Polish firm Inovo Venture Partners launches $40 million tech fund for Central and Eastern Europe, backed by EIF

Inovo Venture Partners, a Warsaw-based VC firm focused on Central and Eastern European tech companies, has announced a second fund of $40 million, including $15 million from the European Investment Fund (EIF). Typically participating in late seed and Series A rounds, the Polish firm plans to seal six deals in 2020, ultimately investing in 20 companies over the next years. Inovo sees itself as filling a funding gap for the CEE region, where multi-million dollar rounds are “too much for local funds, and often too little for funds from London, Berlin, or the USA,” says founding partner Tomasz Swieboda. In a press release, Inovo claimed in the first quarter of 2020, Poland's tech scene saw three times the amount of investment that it did during the same period last year. “We are convinced that over the next ten years, at least ten unicorns will be created in Central and Eastern Europe. Most of them will come from Poland,” Swieboda added.  Back in 2015, the firm’s first fund supported 15 portfolio companies, of whom five have been sold profitably, two have gone public, and three remain active.