The global and European declines in the value of investments at the beginning of 2023 also manifested in the Polish VC and startup ecosystem. During this period 127 companies obtained a little over €96 million (PLN 446 million) from 68 funds. PFR Ventures and Inovo VC have prepared a fresh report summarizing transactions on the Polish VC market in Q1 2023. AIN.Capital shares key numbers found in the report.

  • During Q1 2023, 127 Polish startups managed to receive over €96 million (PLN 446 million) from 68 funds.
  • The numbers show a big decrease of value from the same period in 2022, which resulted in over €255 million raised (PLN 1,169 million). The decrease is connected to a much fewer number of late-stage rounds secured.
Polish VC market numbers
Image: PFR Ventures
  • At the same time, the number of seed transactions increased significantly in Q1 2023. 112 seed transactions were made compared to 86 a year earlier and 88 two years earlier.
  • Despite the general increase in the number of transactions, their average value fell from €1.3 million (PLN 6 million) in Q1 2022 to €765,000 (PLN 3.5 million) in Q1 2023.
  • The biggest rounds during this period included:
    • Vue Storefront, over $20 million raised in Series A round.
    • Contect, over €10 million secured in Series B funding.
    • HiProMine, €7.5 million obtained in post IPO.
    • SatRevolution, €4.8 million raised in Series B round.
    • Occubee, €4.3 million secured in Series B funding.
  • Among the exits from the transaction, the sale of Renters.pl by bValue Fund stands out as the deal that brought an 8-fold increase to the team.

“Activity on the market is lower, which can be seen primarily in the shrinking supply of projects despite the persistent demand from investors. The process of investors’ sentiment and the expectations of company founders is probably still catching up. Some, following NASDAQ multipliers, are more conservative in terms of company valuations, others remember what the situation looked like 1-2 years ago and often want to wait for a better moment to sell shares,”

Karol Lasota, principal at Inovo VC, comments.