Warsaw has just joined the prestigious group of cities that have their own edition of the „Start-up Guide„. It is to help beginner entrepreneurs, also from abroad, start in the local market. – 

According to Aureliusz Górski, executive director of the Venture Café Warsaw Foundation and co-initiator of the guide, it is “[…]amazing that someone in Boston will be able to pick it up and think that it would be worth starting to do something interesting in Europe, in Warsaw„. 

Given the many opportunities the city offers (support from the government, corporations, institutions,…) Warsaw is perceived by many investors as the ideal place for start-ups. 

For Anna Weissensteiner, CEO of Startup Guide, the Polish capital “offers mentoring, workshops and the possibility of acquiring knowledge from more experienced people”. 

Poland as a whole is actually a key place when it comes to start-ups. It is the number one country in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the number of financing rounds and second in the ranking of the value of VC investments.

The fast development of the market is also confirmed by the volume of investments in Polish start-ups, which in 2021 reached a record figure of PLN 3.6 billion (GBP 670 million). This means that domestic companies raised more capital last year than in 2019 and 2020 taken together. 

Image: Unsplash

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen