The real engine of Poland’s startup market

Although multi-million funding rounds attract the most attention, it is smaller transactions that determine the development of most young technology companies. Pre-seed and seed rounds still account for the largest share of deals in the market. At the same time, Polish funds are increasingly participating in funding rounds for foreign companies.

Recently, particularly in Poland’s local venture capital (VC) market, much of the attention has focused on companies with Polish roots, such as ICEYE and ElevenLabs, which have attracted investors and raised capital in large international funding rounds. These, however, are isolated cases, and their results significantly inflate the average investment value in startups. The media attention surrounding such transactions may also draw focus away from entrepreneurs building companies on a smaller scale or those still in the early stages of development, who raise capital through pre-seed and seed rounds.

According to estimates by PFR Ventures, the average investment value at these two development stages in Poland is around PLN 3 million (approximately EUR 700,000). Recently, however, the number of such transactions has been increasing, while foreign funds are becoming increasingly involved in financing young companies. The number of investments made by Polish funds outside the country is also gradually rising, with most of these deals involving startups in the early stages of development.

Not just funds. Angel investors are becoming more active

The increase in the number of seed transactions and their average value is highlighted by Rozalia Urbanek, CEO of PFR Ventures.

“Looking more closely, one can see greater nuance in investments of this type. First and foremost, business angels have become significantly more active in Poland, often joining transactions of this kind and investing, for example, alongside funds supported by EU financing. We are also seeing many co-investments at both the local and international level. Examples include the funding rounds of Replenit and Graftcode, where the investor group is highly diverse,” says Rozalia Urbanek.

Based on her observations, companies capable of attracting a broader group of investors can most often count on rounds that significantly exceed the levels indicated by market statistics.

“The venture capital market is inherently focused on backing the best opportunities, which often results in this concentration of capital in the most promising projects,” Urbanek notes.

In the second quarter of 2026, the median value of seed transactions reached PLN 3.1 million (approximately EUR 720,000). For comparison, until 2024 this figure hovered around PLN 1 million (approximately EUR 230,000). This was primarily driven by the activity of investment vehicles operating under the BridgeAlfa program of the National Centre for Research and Development, which has now been concluded. These funds financed startups at the earliest stages of development, and the value of investments was effectively capped by the maximum amount of support they could offer young companies, including EU funding.

Seed round for a Polish AI startup

One of the companies that has strengthened its capital position in recent months is Striga, a Polish cybersecurity startup developing an artificial intelligence-powered platform for source code auditing. The company raised EUR 1 million in a seed round. It plans to use the funding to expand its research and engineering team, develop cloud and on-premises deployments, and continue research into software vulnerability detection.

The startup originated from the research and development division of ISEC and is building tools that use artificial intelligence to analyze source code. The solution is designed to support cybersecurity experts by accelerating the process of code audits and the verification of identified vulnerabilities.

The company says that since the beginning of 2026 it has discovered numerous vulnerabilities, more than 20 of which have received CVE numbers – official, globally recognized identifiers assigned to confirmed security flaws. These affected, among others, projects such as Apache httpd, Apache Tomcat, Ollama, Mattermost and the axios library.

“More than 20 CVEs in software used by hundreds of millions of people prove that artificial intelligence is capable of finding real, serious vulnerabilities. We now want this kind of audit to be within reach of every team, not only those that can afford expensive experts,” says Bartłomiej Dmitruk, co-founder and vice president of Striga.

Striga’s customers include companies from Europe and Asia, while the investor participating in the seed round has chosen to remain anonymous, according to the company’s official statements.

Polish capital invests in foreign deep tech

Polish venture capital funds are increasingly investing abroad, most often as part of early-stage funding rounds. The amounts raised by foreign startups may appear larger by comparison. One example is Radix Ventures, which led the seed round of Belgian deep-tech company Healant. The startup, which is developing a self-healing polymer layer technology designed to improve tyre resistance to punctures, raised EUR 4 million. The Belgian fund Entrevest also participated in the round.

Healant originated at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is developing solutions aimed at extending tyre lifespans and reducing waste. The company’s polymer layer automatically seals punctures, which is intended to reduce downtime, improve safety and lower the amount of waste generated. The newly raised capital will be used to commercialize the technology, develop the manufacturing process and prepare the product for market entry.

“We are pleased that Healant chose a Polish fund as the lead investor in its funding round. It is a clear signal that venture capital funds from Central Europe are becoming partners of choice for world-class deep-tech founders, including far beyond our domestic market,” says Wojciech Ratymirski, partner at Radix Ventures.

The transaction reflects a trend that has been visible for several quarters: increasing activity by Polish funds in foreign markets. Data from PFR Ventures shows that investments made outside Poland most often involve startups at the earliest stages of development, such as pre-seed and seed rounds. For funds, this represents an opportunity to build international portfolios and gain exposure to technologies being developed at European research centers and academic institutions.