Momentum Capital Partners adds firepower ahead of first investment

The Polish VC fund has raised an additional PLN 24 million, bringing its total capitalization to PLN 170 million. “We have expanded our investor base to include several new individuals and are preparing our first investments,” Robert Ditrych, managing partner at Momentum Capital Partners, tells XYZ.

Momentum Capital Partners, founded in 2025, has yet to make its first investment, but it has already raised additional capital. It launched with PLN 146 million and now has PLN 170 million available to invest in startups. PFR Ventures has increased its commitment, while more entrepreneurs have joined the fund’s group of private investors.

The fund is targeting more mature startups that have already developed their own product and are in the growth stage. It plans to build a portfolio of eight or nine companies and invest PLN 5–20 million in each project. It intends to announce its first investment in the fourth quarter.

“We have expanded our group of private investors by several people – experienced entrepreneurs, including some who have built companies and completed successful exits. Momentum’s investor community now numbers around 50 people, mainly entrepreneurs with experience across different sectors of the economy. We are interested not only in their capital, but also in drawing on their knowledge and experience when deciding whether to invest in a project and, ultimately, in supporting our portfolio companies,” says Robert Ditrych, managing partner at Momentum Capital Partners.

More capital, greater flexibility

Momentum Capital Partners’ core investment strategy remains unchanged. The fund still intends to invest in growing Polish companies with validated, scalable business models.

“Increasing our capitalization to PLN 170 million strengthens our ability to execute the strategy we have pursued from the outset. We want to invest in ambitious entrepreneurs building companies with the potential to reach significant scale. We are interested in businesses that have already validated their business model and need capital primarily to accelerate further growth,” says Robert Ditrych.

He adds that the higher capitalization gives the fund greater flexibility.

“Our ability to execute the strategy we have adopted is increasing. This gives us greater flexibility, both in terms of participating in larger funding rounds and potentially completing one additional transaction. That is why we are now talking about a portfolio of eight or nine companies, rather than the eight we previously communicated,” Robert Ditrych explains.

The fund is looking for companies with revenues exceeding PLN 10 million and annual growth of more than 20%. It prefers businesses that are EBITDA-positive or clearly on a path to profitability.

Expert's perspective

Private investors put money in – and public capital helped too

Growth-stage VC funds are badly needed in Poland’s startup ecosystem to ensure continuity of financing. Through PFR Ventures, we finance six such teams whose mandates allow them to make larger investments while taking minority stakes. Three are backed with EU funds, while another three are financed from PFR’s budget. We would like capital from Innovate Poland to allow us to expand this group.

We decided to provide additional capital to Momentum Capital Partners because the team raised nearly PLN 10 million in new private funding. The PFR KOFFI offer allows public funding to account for up to 60% of a fund’s total capitalization. This means the team will receive an additional PLN 15 million from the EU budget.

In recent months, the growth funds in our portfolio have financed the expansion of companies including CTHINGS, Sportano and Xtreme Brands. The result is a mix of businesses with a strong innovation component and companies seeking to expand in more traditional industries.

Bartłomiej Samsonowicz

Investment Director, PFR Ventures

Growth equity and minority stakes

Momentum’s strategy is based on a growth-equity model. The fund takes minority stakes and aims to work with founders who remain actively involved in the further development of their companies.

“Growth equity addresses the needs of companies that already have a functioning, validated business but are still ahead of the most important stage of scaling. Poland has many companies with revenues of several dozen million PLN that could become leaders in their categories over the coming years. We want to be a partner to their founders on that journey,” says Przemek Danowski, managing partner at Momentum Capital Partners.

Momentum says that, beyond capital, it also wants to support portfolio companies in areas related to further growth. These include scaling sales, building organizational maturity, international expansion and carrying out strategic development projects.

“Capital is only one part of what we offer. We want to draw on the experience of our entire team and our network to help entrepreneurs tackle the challenges that come with organizational growth – from building a management team, through sales and marketing, to strategic partnerships,” adds Greg Albrecht, the third partner at Momentum Capital Partners.

Expert's perspective

How startups’ capital needs are changing

The past two or three years have brought significant changes in how startups raise capital. For example, the rapid development of AI and AI agents means that prototyping and building B2C products – as well as some B2B products, particularly SaaS – has never been easier. As a result, startups can now create and test not just one MVP [minimum viable product – ed.], but many of them, with almost no outside investment, as they search for the most effective model and initial traction. More substantial capital needs emerge later, at the scaling stage.

That scaling has to happen quickly because these types of services are becoming increasingly easy to replicate, making rapid market capture essential. At the same time, this ease of replication means investors are looking for solutions with defensible value that cannot be copied easily – for example, access to large sets of domain-specific data. As a consequence, startups of this kind no longer find it as easy as they once did to raise external financing. They have to demonstrate meaningful competitive advantages and the ability to scale quickly.

In this environment, unique deep-tech solutions are becoming much more attractive. Because product development takes longer and is often preceded by years of research, such technologies are potentially far harder to replicate. On the other hand, their development and commercialization cycles are longer and more expensive. For many investors, that remains an insurmountable barrier. Even so, we are seeing a growing number of funds specializing in financing ventures in specific domains. This is particularly evident in fast-growing sectors such as medtech, spacetech, defense tech and dual-use technologies, climate tech and others. The risk is higher, but so is the potential reward. A company like this can become the hoped-for “dragon” and return an entire fund.

We can see this shift in the Polish market. According to PFR Ventures’ 2025 report, the share of startup rounds involving companies operating under a Subscription/SaaS model fell from 55% to 42%, while the share of Manufacturing/Hardware companies almost doubled, from 17% to 30%. I believe this trend will continue.

Grzegorz Borowski

CEO and creator of Infoshare

Around 50 private investors

Following the increase in capitalization, Momentum’s community of private investors now numbers around 50 people. PFR Ventures has increased its commitment from PLN 80 million to PLN 95 million. The remaining PLN 75 million of the fund’s capitalization comes from private investors.

As Robert Ditrych points out, the fund wants to draw not only on their capital, but also on their business experience when evaluating potential investments and, later, when working with portfolio companies.

Momentum says its team is analyzing opportunities across a range of sectors. The fund is focusing on companies benefiting from structural growth trends and with the potential to build a strong market position.

Expert's perspective

Why funds are raising additional capital

The rising capitalization of venture-capital funds in Poland is a sign of a maturing ecosystem. If domestic VC firms are to become full-fledged partners for technology companies – and avoid losing them prematurely to foreign capital alone – they need to have more resources available for individual transactions. This is also reflected in the increasing average size of investment rounds at the early stages of a company’s development. According to PFR Ventures data, the median VC transaction size in Poland in the second quarter of 2026 was around PLN 4 million. This remains well below the size of rounds raised by startups in Silicon Valley – according to Carta, the median seed investment there is USD 4.1 million – but the market has undergone a significant transformation compared with 2020–2023, when the figure was around PLN 1 million.

The current situation is also being shaped by changes in the types of projects seeking funding. Companies in deep tech, AI, defense technology and medtech require substantial capital for research and development, infrastructure and prototyping before they generate their first commercial revenues. This requires investors to commit for longer and deploy larger sums already at the seed and Series A stages. By contrast, innovative companies operating in the real economy, B2C or business-process optimization – including those using AI solutions – can often grow organically for longer and approach investors only after demonstrating meaningful traction, raising much larger rounds to scale the business further.

It is also worth noting that round sizes are being affected by the fact that local venture-capital funds are increasingly completing transactions through co-investments involving several parties, together with other institutional investors or business angels. This is a positive direction for the market: investors share the risk, while portfolio companies gain access to a broader range of shareholder expertise and can count on greater availability of capital in follow-on rounds, making it easier to raise financing in the future.

Tomasz Goliński

Partner, Cofounder VC

First investment in the works

Momentum Capital Partners has been operational since the first half of this year. It has yet to complete its first investment, but is building a pipeline of potential deals and working on its first transactions.

“We expect to be able to share details of our first investment in the fourth quarter. In the years that follow, we plan to complete an average of two transactions annually,” says Robert Ditrych.

The fund’s investment period is set to run until the end of 2030. It is not focused on a single sector and is analyzing projects across different parts of the economy.

Expert's perspective

The need for additional capital

Pure software startups can now build products faster, but that has also increased competition in the market. Reaching customers has become more difficult, which is why round sizes after the pre-seed stage are increasing. In deep tech, part of the competitive advantage can still be built through manufacturing, but developing it is more expensive and takes longer. That is why dedicated deep-tech funds need deeper pockets, allowing them to finance companies until they reach the point of market validation.

Borys Musielak

Head of SMOK VC

Key Takeaways

1. Momentum Capital Partners increased its capitalization from PLN 146 million to PLN 170 million before making its first investment. PFR Ventures raised its commitment from PLN 80 million to PLN 95 million, while additional entrepreneurs joined the group of private investors. Private capital now accounts for PLN 75 million, provided by a community of around 50 investors. The extra funding does not change the fund’s strategy, but gives it greater flexibility to participate in larger rounds and potentially complete one additional transaction. Its target portfolio is now eight to nine companies.
2. The fund is focused on growth equity and companies that have already validated their business but need capital to scale further. Momentum is primarily looking for Polish companies with revenues above PLN 10 million and annual growth of more than 20%. It prefers businesses that are EBITDA-positive or clearly on a path to profitability. The fund plans to invest PLN 5–20 million per deal and take minority stakes, while keeping founders actively involved in running their companies.
3. Momentum expects to announce its first investment in the fourth quarter. The team is targeting an average of two transactions a year and is analyzing opportunities across different sectors of the economy. Beyond financing, it wants to support portfolio companies in scaling sales, organizational development, international expansion and building strategic partnerships, drawing on the experience of both its team and its investor network.