The new Report on the angel market in Poland shows how this area of investment activity is shaping up.
Venture Capital funds have been operating on the Polish market for a long time, but the sector of private investors is still at an early stage of development. The authors of the report estimate that there are currently 680 active business angels in Poland. In Western European countries there are usually at least several thousand. The results of the survey confirm that the angel investment market in Poland is still growing. As many as 40% of the surveyed business angels have been investing for only three years or less, and more than half of the business angels (53%) have made between one and six investments during their entire business angel activity.
According to the report, investments in startups are, for the time being, the domain of men (80% of those surveyed), but the 20% share of female investors in the market is a result that stands out among European countries – Spain, Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia, Ireland or Finland have lower results.
Business angels in Poland are mainly middle-aged, most of them are between 35 and 49 years old – this age bracket accounts for as much as 70%. To date, they have most often been entrepreneurs (55% of those surveyed) and corporate managers (30%). The report shows that these two professional groups are joined by doctors, lawyers, or IT professionals.