Innovation is an essential component of any growing environment! Slowly, Europe is gaining ground on the US through disruptive entrepreneurship. Among them, Poland is one such country that is making its power play with a rising count in digital success stories.
According to Cogito Capital, the new wave of entrepreneurs from Poland have more of a global mindset, compared to the 2000s and are looking to address international markets right from the start in software, marketplaces, and gaming sectors. Also, there is a growing number of scaleups who operate in international markets and need financing to fuel further growth and expansion.
This takes the Polish tech ecosystem to the next level, increasing its credibility as these companies become noticeable in the global markets and to international investors. Till now, Poland has produced several successful global tech startups with some jaw-dropping valuations. It should be noted that the top 5% of Polish startups, alone, have created $2.7 billion (approx € 2.3 billion) in value since 2013.
In this regard, let’s take a look at the most valuable startups in Poland so far.
Docplanner (Warsaw, Poland)
Founder: Mariusz Gralewski, Lucjan Samulowski, Konrad Jarowski, Jacek Perkowski, Grzegorz Krysiak
Founded year: 2011
Funding: €130M
Valuation: $300-500M
DocPlanner is a digital healthcare booking platform providing doctors and clinics with a suite of software and marketing services to deliver better and efficient healthcare services. The company also provides free doctor reviews and lets patients book appointments via its platform.
Brainly (Kraków, Poland)
Founder: Lukasz Haluch, Michał Borkowski, Tomasz Kraus
Founded year: 2009
Funding: €60M
Valuation: $100-200M
Brainly is an online learning platform bringing middle and high school students together to make learning outside the classroom highly engaging, effective, and rewarding. This edtech platform helps students connect to their peers to help strengthen their skills, from math to science, to history and beyond. Based in Kraków, Poland, and New York City, Brainly is currently available in 35 countries.
Packhelp (Warsaw, Poland)
Founder: Arkadiusz Wasilonek, Konrad Kwiatkowski, Maciej Woźniczko, Maciej Zając, Patryk Kabaj, Wojtek Sadowski
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €11M
Valuation: $50-100M
Packhelp is an online marketplace for custom-branded packaging. The online platform provides innovative packaging solutions for e-commerce brands, retailers, agencies, and enterprises. The range of products includes mailer boxes, product boxes, biodegradable mailers, kraft tapes, and many more.
Nomagic (Warsaw, Poland)
Founders: Kacper Nowicki, Marek Cygan, Tristan d’Orgeval
Founded year: 2017
Funding: €7.5M
Valuation: $30-50M
Nomagic provides smart pick-and-place robotic systems that adapt to multiple environments. It can do various operations including receiving, store, sort, and pack products. The company’s robotic solution brings efficiency, flexibility, and reliability to e-commerce warehouses by automating tedious tasks.
Booksy (San Francisco, US)
Founders: Konrad Howard, Stefan Batory
Founded year: 2013
Funding: €43M
Valuation: $100-200M
Booksy is a cloud-based booking platform designed to schedule appointments for beauty services. The company’s platform uses machine learning and AI to determine each user’s buying pattern and offer them the best dates with their favorite stylists, enabling appointment-led businesses to set up their calendars, availability and accept bookings easily.
Cosmose (Warsaw, Poland)
Founder: Miron Mironiuk
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €10.5M
Valuation: $50-100M
Cosmose AI is a software company that helps offline retailers to sell more by connecting offline stores with online ads to predict where, when, and who will go shopping.
Applica (Warsaw, Poland)
Founders: Adam Dancewicz, Piotr Surma
Founded year: 2013
Funding: €13M
Valuation: $50-100M
Applica is the provider of AI-based Robotic Text Automation (RTA) solutions for enterprises. It automates text-intensive work by extracting meaning from unstructured and semi-structured documents. The platform is used by financial institutions, media companies, debt collection agencies, law firms, and public sector institutions.
Tylko (Warsaw, Poland)
Founders: Benjamin Kuna, Hania Kokczynska, Jacek Majewski, Michal Piasecki, Mikolaj Molenda
Founded year: 2014
Funding: €11.3M
Valuation: €120M
Tylko is a furniture company specialised in providing high-quality personalised shelves that make organising simple. The company aims to help bring harmony to customers’ space to live a better life.
Uncapped (London, UK)
Founders: Asher Ismail, Asher Ismail, Piotr Pisarz
Founded year: 2019
Funding: €11M
Valuation: $50-100M
Uncapped is Europe’s first revenue-based finance provider, which allows founders to raise growth capital without giving up control of their business. This platform provides interest and equity-free investments from £10k to £1 million. However, Uncapped charge a flat fee of 6% on the capital provided and get repaid through a revenue share.
Huuuge Games (Poland)
Founder: Anton Gauffin
Founded year: 2014
Funding: €50.2M
Valuation: $200-300M
Huuuge Games is a real-time social casual gaming platform, focused on the fast-growing multi-billion-dollar mobile gaming market. The company is on a mission to build the world’s largest real-time social casual gaming platform connecting millions of players. Huuuge Games publishes on all major mobile gaming stores, including iOS App Store, Android Google Play, and Amazon App Store.
Talking about the COVID-19 pandemic, many startups from various sectors are facing significant challenges. On the other hand, it’s time for startups from health tech, automatization & remote work solutions, online entertainment/gaming & education to leverage current situations and keep growth momentum in the long-term.
Main image credits: Huuuge Games
