PFR Ventures invests EUR 50 million in two more international VC funds

PFR Ventures has invested in two international venture capital funds that will invest in Polish innovative companies – Lakestar and Northzone. The combined value of investments of those funds in Poland will reach EUR 100 million. The contribution of the public investor is half of this amount.  

PFR Ventures manages around EUR 1.0 billion that are invested in venture capital and private equity funds. The purpose is to both build the domestic market, through investments in local teams that support development of the early-stage companies and attract actors with international experience from more developed ecosystems, who also provide capital for the companies at a growth stage.  

– Polish innovative ecosystem has already caught its momentum, with companies raising EUR 792 million in 2021. With almost EUR 450 million raised in the first half of 2022, Polish market shows resilience to the economic downturn in Western Europe and the US. We are continuing the strategy of bringing the best international venture capital investors to Poland. Local teams mainly provide early-stage funding and help founders build their startups as proper organizations while its large international funds that finance the growth stage and help in international expansion

– says Maciej Ćwikiewicz, President of PFR Ventures. 

Both funds have already made their first moves in the Polish market. Lakestar has backed Uncapped in 2021 and is an investor of Revolut, which has created over 700 jobs in its office in Kraków. Northzone has led the 2022 Series A of Stonly, a Polish-French start-up with design and engineering team also located in Kraków. 

Lakestar has been investing in European innovative companies for over 10 years at Seed, Early and Growth stages. The team has already backed over 130 companies, including unicorns like Blockchain, Sennder, Glovo, Revolut and Spotify. 

Northzone was founded in 1996 and has made over 175 investments across Europe and the US, at Seed, Series A and Series B stage. Its portfolio includes unicorns like Hopin, Klarna, Spotify and TIER Mobility. PFR Ventures has invested in its newest funds with a target capitalization of over EUR 1 billion. 

– Our mission at Lakestar is to help foster a flourishing European startup ecosystem. State-backed financial institutions like PFR are key components to this mission, helping to ensure European countries can contribute to creating the next industrial backbone through financing innovation. We are very much looking forward to building on this strong relationship with PFR as we seek to facilitate a thriving startup scene in Poland

– says Klaus Hommels, Founder and Chairman at Lakestar.

– We’re incredibly excited about opportunities to partner with founders across the CEE region. We’re seeing the region emerging as a fast-growing, dynamic tech hub that is rooted in a large talent pool with strong technical foundations and a global ambition to build defining companies, now that app stores and cloud adoption have created the ability for global winners to emerge from anywhere in the world

– says Michiel Kotting, Partner at Northzone.

PFR Ventures has previously invested in international teams which invest in Poland, such as DN Capital with presence in Europe and the US (investor in Nomagic), Finch Capital with offices in Europe and Southeast Asia (Symmetrical), White Star Capital with offices in the North America, Europe, and Asia (Packhelp, Uncapped), Polish-American Atmos Ventures (Molecule.one and Nethone), the Dutch Oxx (Codility), and the Polish-German Sunfish Partners (Aether Biomedical, Alphamoon, Molecule.one, Pergamin).

– PFR Ventures investments in emerging local fund managers are mostly based on the EU funding. Commitments to more established international VC fund managers, who are keen to invest in Polish start-ups, are based on the resources of Polish Development Fund. Same resources are used to build a portfolio of experienced Polish fund managers with ambitions to play a vital role in the CEE ecosystem. We plan to continue our financial effort to support Polish VC teams using both sources of funding. New investments will be announced next year

– says Bartłomiej Samsonowicz, Investment Director at PFR Ventures.  

In total, PFR Ventures committed EUR 150 million in 13 international funds that have already invested EUR 48 million in 29 Polish companies so far. The total value of capital under management of those funds is around EUR 2.6 billion.