For the last couple of months, the Polish Development Fund (Polski Fundusz Rozwoju, PFR) has been exceptionally active. We have already written about some of the most recent projects initiated by some of the public institutions, such as creating dedicated VC funds or opening Foreign Trade Offices by the Polish Investment and Trade Agency. The sheer amount of available programs inspired PFR to open a brand new website that gathers all vital information in one place.
This new portal, startup.pfr.pl, is planned as an invaluable source of information for small and medium enterprises. Every entrepreneur will be able to browse through descriptions of recent acceleration programs, potential investors, or public sources of funding. PFR stresses that their website will accumulate all useful and up-to-date information for all companies, regardless whether they’re at a growth stage, plan to enter international markets, or are looking for opportunities to cooperate with large corporations.
“One of the key elements of the Responsible Development Plan is an increase in innovation, perceived as an added value for the Polish economy. In cooperation with development institutions of the PFR Group, including the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, we implement over 30 initiatives that support the creation of an innovation ecosystem in Poland. Financing innovation is one of our priorities. That’s why we have created PFR Ventures, the largest venture capital platform in Central and Eastern Europe. Thanks to the startup.pfr.pl website, we can transparently present all support tools that we provide to innovative companies”, said Paweł Borys, the CEO at the Polish Development Fund.
Even though the portal is still pretty new, it already contains a lot of useful information. The programs offered by institutions such as the Polish Development Fund, PFR Ventures, Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, or Polish Investment and Trade Agency, are grouped according to the needs and development stage of enterprises. Additionally, the portal contains a map that allows searching for accelerators or support ecosystems by location.
“This website is a response to the needs reported by the startup community. The offer of public institutions in the area of support (financial, educational, and advisory) for innovation development has increased in recent years. We have seen the need to organize and personalize it. We hope that at the next stage of development, the website will become a center of the young entrepreneurs’ community,” said Eliza Kruczkowska, CIO at the Polish Development Fund.
