Brinc partners up with Shape VC and Summer Agency for the Poland Prize program
Since Poland Prize powered by Brinc is about to set off, it’s high time we introduced more details about the program.
Contrary to the popular belief, accelerations rarely happen without the help of external partners. In order to provide comprehensive and competent services we choose our associates very carefully. After all they are partly responsible for both program’s and accelerated startups’ success. This approach resulted in deals with Shape VC and Summer Agency.
Shape VC is a Polish seed fund focused on early stage investments in hardware and IoT companies. Their goal is to invest a standard ticket of 250k EUR in around 30–40 startups over the next 3 years. As the practice shows, this should be enough for the investor to see if the team is capable of delivering a decent product and find a market fit before the Series A. The best companies can receive follow-on investments as well.
As our funding comes partially from the Polish National Center of R&D, we are looking for teams willing to stay in Poland for a little longer. This is why we consider Poland Prize a great first step in the process of conquering European market with Poland being the backbone of the venture. — Says Maciej Frankowicz, Shape.vc’s CEO and Partner.
Europe’s Shenzhen
The company’s thesis seems reasonable if you consider the startup ecosystem in Poland and pan-European business conditions currently favouring the country located in the heart of the so called Old Continent. The country gave birth to lots of inventions that changed the world and are used everyday. It is also the place of birth of great scientific minds such as Marie Curie (born Skłodowska), two time Nobel Prize winner recently named the most influential woman to have ever lived on Earth by BBC and Nicolaus Copernicus among others. Poland has also been the only EU country with a constant and stable economic growth in the past 26 years. This might be the reason no other country in the European Union invests more into R&D and startups than Poland.
Poland is on its way to become the prime technological HUB in Europe. The country has some of the best engineers in the world along with a well developed startup ecosystem with 100+ R&D centers for the largest worldwide brands including Google Campus or Samsung R&D Institute in Warsaw. On top of that Poland’s productions & manufacturing contribute to ~30% of the GPD. Also 1 out of every 4 startups in Poland is focused on hardware with investors turing more and more to IoT. Every year Poznań alone sees over 40 thousands talented graduates flooding the labor market while the country remains in the top 3 among countries with the best developers in the world.
During the acceleration program all the selected startups will have the chance to work directly with the key members of Shape VC team. I will be personally involved in tailoring the startups’ investment strategy including preparations of the required investment materials, helping to nail down the pitch as well as rehearsing the teams for the Demo Day.
Agnieszka Poznańska, relationship manager from Shape, will be helping startups in the program to find their first commercial partners in Poland. She is also in charge of Brinc’s events including a Demo Day, one of the most important events in the life of a startup founders.
Kamil Sumera, CEO of Summer Agency, is another important cog in the Brinc’s Poland Prize machine. Along with Hardware Hub’s Jakub Buszyński, Kamil plays a role of a Head of Hardware and will be responsible for the technical mentoring and prototypes development. Startups will be able to use Summer Agency’s tools and equipment in their laboratory along with Kamil’s consultancy time and experience.
Just the beginning
As Brinc and its Poland Prize partners we are ecstatic to greet our first batch of startups in Poznań in a few days now. We are ready, we are eager and willing to make a change. Are you?
Using this opportunity we would also like to remind all the startups out there, there’s a second batch of Poland Prize coming in mid November. Stay tuned and follow us on social media (below) to get all the latest news and announcements!
Want to know more about Poland Prize? Visit our website: brinc.pl
If you want to always be up-to-date with the latest news on Brinc, tech and startups in Poland follow us on Facebook & Twitter!
Also check out our partners’ social media: Summer Agency and Shape VC.
