Over the past couple of months I seem to be tripping over innovative Polish startups every time I walk out the office door.

Back in December, for example, I caught up with the entrepreneurs behind Photon after their kickstarter campaign met its goals in just 5 days. And last month I had the privilege of helping the award-winning “inMotion” team with the business plan for their Explicit Motion product as part of the 48h Business Marathon here in Rome.

But this is the fruit of many years’ work – mainly their work, of course! Nevertheless, META has been active in Poland since 2013, when we launched our first Polish coinvestment fund, followed in 2014 by Xplorer, Poland’s first proof of concept fund.

Xplorer invested in Proton in 2015, after we launched the Polish ‘node’ in the EU Commission’s TWIST project. And it was TWIST that sponsored inMotion’s visit to Rome, after they won the first TWIST Polish Challenge last April (that's me with them in the main photo).

These results are great for them, and vindicate META’s ‘three-pillar’ approach to entrepreneurialism: Invest, Academy, Advisory.

Photon: from bootcamp to product launch in two years

Take Photon, for example. We first came across them when we co-organized the 2015 Microsoft Imagine Camp - one of the over 20 events, webinars, competitions and training courses we ran as part of TWIST to boost startup ecosystems all over Poland.

Photon is building the world’s first interactive and educational toy robot for teaching children aged 6-12 how to code.

Designed by specialists in the field of psychology, gamification and user experience, Photon will both entertain and help each child learn to code and develop logical thinking. Photon grows with the child, educating and entertaining them for several years.

It rocked as an idea: they won the 2015 Camp and entered Microsoft's Imagine Cup Acceleration Program. Xplorer invested in them later that year.

That looks like a good investment: in the middle of last year they launched a Kickstarter campaign and reached their crowdfunding goal in five days. They were helped by Kickstarter's award of a “Projects We Love” label – something Kickstarter staff give to less than 0.5% of their campaigns. Even Poland's President is a fan.

two years ago they turned up at one of our events, and today they're preparing to ship

I caught up with them last December in Lodz at the second TWIST Polish Challenge. But this time, they were there to inspire the next generation of Polish startups. And they did: after all, less than two years ago they turned up at one of our events, and today they're preparing to ship their first products to their Kickstarter backers.

InMotion on the Move

But Photon weren't the only inspirational story I saw in Lodz - alongside them were three other startups we've supported, including InMotion, who I caught up with again the following month in Rome.

InMotion followed a similar path to Photon: they were one of 16 teams selected for the first TWIST Polish Challenge in April 2016. Each team was challenged to pitch their ideas via video. InMotion won with Explicit Flow, it’s prototype for making professional videos and timelapse pictures anytime, anywhere.

Their prize included a ticket to the 48h Business Marathon in Rome, hosted by LUISS EnLabs – The StartUp Factory, where I took them through the Lean Canvas approach to better refine their business model.

InMotion used the prototype to make the smooth, cool parts of this video about the 48h Business Marathon in Rome

So it's probably no surprise that I'm looking forward to Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 in Poland this April, for which we're preparing some very exciting webinars on Business Modelling, Pitching & Investment readiness, Business Planning & Fund Gathering, and other related topics.

This year promises to be even more spectacular than the last, so connect with me (or META, below) and I'll keep you posted.

Further reading

META Ventures combines venture capital fund management, entrepreneurial mentoring and innovation consultancy into an integrated Platform for transforming knowledge in to growth. We invest in startups and innovators across Europe, and help governments, Institutions, regions and cities around the world foster more of them. See in particular our two Polish Funds (Ingenium Poland and Xplorer) and the profiles of Photon and Explicit Motion, and connect with us on LinkedIn.

TWIST was an EC-supported Startup Europe project connecting innovation ecosystems in Warsaw, Rome, Lille and Stockholm. META Poland managed the Polish activities. Over the past two years TWIST organized over 70 meetups, 3 bootcamps on life science, cybersecurity and key enabling technologies, and 27 e-pitches with investors.