Internet Ventures, fund managed by the Private Equity Managers Group, whose shareholders are the National Capital Fund and MCI Management, has just invested a total of over PLN 15 million. The capital went to four fast-growing companies: StarBroker.pl (real estate), SiDLY.pl and ZdroweGeny.pl (medicine) and mfind.pl (insurance comparison site).
The last months have been a very intensive time for our fund. Our four latest investment projects are innovative, rapidly-growing companies, which can soon become market leaders in Poland, as was the case with previous investments of Internet Ventures, and break into CEE region markets – said Tomasz Danis, who manages the Internet Ventures FIZ.
StarBroker is a cutting-edge commerce and communication platform, which helps real estate owners to find real estate agents, set the sales conditions and then evaluate the agent’s service during the transaction. For agents StarBroker streamlines the management of a real estate portfolio, for real estate owners it facilitates ongoing tracking of the let/sale process. All of this is free and available in the mobile version as well. StarBroker is a revolution in ad websites: a passive “poster pillar” is replaced with a dynamic owner-agent communication. The website was founded by David Rice and Michał Nowakowski, associated among others with Excelead S.A. and advertising agency Bueller & Frye. Both founders have considerable experience in the real estate sector. The target financing for the company is up to PLN 3 million.
The second investment is innovative SiDLY. Telemedicine, one of the most promising branches of medicine, is a product of cutting-edge IT technologies. That is why Internet Ventures decided to become in June 2015 a shareholder of SiDLY, a pioneer of innovation in its sector. The investment may amount to PLN 4 million. SiDLY builds innovative telemedicine equipment for patients requiring constant medical care, both institutional and individual patients. SiDLY Care is a device for constant monitoring of medical parameters. SiDLY Care functionality enables remote healthcare, improves the operation of modern healthcare institutions and provides assistance to users in everyday activities. The SiDLY product may indeed revolutionise Polish healthcare institutions.
The third project to be financed by Internet Ventures (with a few million zloty) is zdrowegeny.pl, a platform owned by Platforma Badań Genetycznych (Genetic Testing Platform). The platform is developing into a marketplace of genetic tests for individual customers. Tests are supplied by laboratories specialising in tests for fertility, pregnancy development, food intolerance, cardiology and oncology risks as well as old age diseases. This will be the first such comprehensive offer in Poland. The platform’s aim is to popularise DNA testing as a way to learn about one’s organism with respect to the fetus condition, cancer or pharmacology-related risks.
The fourth investment of Internet Ventures is mfind.pl, an insurance comparison website, which brings revolutionary changes to the online insurance market in Poland. This is a simple, fast and useful tool for optimizing customers’ insurance budget. Mfind will receive up to PLN 6 million from the fund, which will accelerate the company’s growth. The online insurance market in Poland is still in its early stages. Currently, only 1% of all car insurance sales goes through comparison sites. In the United Kingdom or Hungary it is well over 60%. There is no other country in Europe where insurance comparison sites have a share of less than 5% in the whole insurance market. All this points to excellent prospects for the online insurance sector and a forecasted rapid growth in the coming years.
All investments have been implemented together with the National Capital Fund, which is a co-shareholder of several venture capital investment funds and supports investments in young developing Polish companies.
The National Capital Fund (KFK) is a fund of funds. It invests in venture capital funds (VC), which finance the development of companies exploring financing possibilities for their innovative projects and funding the development of micro, small and medium-sized companies based in Poland, with a special emphasis on innovative entrepreneurs conducting research and development activity and businesses with a large development potential.