Poland’s SMOK Ventures closes its $25M second fund for CEE startups
The Warsaw-based SMOK Ventures has closed its second fund at $25 million, with the support of PFR Ventures. The fund aims to invest in up to 35 startups from the CEE region and its diaspora.
About SMOK Ventures II Fund
- SMOK Fund II has already invested in 12 startups from Poland, Ukraine, Czechia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Serbia, and Bosnia. Among them are 57hours, a Croatian marketplace for tourists seeking non-standard trips, and Gotiva, a Polish-Bosnian graphic developer startup.
- The fund aims to supports startups from Central and Eastern Europe at pre-seed and seed investment stages which work in software development, game development, and artificial intelligence. The ticket amount is from $100,000 up to more than $1 million.
- According, to SMOK Ventures, the first close of Fund II was in 2022 and remained unannounced. The latest close of the fund was finalized on the 23rd of January. PFR Ventures, a Polish finance institution dedicated to fund investments, joined as a key limited partner.
We started deploying capital from the beginning of 2023, which means we are already working with teams. Over the past year, almost 300 Ukrainian teams entered our pipeline. In total, during 2023, we reviewed over 1,200 startups from the CЕЕ and have already made three investments in Ukrainian Finmap, Workee, Masthead Data.
Oleksandr Yatsenko, Principal at SMOK Ventures.
- The main goal in 2024 for SMOK Ventures is to secure at least 10 new projects. Poland will remain its primary market.
PFR Ventures, part of the Polish Development Fund, fully owned by the Government of Poland supported SMOK II, and had previously invested in SMOK I. It claims that startups from the first fund’s portfolio are already generating over €31 million revenue annually and employing more than 650 people.
SMOK Ventures is one of the 20 most active Polish VC funds in 2023, according to AIN.Capital. Its global network of funds has over $400 million under management. The fund is co-managed by Paul Bragiel, Diana Koziarska, and Borys Musielak.