about how to attract VC funding for your startup, by reading this article, authored by Paulina Bialek, Director at Expara VC firm. Sitting in the prestigious panel for the panel discussion above, Paulina not only shares her experience, but also writes about tips and tricks that every startup should know!
