SMOK Ventures

Consumer businesses are fun, but b2b businesses make money 🤑 Our founding partner 🌈 Borys Musielak wrote a 10-step guide on how to build a B2B startup that will attract both customers and investors. Give it a go! https://lnkd.in/dxfF2Bq2 #startup #fundraising #b2b

With 18 investments in the last 12 months we are one of Central Europe's most active investors in 2024 and by far the most active VC in Poland 🇵🇱. We are looking to add ~10 more startups to our portfolio during the next 12 months with the most interest in software development tools, gamedev and AI. We invest across the whole CEE region & diaspora founders based anywhere globally. https://lnkd.in/gXknhiBT #ceevalley #venturecapital #seedfunding #startups

Our founding partner Diana Koziarska believes that empowering women founders in Europe starts as early as in pre-school. "It's important to ensure that girls are taught from an early age to be as ambitious as boys—in all fields. At pre-school we were all given dolls to take care of, with care being the key word. Take care of a doll, then when we grow up, take care of a family. I think this plays a major role in how girls, when they become young adults, view things." By what can founders and investors do right here and right now? Encourage diversity! "Diverse companies building diverse teams see more revenue and are more profitable. Diversity has an impact. If you have diverse team, you have diverse perspectives. You understand different audiences, different customers. It allows you to better scale the company and your products." https://lnkd.in/dqDBabED

Today at Google Campus Warsaw you can meet our partner 🌈 Borys Musielak, other VCs and 150 founders from Poland, Ukraine and Belarusian diaspora at our fundraising meetup. Book your ticket before it's too late! https://lnkd.in/exCGXcsw #meetup #fundraising #startups #venturecapital

Check out this guide on how to get up to speed with notes collaboration online.

This Thursday... in Warsaw... come to our FUNDRAISING meetup for the #techwawa startup ecosystem 🇵🇱 🇺🇦 🇧🇾 🇪🇪 🇱🇹 🇱🇻 We'll have a great panel on fundraising with Lech Kaniuk, Jacek Migdał, VC reverse pitches, quick startup competition and a lot of networking IN ENGLISH (no Polish, Russian or any other language allowed!!!) See you @ Google Campus! https://lnkd.in/gcZZuhRs

Our founding partner 🌈 Borys Musielak on what it means to be a successful VC, when to quit and why be a VC in the first place? Watch the interview described as "funny as hell" by one of the commenters, nicely led by Irina Obushtarova of The Recursive. https://lnkd.in/dXN7qWvh

Leading Poland-based venture capital funds will be pitching startup founders at Carpathian Startup Fest in Rzeszów next week. The best one is circled in yellow 💛 cc Marcin Kurek Maciej Skarul Przemek Jurgiel-Żyła Maciej Zawadzinski 🚀Michal Rokosz

Our party was freaking awesome! 😍 Viva Technology was a great choice for this year's Demo Day. Congrats to Vivid Mind for wining the audience vote, Dariusz Wiatr now has the privilege to decide where the next ReaktorX batch will have its in-person section. Huge congrats to the amazing teams that pitched: Haip, Nethica, Triberry, Expi, BuyerMind, GoFunlo. Their 2-minute pitch was top-notch, with really good feedback from the audience. Romain Rebour, our amazing co-host and organizer, thank you! None of this would have been possible without your help! As always, it wouldn't have been a party without SMOK Ventures team, 🌈 Borys Musielak, Diana Koziarska and Paul Bragiel. Thanks for your continued trust and support! Talk soon about the next batch ;) More news coming soon from all of our startups, some of them are a hair away from closing their fundraising. Ping us if you'd like to check their decks and join their rounds (1-2 spots left!).

Great to see our portfolio startup Collabwriting (Serbia) among the Southern European startups poised to grow! We'd also add 57hours (Croatia) and Gotiva (Bosnia) to the list. #ceevalley https://lnkd.in/dGUmRpBG