As the top greenhouse gas emitter in Central and Eastern Europe, Poland is also seeking to become a regional leader in climate technology. Necessity is, as they say, the mother of invention.
According to the Net Zero Future50 report According to PwC and Wolves Summit, the CEE climate technology investment space has been on an upward trend, with a compound annual growth rate of around 57% between 2013 and 2020. In total, 1.7 billion dollars were invested during the period in more than 170 startups. Poland was the fifth most active investment center, with 5% of total startup funding, behind Estonia, Lithuania and Croatia.
Yet, as the sixth largest European economy, Poland is expected to further increase its contribution to the climate technology scene in the years to come. Very recently, the public fund PFR Ventures announced an investment of 55 million euros in four green investments, with the aim of financing the development of new climate technologies that could respond to the climate crisis. PFR Ventures has signed agreements to invest with European investors Contrarian Ventures and Eurazeo, global investor General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero fund and local VC Montis Capital.
Today we take a look at the local startups and investors that we believe will dominate the Polish climate technology scene in the coming years.
Key local actors
Polish startups
Bin-e smart trash can
Founder and CEO: Jakub Lubonski
Sector: Waste management
Solution: The company created a smart trash can, designed for public places, that uses AI to automatically recognize, sort and compress waste, control fill level and process data for convenient waste management.
Funding: They raised $272,000 in Series A funding.
Deeplai
Founders: Swapan Chaudhuri, Andrej Saja
Sector: Emissions data, monitoring, management and reporting
Solution: The company’s cloud enterprise software solution uses AI and computer vision to track the provenance of forest products from logging to the final wood product, provide data for certification, monitor the carbon footprint and propose management of carbon credits.
Dynamic Air Cooling (DAC)
Founders: Oleksandr Razumtsev, Olha Razumtseva, Pavel Panasjuk
Sector: Energy savings
Solution: The company developed a system that uses ordinary air for cooling instead of traditionally used hydrofluorocarbons, avoiding unsafe methods and reducing energy consumption and emissions.
Funding: So far, the company has raised a seed round of €250,000. In 2022, the team won the Huawei Startup Challenge, with a monetary prize of €21,000.
EcoBean
CEO: Marcin Koziorowski
Sector: Food waste technology
Solution: EcoBean has developed a solution to recycle coffee waste into new raw materials and products. They work with HoReCa and offices.
Funding: The company received a grant of approximately $90,000.
Four points
Co-founder and CEO: Marek Wilgucki
Sector: Manufacturing of industrial machines
Solution: The company aims to reduce the environmental impact of surface mining by reimagining how the mining process works, including: improving surface mining monitoring, creating an autonomous mining solution, and moving the process extraction in space. By 2023, they plan to have their first working prototype of a hydrogen-powered autonomous vehicle, intended for use on Earth and in space.
Financing: The company implements projects financed by the European funds EcoSat and MineCam. They are also collaborating with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Astroport Space Technologies to use its autonomous transportation platform technology.
Smart hives
CEO and Founder: Sébastien Gorecki
Sector: Precision agriculture and robotics
Solution: The company has developed an apiary management solution capable of automatically detecting dangerous situations, anomalies and changes in environmental factors in hives. With it, beekeepers can remotely inspect hives, detect diseases, schedule tasks, extract honey and keep bee health records.
Nanosean
Founders: Bartosz KruszkaMikolaj Granuszewski
Sector: Food waste technology
Solution: The company created NanoseenX, a water desalination and purification solution. The product uses nanotechnology to transform salt water or wastewater into drinking water in 2 minutes.
Funding: So far they have raised $450,000. In 2022, they won the Polish Product of the Future award in a competition organized by PARP.
No spoilers
Founders: Michael Kowalkowski, Luc Bartosz Firmowski
Sector: Food waste technology
Solution: The company offers intelligent inventory software that helps restaurant owners take control of their inventory, reduce waste, improve efficiency and make data-driven business decisions.
Funding: So far they have raised $260,000 in funding.
Plan Go Green
Founders: Aga Maciejowska, Justyna Wysocka-Golec
Sector: Supply chain, reduction of carbon emissions
Solution: The company’s software calculates Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions across the entire supply chain and creates automatic carbon footprint reports following the GHG protocol and compliant with industry standards.
Funding: The company raised an undisclosed seed round.
Power cob
Founders: Krzysztof KondratowiczSlawomir Kasper
Sector: Food waste technology, renewable energy
Solution: The company offers an innovative system that extracts and transforms agricultural production residues, notably corn kernels, to produce renewable energy.
Financing: The company has raised a first round of venture capital.
Willow Technologies
Founders: Arthur KupczunasOlga Malinkiewicz and Piotr Krych
Sector: Renewable energies
Solution: The nanotechnology company pioneered the development of lightweight, thin solar cells based on perovskite materials. They demonstrated the first real-world application of perovskite solar cells, a cell phone charger powered by artificial light.
Financing: In 2020, Columbus Energy, one of the leading service providers in the Polish energy market, invested 10 million euros in the company for 20% of the capital.
SEEDia
Founders: Arthur Racicki and Piotr Holubowicz.
Sector: Energy efficiency, renewable energies
Solution: The company builds likecommercial system of energy independent solar products, including smart benches, solar boxes, solar screens and solar bus stops. These operate off-grid and are equipped with charging stations, smart access points and sensors.
Funding: They raised $265,000 in seed funding from bValue Venture Capital.
Smoke
Founder and CEO: Arthur Matuszczak
Sector: Natural disaster management
Solution: The company produces wildfire detectors that help forest inspectors, regional crisis management centers and other fire-risk locations respond quickly to emerging threats. They use cutting-edge technology, consisting of specialized drones, cameras, sensor networks, AI and applications.
Funding: So far, they have raised $3.7 million in funding.
VivaDrive
Founder and CEO: Dr Mateusz Maj
Sector: Smart mobility
Solution: The company offers an AI-based platform that helps companies reduce their vehicle fleet operational costs, introduce electric vehicles into their fleet, and effectively manage fleets and drivers.
Funding: So far they have raised $240,000 in pre-seed funding.
Local investors support sustainable startups
Accélero Ventures
Managing partners: Marcin Matysik
Industries & Solutions: CleanTech, BioTech, FMCG, IT innovations – Internet of Things, cybersecurity and machine learning
Investment Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A
Ticket size: up to €850,000 of minority stakes
Arkley Brinc VC
Managing partners: Piotr Wasowski, Bryony Cooper
Industries and Solutions: AgriTech, MedTech, Food/BioTech, Industrial Technology, Energy/Clean Technology, Robotics, IoT and Hardware
Investment stage: early stage
Ticket size: up to $1 million
bValue Fund
Founder and Managing Partner: Maciej Balsewicz
Industries & Solutions: working mainly with companies in the fields of B2B software, energy transformation, e-commerce, consumer products
Investment stage: two directions – seed and growth
Ticket size: €100,000 to €1 million for the seed fund; 5 to 15 M€ for the growth capital fund
CEE companies
The partners: Rafal Malecki, Voytek Siewierski, Konrad Sitnik, Michael Lasocki
Industries & Solutions: Circular Economy & Cleantech, Advanced Materials, Process Efficiency, Energy Sector, Smart Utilities/Infrastructure, AI/Big Data, ICT & Cybersecurity
Investment stage: seed, start-up, expansion
Size of ticket: €212K to €6.4M
Montis Capital
The partners: Lukasz Dziekonski, Wojtek Szwankowski, Tomasz Poninski
Industries & Solutions: industry 4.0 – AI robotics, IoT, deep tech; life sciences – biotechnology, food processing, environmental and biomedical devices
Investment stage: Series A and above
Ticket amount: €15 million to €5 million
OTB Ventures
Co-founders: Adam Niewinski, Marcin Hejka, Grégory Jankilevitsch
Industries & Solutions: 4 Deep Tech Verticals: Space Technology, AI & Automation, Fintech, Cybersecurity
Investment stage: early growth, post-product
Ragnarson
Note: Unlike other investors on the list who are venture capitalists, Ragnarson is a software agency and angel investor that invests in and co-creates products with impact-focused startups.
CEO: Maciej Gałkiewicz
Industries & Solutions: solutions to climate challenges and socio-economic inequalities
Investment stage: early stage
RST Ventures for the Earth
Managing partners: Tomek Popow, Bartłomiej Dąbkowski
Industries and solutions: Industry 4.0, IoT, renewable energies, advanced materials, smart solutions for a clean environment, AI and ML
Investment stage: seed and initial phase
Ticket amount: €212K to €850K
Simpact VC
Managing partners: Krzysztof GrochowskiJacek Ostrowski, Wojciech Majewski
Industries & Solutions: impactful startups
Investment stage: pre-seed, but mainly focus on seed
Ticket size: the average investment ticket is €1 million, which we can extend to €2 million in follow-up