Kraków Main Square. Image: Sopotnicki/Shutterstock
Kraków in southern Poland is becoming an exciting epicentre of tech innovation and entrepreneurship.
As one of Poland’s largest cities, Kraków is very much the beating heart of academic, cultural, economic, artistic and technological life of the country, and a vibrant centre for start-up activity.
The city was officially approved as a UNESCO City of Literature in 2013 and is home to Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world.
From a start-up perspective, the local ecosystem is making strong headway in notable areas such as the internet of things (IoT) and next-generation business software, which rightly has customer success as a driving force.
In terms of investment, the city is home to players like Innovation Nest, Satus, Way 7, SpeedUp Group and Kraków Technology Park’s (KTP) Fundusz Zalążkowy seed fund.
Local accelerators in Kraków to watch include Hub:Raum, AIP Kraków and the Kielecki Park Technologiczny incubator.
And so, here are the start-ups from Kraków to watch out for.
Brainly
Brainly is the brainchild of friends Michal Borkowski, Lukasz Haluch and Tomasz Kraus. A large special learning network, it has more than 100m monthly users from 35 countries. With offices in Kraków and New York, the start-up has raised $38.5m in funding from investors including General Catalyst, Point Nine Capital, Kulczyk Investments, Naspers, Runa Capital and Learn Capital.
CallPage
Founded in Kraków and with offices in San Francisco, CallPage is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of sales empowerment and analytics technology that offers visitors to websites a real-time callback within 28 seconds. Founded in 2015 by Andrew Tkachiv, Ross Knap and Sergey Butko, Callpage has raised $1.2m in funding from investors that include bValue Venture Capital, Startup Wise Guys and AIP Seed Capital.
Codewise
Four special tips to help boost your #PerformanceMarketing strategy. Read more about it here: https://t.co/Xn2mjkIfcH pic.twitter.com/xGVqc9QiOx
— Codewise (@codewisecom) July 24, 2018
Codewise specialises in AI-powered advertising technology and provides smart traffic and tracking tools for performance marketing through flagship products such as Zeropark and Voluum. Headed by CEO Robert Gryn, Codewise is headquartered in Kraków and has offices in London and California. It counts more than 6,000 customers in 190 countries worldwide. It was recognised in 2017 and 2018 as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe by the Financial Times.
Elmodis
Elmodis brings the IoT to electric-powered industrial machines and improves their operating efficiency. Founded in 2015 by engineers Artur Hanc and Marcin Święch, Elmodis has raised $5.2m from investors that include Intel Capital, SET Ventures and Innovation Nest.
Flowbox
F-Splines are finally out, see how Bezier and X-Splines combine into one ultra fast and flexible rotoscoping tool. Coming out with version 1.6 released today! ? https://t.co/4hM5MlX6Xw https://t.co/4hM5MlX6Xw
— Flowbox (@FlowboxIO) March 20, 2018
Flowbox is a rotoscoping and video FX platform that enables video FX studios to achieve efficiency gains at a fraction of the cost using artist-oriented interfaces and ergonomic tools. Led by CEO Mikołaj Valencia, Flowbox has raised $300,000 in seed funding from lead investor Innovation Nest.
Husarion
Use ROSbot in both remote control and autonomous mode, and test its functionalities, without coding anything- thanks to the new Web UI.
Tutorial is available here:https://t.co/ZSpkRa7or8 pic.twitter.com/QJH31kRD0T
— Husarion (@husarion) July 20, 2018
Husarion has created an ecosystem of IoT development for automation and robotics, combining hardware, software and cloud. At the heart of the company’s offering is the Husarion Core2 development board for the easy creation of robots. Husarion is headed by CEO Dominik Nowak and has raised $258,000 in seed funding.
Kontakt.io
For next-generation security, #IoT needs #blockchain. We're thrilled to announce our partnership with @iotatoken to enable tamper-proof readings of smart sensor data! Learn what this means for condition monitoring in #Healthcare and #SupplyChain https://t.co/r5O5dLSXRC #IOTA #DLT
— kontakt.io (@kontakt_io) May 17, 2018
Kontakt.io is playing a leading role in digitalising the physical world through a combination of IoT and its innovative Bluetooth Low Energy tags and beacons, used for mobile experiences and indoor way-finding. Founded in 2013 by Szymon Niemczura, Tomasz Koźmiński, Rafał Janicki and Tomasz Kołek to help the visually impaired to navigate public spaces more easily, the company is led by CEO Philipp von Gils. It has raised $7.8m in funding from investors that include Credo Ventures and Sunstone Capital.
Salesmanago
Get to know the new SALESmanago module – Live Chat Analytics that’ll help you boost customer satisfaction rate and make the Customer Journey a pleasant and uninterrupted experience. Read our new blog post to learn more!https://t.co/jDioYv9L5Y
— SALESmanago (@SALESmanago) July 18, 2018
Salesmanago offers all-in-one, next-generation marketing automation software used by teams in more than 10,000 companies of all sizes. Founded in 2011 by Greg Blazewicz and Konrad Pawlus, Salesmanago has raised $6m in funding to date from 3TS Capital Partners.
Seedia
The telemetrics module implemented in SEEDiA's benches oversees the functioning of external #devices, such as #chargers and sensors. It allows us to learn how much did CO2 emission decrease or how many people charged their #phones https://t.co/3y01iucs2t pic.twitter.com/nzOm65ibF4
— SEEDiA (@SEEDiA_official) March 29, 2018
Seedia designs and delivers automated eco-infrastructure such as solar park benches for smart cities that can also gather energy and charge mobile devices. Founded in 2016 by Piotr Hołubowicz and Artur Racicki, Seedia has raised $265,000 in seed funding from bValue Venture Capital.
Synerise
Do you know what #RFM, #RFE, #NPS, #CTR and #DMP are? Marketing abbreviations are easier than you think. Learn 5 new ones now: https://t.co/ZquzlJHP2B
— Synerise (@Synerise) July 24, 2018
Synerise specialises in next-generation omnichannel marketing and customer intelligence. Founded in 2013 by Jarosław Królewski, Milosz Balus and Krzysztof Kochmanski, the company last year raised $5m in an angel round, bringing total investment to date to $6.7m.
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