Experior Venture Fund (EVF)

Industries: the fund invests in various industries, e.g. FMCG, B2B and B2C production/services, ICT, IT, multimedia, healthcare and medical services, fintech, software.

Activity: Experior Venture Fund (EVF) is a capital fund investing in Polish small and medium-sized enterprises characterized by high growth potential and a motivated team. We invest in shares, offering capital for growth and expansion. In addition to capital, EVF offers strategic and operational support (for owners and management teams) to maximize business value. The Fund's team has many years of experience in private equity/venture capital, M&A transactions, fundraising and strategic management, enterprise value creation and ownership supervision. The fund's capital of 80 million PLN comes from private investors and the National Capital Fund.

Origin: The EVF Fund was established in April 2013. The fund was created as a result of the observation of a capital gap in the Polish venture capital market - especially in the segment of investments in the growth/expansion stage and due to the still early stage of market development, and thus potentially higher rates of return than in highly developed markets. The founders of the fund are two women: Marzena Bielecka and Kinga Stanisławska.

What stage must the project be at? The fund invests in the early growth/growth/expansion stages of development. It does not invest in seed projects.

Investment amount: from PLN 2 million to PLN 12 million.

Examples of investments: the fund has 14 companies in its portfolio, including RightHello, iTaxi.pl, DrOmnibus, WeGirls, Tylko.com. The entire portfolio can be found here.

Disadvantages of Polish originators:

• The product/service offered often does not solve real problems or does not have significant long-term competitive advantages that constitute high barriers to entry.
• Ill-considered monetization strategy – most often among the originators of various types of mobile applications in which there are many people willing to use the free version, but very few people are willing to pay for the product/service
• Lack of experience in team management and sales skills – many companies have problems reaching customers – mainly in the B2B model
• In many cases, lack of international experience and mindset

Advantages of Polish originators:

• High-quality specialists in their fields
• Highly advanced products/services
• No barriers, communicativeness and openness to new experiences