Hi there!
Welcome to the Inovo newsletter, aggregating some of the most exciting news from the world of startups and Venture Capital!
The amount of money invested in Polish startups in 2021 is record high - it’s confirmed!
We can see more and more foreign capital flowing to Poland. The rounds announced in October are amazing:
I’ve noticed an interesting trend in Polish startups in recent quarters: hiring Chiefs of Staff (CoS) / Operations Generalists. They can be considered the right hand of one of the founders, managing internal projects and making sure things are getting done. If you are a founder, you should consider hiring this kind of person to free some of your time and get a “force multiplier”. If you are someone who wants to found a startup in the future, you should consider applying to one of the fastest-growing startups to learn the ropes! (pssst, Spacelift is hiring!)
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Inovo Portfolio news
Let’s start with the undisclosed investment from the previous newsletter.
AhoyConnect lands $3M in Seed funding in a round co-led by Inovo and KAYA. AhoyConnect is a community data intelligence platform. Their goal is to enable organizations to understand, grow, engage, and derive value from their online audiences.
Michał Rokosz, the partner behind the investment, explains why we invested in this Company. We’re convinced that community-led growth is the next big thing!
Spacelift raises $15M in Series B funding from Insight Partners to scale in the US. What a ride! Since our first investment in Spacelift last year, the Company has already raised 2 rounds with great, international investors i.e. Hoxton Ventures and Blossom Capital.
You can be part of this journey. They are looking for the best talent in the world, so feel free to apply or recommend stars from your network!
There are 2 more investments that have to remain undisclosed, but stay tuned!
Zowie has launched a free business analytics dashboard that aims to give companies a first-hand look at their customer service quality. Read more about it on VentureBeat.
Zowie offers a plug-and-play customer service chatbot that automates 30% of incoming customer inquiries within the first 24 hours after implementation. They can automate even 80% of any enterprise inbound communication after just a few weeks.
Our startups, their founders, and teams got so many awards this quarter that it’s difficult to count. I couldn’t be more proud!
3 of our portfolio companies: Jutro Medical, Spacelift, and Sunroof were listed among the 25 best Polish startups in 2021. Jutro Medical was also listed as one of the 10 promising Warsaw-based startups to follow in 2021. On top of that, Tidio has been listed by Capterra as a Top Performer in the Live Chat Software category!
Maja Schaefer (CEO @ Zowie), Adam Janczewski (CEO @ Jutro Medical), and Tytus Gołas (CEO @ Tidio) are laureates of Forbes 30u30 Poland 2021. Congrats!
Inovo readings & listenings
How to increase your company’s valuation by 5x? It’s possible, just listen to Michał Rokosz’ lecture from Internet Beta!
In our latest podcast, we hosted Stefan Batory, founder of Booksy, one of the most famous Polish Soonicorns. We discuss building a global business and how does the founder’s role change as the company grows. Watch the podcast on YT, listen on Spotify, or read English transcription on Medium.
Stefan was also a guest of our “Founders on Inovo” series. Listen to what it means to have Inovo Venture Partners on board from the perspective of the entrepreneur!
Maciej Małysz, Partner at Inovo, talked to Rob Kniaz, Partner at Hoxton Ventures. The discussion was about things that Rob has learned from investing in unicorns, things he looks for in early-stage startups, and what he means by saying: "You have to be crazy to be a founder". Listen on YT or Spotify. There is also English transcription.
This week we will also publish a podcast with Tytus Gołas, Co-Founder & CEO of Tidio. Michał Rokosz talked to Tytus about HR at Tidio and their unique approach to managing People & Culture. Follow us on YouTube, Spotify and Medium, so you don’t miss this talk.
What’s going on in the Polish VC market? It turned out that my recent prediction of this year ending “with another record” is already a fact. In the three quarters of 2021, the value of transactions — excluding mega-rounds — amounted to EUR 319M, while in 2020, it was EUR 268M. Considering that we are now only summarizing the Q3, I would say this is terrific news. Kudos to all the amazing founders, their teams and investors who made all of this possible. Read more insights here.
Here is a sneak peek at the upcoming events with us. Let’s talk!
Recommended readings & listenings
We have a new company on NASDAQ that originated in our region (Ukraine). GitLab is valued at more than $15B, which means that some of their early investors made 100x-150x returns on their investment.
David Sacks shares some target org charts that a new Series A, Series B, or Series C stage SaaS startup should be staffing towards.
Great piece of content explaining the role of Chief of Staff and possible paths to becoming one.
Thank you for reading till the end of this newsletter! It’s a cyclical initiative, and you can expect the next edition towards the end of January.
Best regards,
Tomek
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