The next big thing: VC investing in CEE
Central and Eastern Europe's rapid economic ascent during the past few years has put the somewhat-overlooked area firmly on the radar of Western investors hunting for the next big thing. Within the region, it is Poland in particular that stands out, partly driven by the potential stemming from a young and highly educated population, the still comparatively low cost of labor, and the fact that the country is producing thousands of software engineers and developers....MORE
Data from the World Bank shows that over the past 20 years the Polish economy has quadrupled in size, in terms of real GDP, and it is currently the eighth-largest economy within the European Union. The country also boasts an increasing tally of digital success stories, in part driven by the fact that tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft all run sizable R&D and engineering hubs, which in turn is creating a fertile ground for digitally savvy founders.
Recent figures show a marked rise in the number of startups in Poland, which stood at around 2,400 in 2015 but is fast approaching the 3,000 mark, according to a paper from Cracow University of Economics. Furthermore, accelerators are booming too, with 24% of startups—twice as many as last year—obtaining financing thanks to these entities, per the most recent Polish Startups report.
The CEE region as a whole has seen an increase in access to capital as money invested in startups has swelled during the last couple of years. In 2018, investors poured €645.7 million into companies in the area, per the PitchBook Platform, compared to €428.2 million the previous year.
Burgeoning ecosystem
All of this has led to an increased number of homegrown VCs, which are supporting local talent and a burgeoning ecosystem. One of them is Alfabeat, an early-stage investor founded in 2016 by school friends Bartosz Lipnicki and Jan Wyrwinski. The firm has made more than 10 investments since its inception, creating a portfolio that's almost sector-agnostic. Its portfolio of startups includes UK-based medtech business Andiamo and the Latvian game monetization platform Monetizr. It has also backed Intiaro, a US-based software provider that helps furniture retailers and manufacturers develop ecommerce capabilities.
Unlike the majority of venture investors in Poland, Alfabeat actively pursues deals outside the country, and those investments done within its home market are made with a view to expanding the startup internationally.
"We are very clear when speaking to founders about our ambitions," said Bartosz Lipnicki (pictured) during a recent interview with PitchBook. "Because our outlook is international, whatever the companies we back build and develop in Poland will be benchmarked against the best and brightest in the world and has to be up there with them."
And unlike in hubs such as London or Berlin where it is not unusual for a founder to come straight from university—or even be a dropout—Alfabeat has a unique take on the demographics of the founders it backs....
We've looked at some of the AI players in Western Europe and at Tachyum out of Slovakia but frankly I just want to see SoftBank get in a cash crunch and have to spin ARM off as a public entity again.
See:
"The Top-10 French Artificial Intelligence Startups"
"Top-10 Artificial Intelligence Startups in Germany"
Hot Chips 2018 Symposium on High Performance Chips
Top 10 British Artificial Intelligence Startups
"The Race is On for European AI Research"
"The Top-10 Russian Artificial Intelligence Startups"
Now the Important Stuff: How to Name Your Hedge Fund
Umlauts.
It is hard to go wrong if your name contains umlauts, diaeresis, or other diacritics.*
With the widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence for just about every purpose—"Mäÿönnäisë, now with AI", etc. (note liberal use of diacritics, don't they just 'pop' on the page?)— it is time to update 2014's "The Hedge Fund Name Generator", which used a simple algo:...
