This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
The Polish company has secured over PLN 4 million (approx. EUR 880,000) in a pre-seed round led by the UK-based fund Elder Gull. The startup will accelerate the development of its technology, expand its team, and begin its European expansion. Its target is one of the largest – and least digitized – segments of the economy: winning public contracts.
Mimira was founded to automate the process of securing public tenders. The market at stake is enormous. Europe’s public procurement market exceeds EUR 2 trillion annually. In Poland alone, the public administration spends over PLN 330 billion (EUR 77bn) on services, supplies, and construction works. It is a huge pool of money, yet access remains limited.
“The problem lies in the high barrier to entry. Entrepreneurs often prefer to forgo public contracts rather than incur the cost of preparing bids that could be rejected over a single formal error. Our mission is to open this market to everyone, regardless of company size or experience with bureaucratic procedures,” emphasizes Maciej Kensicki, co-founder of Mimira.
He cites KC Office as an example.
“Eighty to ninety percent of Polish companies do not participate in public tenders because they consider them too difficult and overly formalized. Only by offering end-to-end support can we open up this market. A good example is our client KC Office – a company that spent two years contemplating public contracts. Once they started using Mimira, they immediately won the first tender they submitted,” adds Kensicki.
Although Mimira currently operates in Poland, it already has its first clients seeking to compete in foreign tenders.
“This is a natural next step for us and one of the key reasons we raised this round,” Kensicki declares.
From search engine to end-to-end tender management
Mimira positions itself as a platform that guides companies through the entire tender process. The system goes far beyond merely searching for announcements. It also analyzes documentation, recommends pricing, prepares complete bids, and provides support in dealings with public authorities.
“We see solutions on the market that focus on finding tenders and analyzing their documentation. That’s important, but it’s only the first step. At Mimira, we go much further – we recommend pricing, prepare full documentation, and support companies in interactions with authorities. And when a client prefers not to rely entirely on AI, our experts step in,” says Mikołaj Grelewicz, co-founder of the company.
The results are already tangible. The startup has served over 100 clients and collectively submitted nearly a thousand bids. The total value of contracts won has exceeded PLN 300 million (approx. EUR 66 million).
The company operates on a hybrid model. Clients can opt for a straightforward monthly subscription, with several packages depending on the scope of features. There is also a subscription model that includes a success fee component based on won tenders. Company representatives emphasize that a clear path to profitability is already mapped out. Two factors are key: a growing base of active clients and the degree of automation. The more processes handled by AI, the lower the unit cost – and the higher the margin.
“We see a clear path to profitability – but we are deliberately not pursuing it yet, because at this stage our priority is scaling the product and capturing market share,” Mr. Grelewicz declares.
Experienced founders and international investors
The project is led by a duo combining technological, legal, and financial expertise. Mikołaj Grelewicz is an engineer and financier, educated at UCL and Oxford. He gained experience at McKinsey and the Żabka Group, among others. The startup’s other co-founder, Maciej Kensicki, studied law at the University of Warsaw and Heidelberg, and holds an MBA from Hult Business School. He has worked at EY, in data and fintech startups, and as an investor at Inovo VC.
The funding round was led by Elder Gull, a fund founded by Thomas Williams, former partner at Talis Capital. Its portfolio includes companies such as Carta and Darktrace.
The investor group also includes Paweł Ossowski, CEO of Zarys International. The company wins more than 4,000 tenders annually for disposable medical equipment, making it one of the largest players in the sector.
“I invested in a solution that automates key public procurement processes and materially increases speed and efficiency. Today, our entire 30-person public procurement team actively and effectively uses Mimira – particularly in the hospital market – building a first-mover advantage in the digitization of tender procedures,” explains Mr. Ossowski.
Investor's perspective
Mimira and the outlook for success
We believe that the winner in this market will not be a search tool, but a replacement for the entire workflow. Mimira is well positioned to become precisely such a platform.
What’s next for Mimira
The startup team has set three priorities for the near term. The first is completing product development, particularly in the area of data analysis – covering competitor pricing, similar past tenders, outcome predictions, and more.
“The platform is already highly developed, but we want to finalize the automation of key stages so that the entire tender workflow operates even more efficiently,” says Maciej Kensicki.
The second goal is expansion into two or three European countries, primarily Germany and the United Kingdom. The founders studied in these countries, are fluent in the languages, understand the culture and regulations, and have established business networks there. Opportunities extend further, as public procurement in the European Union is largely harmonized under EU directives, meaning the underlying framework is similar. For serious entry into other European markets, however, local teams are essential.
“Importantly, companies from one member state have the right to bid in others on the same terms. Yet this still happens too rarely. We hope that, thanks to Mimira, Polish companies will increasingly win contracts abroad,” adds Mr. Kensicki.
The third priority is team expansion.
“Market interest sometimes exceeds our current capacity to serve it. We need to change that quickly. Currently, about 20 people work with Mimira, full- or part-time. This model allows us to flexibly scale support as needed,” notes Mikołaj Grelewicz.
Digitizing public tenders across all industries
The founders of Mimira argue that public procurement touches almost every sector. Governments purchase a wide range of products and services: IT and marketing solutions, food, training, medical equipment, and renovation works.
The platform offers a free analysis of a company’s potential in the public market. By providing a website address, the system generates a list of current tenders along with a preliminary estimate for a selected contract.
“It takes just a few minutes to check whether there are tenders in a given sector. Usually, there are. And once a company wins its first contract with our support, it never goes back to manually analyzing documents,” says Maciej Kensicki.
Mimira plans to use the capital raised to further automate processes and scale the model across European markets. The startup is focusing on AI in regulated sectors. The goal is clear: lower the entry barrier and increase competitiveness in public procurement.
Good to know
How Mimira minimizes the risk of errors
Public procurement is highly formalized. A single formal mistake can disqualify a bid. To mitigate this risk, Mimira employs a multi-stage verification process.
First, the documentation is generated by AI. The models used by the startup highlight and quote specific sections of the tender documents on which the outputs are based, eliminating the risk of hallucinations. Each complete set of documents is then reviewed by an experienced public procurement expert. Finally, the client reviews the documents themselves before signing and submitting them.
Thanks to this process, the company has not had a single bid rejected due to errors on its part.
How Mimira plans to stand out from the competition
Currently, many companies operate in the market for automating tender procedures. Unlike them, Mimira is not just an aggregator of announcements or an advanced search engine.
“No other player in Poland monitors as many sources as we do – we track over 10,000. We’ve invested tremendous effort into this because when serving a client like Zarys International, we cannot afford to miss a single tender,” says Mikołaj Grelewicz.
Mimira also faces potential competition from advisory firms. However, company representatives note that these firms are expensive and often assist only with procedural management rather than identifying opportunities. And their fees apply regardless of the tender outcome.
“With us, clients receive support throughout the entire process, plus the option of a success-fee component. There’s another advantage worth mentioning: Mimira learns with every interaction. With each tender a client accepts or rejects, we better understand what they’re looking for. Every bid we prepare together generates more data, allowing us to produce subsequent documents even faster. Our advantage is therefore not static – the product improves over time,” emphasizes Mr. Grelewicz.
The company’s representatives add that within five years, Mimira aims to secure leading positions across all key European markets.
Key Takeaways
- Growth strategy and competitive edge. Mimira’s growth strategy focuses on further automation of data analysis and international expansion, primarily into Germany and the United Kingdom. The company notes that EU public procurement systems are largely harmonized, facilitating scalable solutions. Mimira seeks to differentiate itself through comprehensive coverage of tender sources, a hybrid support model, and a multi-stage document verification system designed to minimize the risk of bid rejection due to formal errors.
- Automating public procurement. Mimira is developing a platform designed to automate the entire process of bidding for public contracts and lower the barrier to entry in a market worth over EUR 2 trillion annually in Europe. In Poland alone, the public administration spends over PLN 330 billion on procurement. Yet, according to the company, 80–90% of businesses do not participate in tenders due to complex procedures and the risk of formal errors. The startup aims to remove this barrier by offering end-to-end support – from identifying opportunities to submitting complete bids – combining AI-driven automation with expert oversight.
- Early results and business model. The company has already delivered tangible results, serving over 100 clients and collaborating on nearly 1,000 bids, with total contract wins exceeding PLN 300 million (approx. EUR 66 million). Its business model is based on subscription packages and a variant that includes a success-fee component. The founders see a clear path to profitability, but at this stage, their priority is scaling the product and increasing automation. The pre-seed round, raising over PLN 4 million (approx. EUR 880,000), was led by the UK-based fund Elder Gull, with investors including Paweł Ossowski of Zarys International.