The Polish National Centre for Research and Development (Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju, NCBR) has recently announced the launch of two funds that will support innovators and entrepreneurs. Total capital in the NCBR CVC and NCBR VC funds (so-called “Funds of Funds”) will exceed 2 billion PLN (about 470 million EUR).
“We consider the commencement of NCBR CVC and NCBR VC operations a breakthrough for the development of the Polish venture capital market. We have laid the foundation for the commercialization of R&D projects. This way, we can support Polish technology projects at all stages of their development,” said Piotr Dardziński, the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education. “Our entrepreneurs and scientists, who are working hard on disruptive technologies and products, deserve to cooperate with the best partners possible. Our funds guarantee such a collaboration.”
NCBR VC, the first of two funds, offers over 1.1 billion PLN for new investments. Its creation is a result of cooperation between NCBR and two venture capital firms: VC3.0 and FinCrea TFI. In the next few years, this money will be invested in small and medium-sized tech enterprises. The fund will prioritize startups that have a large development potential and are in the scale-up phase.
The second fund, called NCBR CVC, is a joint effort of NCBR, PFR Ventures, and BGK TFI. The capital in this fund reaches 880 million PLN. Half of this capital is the contribution of NCBR; the other half will be provided by corporate investors. This “Fund of Funds” will be divided into 6 to 9 separate CVC funds in various market fields.
National Centre for Research and Development is an agency that functions as the largest innovation center in Poland and as an intermediate platform between scientific and business communities. It cooperates with the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education.
“Our goal in creating NCBR CVC and NCBR VC is not only to solve short-term problems of lack of capital in the Polish VC market,” said Maciej Chorowski, the president of NCBR. “Invested capital will be present on the market for a long time, helping to finance disruptive technological projects that have the potential to become the flagships of Polish entrepreneurship.”
