More partners, bigger rounds: how co-investing is reshaping Poland’s VC market

Since the beginning of 2020 PFR Ventures has recorded nearly 75 funding rounds in which at least two funds financed from its resources were involved simultaneously.

“We are seeing many more transactions structured in this way among teams using funds from the European Funds for a Modern Economy programme,” said Rozalia Urbanek, a member of the management board responsible for investments at PFR Ventures.

The activity of funds from the PFR Ventures “family” has also included so-called “triple” transactions. This was the case, among others, with Liftero, Prosoma and Sun.store.

“Looking at global data from the Carta platform, 50% of pre-seed investments in the PLN 2–4m range attracted four investors. In rounds above PLN 20m, as many as six investors provided capital in half of the transactions. Meanwhile, Crunchbase data for Europe show that in pre-seed and seed rounds, the median number of investors per transaction is three,” Ms. Urbanek said.

In Poland, the analysis is somewhat more complex, as there is no clearly defined boundary between pre-seed and seed rounds. In most reports, the two segments are combined.

“In our reporting, we treat them as rounds with the same profile. In 2025, we identified 134 such transactions, and nearly one in three involved more than one investor. Seventy-five percent of these co-investments included a PFR Ventures fund. Looking more closely, around 15% of these early-stage rounds involved more than one fund from the PFR Ventures portfolio,” Rozalia Urbanek added.

The mandate of public capital: building the venture-capital market

Rozalia Urbanek, the management-board member for investments at PFR Ventures, adds that when distributing European Union funds the institution is guided above all by the core objective of that budget: stimulating the local venture-capital market.

“This is done by allocating funds more broadly, primarily to so-called first-time teams,” she explains. “We do not want to channel a larger stream of money in a single direction. It should be stressed, however, that the best-performing management teams can apply for additional funding if they simultaneously secure extra capital from private investors. It is natural for fund managers to meet one another in the course of fundraising rounds for individual companies. The very best enjoy additional leverage: they set the terms and invite to the table only those investors who can contribute not just capital, but also expertise and networks,” says Rozalia Urbanek.

Poland’s venture-capital market, while becoming more professional over time, remains limited in scale and operating capacity—especially when set against global leaders. Domestic funds rely heavily on public–private capital structures. It is still relatively difficult to persuade private investors to back high-risk transactions involving equity stakes in start-ups.

What does pooling capital and expertise deliver?

There is no single model for co-investment: every transaction has its own story. Even so, funds increasingly see shared participation as a benefit—including in the very earliest rounds, with relatively small capitalizations. Co-investing expands their effective investment capacity.

Funds such as Hard2Beat and iif.vc have a track record of joint investments.

“Working with other VC funds mitigates investment risk, while also making it possible to execute larger rounds,” says Maciej Wieloch, managing partner at iif.vc. “I see this as part of an effective operating strategy. iif.vc has strong business relationships, for example, with Hard2Beat, which is also co-financed by PFR Ventures. Hard2Beat typically invests at a slightly earlier stage of development than we do. When it identifies an attractive, high-potential project, we join the round, committing to provide follow-on funding conditional on the company meeting specific growth milestones.

“That gives the company a longer financing runway, improves the investment partner’s chances of success—and allows us to closely monitor the start-up’s development. This is just one possible scenario, of course,” Wieloch adds.

Lower risk, greater investment capacity

Another, more standard model is parallel investment in the same company. This approach increases the overall size of the round while simultaneously reducing the risk borne by co-investors.

“In Poland, around ten years ago, when the VC market was only just emerging, public–private investment vehicles typically invested on their own,” says Maciej Wieloch, managing partner at iif.vc. “They funded pre-seed projects with amounts of up to PLN 1m—though we should remember that the value of money was different back then. Today, we have more mature companies, and larger pools of capital are flowing in their direction. Globally, VC financing of larger start-ups is carried out through co-investments. I therefore see cooperation among Polish funds, or their joint participation in rounds, as a sign that the market is maturing.”

He adds that the domestic VC market is now showing signs of competition for the most attractive technology companies. At the same time, after a period of constrained access to venture funding, start-ups are facing a pronounced capital shortage.

“There will certainly be more co-investments. At Hard2Beat, we have excellent relationships with other funds from the PFR Ventures portfolio. We have invested before, for example, with iif.vc, and we have just completed another investment—still to be announced—with Digital Ocean Ventures. We are also in talks about further joint deals,” wrote Maciej Frankowicz, partner at Hard2Beat, on LinkedIn.

Excessive capital concentration carries risks

Co-investments are a natural mechanism for strengthening company growth.

“Beyond capital, funds and business angels also bring reach, access to new markets, different kinds of know-how, and connections to potential follow-on investors,” says Anna Wnuk, managing director of the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. “Much depends on the strategy of individual funds. Some enter rounds from the outset assuming a minority position and do not seek a dominant stake. This approach limits risk, allows investment in a larger number of companies and increases the chances of backing a genuine value driver.”

Poland’s venture-capital market is characterized by a larger number of smaller funds and relatively few large ones.

“From the perspective of PFR Ventures, as with other experienced investors, extreme concentration of capital from several public–private funds in the same companies - through joint transactions - would be risky,” Wnuk adds. “That said, to a reasonable extent, co-investments involving funds partly capitalized with public money will occur. Diversification remains crucial. VC support programs aim to cover different stages of financing, while the recently announced initiatives seek to increase the pool of capital at the VC level. This not only means more funding for local companies, but also opens the door for Polish funds to co-invest alongside leading European and global fund brands.”

Key Takeaways

1. Analyses by PFR Ventures show that in 2025, 134 pre-seed and seed transactions were completed, with nearly one in three involving more than one investor. As the institution notes, 75% of co-investments took place with the participation of a PFR Ventures fund. At the same time, close to 15% of these rounds involved more than one public–private fund.
2. PFR Ventures emphasizes that the primary objective of deploying European Union funds is to stimulate the local venture-capital market. Capital is therefore not injected in a one-directional manner; instead, it is distributed across multiple investment teams, many of them new to the market. It is thus natural that fund managers frequently encounter one another in funding rounds raised by individual companies.
3. An extreme concentration of capital from several public–private funds in the same companies would be highly risky. That said, the market includes many VC funds that have no ambition to lead rounds or seek to minimize risk exposure as much as possible, opting instead to invest alongside others by adding smaller tickets to a transaction.