Secrets Behind Successful Investments | BelTech 4.0 Warsaw 2026

Fund Strategies and Investment Focus

• Zubr Capital is a Belarus-origin private-equity fund investing globally, with a continuing focus on founders from Belarus, Ukraine, and the relocated regional tech community. It targets Series A, Series B, and growth-stage companies, with checks of up to $10 million, while remaining open to earlier-stage deals.
• Verras Capital is a US venture fund investing in areas including the sharing economy, fintech, and healthcare. It typically writes smaller checks of up to $100,000.
• Market One Capital is a Warsaw-based early-stage fund investing across Europe, mainly at pre-seed and seed. The panel cited checks of up to €3 million. Its focus has broadened beyond marketplaces to include consumer businesses.
• SMOK Ventures is a US-European fund focused on early-stage software, particularly pre-seed, investing mainly in Central and Eastern Europe and the diaspora. It typically invests about $500,000 at the early stage.

CEE Venture-Market Dynamics

• The panel described the CEE market as having substantial early-stage capital but limited later-stage funding. Companies often need to look to Western Europe or the US for growth rounds.
• Market One Capital said 87% of follow-on rounds for its portfolio companies come from investors in the US or UK, with some from Asia.
• The moderator noted concern about seed-stage fundraising, despite strong pre-seed activity. Panelists also cautioned that major headline deals can distort perceptions of overall market growth.
• A strong regional startup ecosystem takes time to mature. The panel saw potential in Poland and CEE, but said Europe generally has few ecosystems that can fund companies continuously from inception through IPO.

How Funds Use AI

• Investors use AI to source and screen deals, review pitch decks, research markets and competitors, assess positioning, and speed up due diligence. They said AI can help investors learn more in less time, but does not replace the work of analysis.
• Human judgment remains central for assessing founders, leadership, team dynamics, and company culture—areas where investors said AI is still limited.
• One fund described using an internal engine trained on prior investment decisions and feedback. A Startup Poland “Pola” assistant can review a pitch deck and identify relevant local funds; the panel reported that it had already helped connect a startup to an investor and led to a deal.
• Market One Capital mentioned using external sourcing tools, including Spectre and Evertrace, alongside internal tools and LinkedIn-based sourcing.

Founder takeaway: Use AI to improve research and communication, but don’t submit a pitch that appears to have been generated with no meaningful founder effort. Investors may treat that as a negative signal.

What Investors Look For

• Founder quality and adaptability: Prior execution and reputation matter, especially at pre-seed. Investors watch how founders respond to feedback, iterate, and react when circumstances change.
• Three-part fundraising framework: Market One Capital highlighted what the founders have done before, traction, and technology. Deep technology can be a particular strength.
• Founder-market fit: Practical expertise in a problem can be more valuable than a conventional startup background. For example, the founder of a used-auto-parts marketplace had previously run a car salvage yard and understood the customer problem firsthand.
• Resilience: One investor described the ideal founder as having “cockroach DNA”—the ability to survive difficult conditions and keep executing. At later stages, this becomes a need for a resilient, high-performing team, not just an individual founder.
• Series A readiness: Investors look for evidence of product-market fit, a credible go-to-market strategy, and meaningful metrics. They also assess whether founders can attract strong talent, build a cohesive culture, and help solve operational problems when needed.
• Investor-founder fit: Since investors may work with founders for 7–10 years, investors value ambition combined with humility and openness to considering feedback.

Red Flags and Organizational Practices

• Co-founder conflict is a major early-stage risk. Investors spend time with the full founding team to understand how members communicate, respect each other, and handle disagreements.
• Investors may meet founders repeatedly and in different settings—not just rely on a pitch meeting—to see how the team works and follows through.
• Excessive stubbornness is a warning sign. Founders should be determined but able to listen, assess advice, and explain their reasoning when they disagree.
• Investors also pay attention to product-development pace and whether the team can execute.
• For companies seeking rapid growth, early employees need a sense of ownership. Investors recommended ESOPs and hiring people who can outperform the founders in their areas of expertise, rather than relying on close supervision.
• At later stages, investors look for strong management, high talent density, and a culture that supports execution.

Examples Discussed

• Autologic: A Polish-founded KYC API company whose founders had previously built and sold a company to a Polish bank.
• Shana AI: A phone-camera-based diagnostic product, described as clinically certified and able to measure more than 30 indicators, including heart rate and heart-rate variability.
• Avoka: A B2B marketplace for used auto parts, compared to “Vinted for spare parts”; its founder’s hands-on industry experience was cited as an advantage.
• Static: An early-stage German AI freight-forwarding company.
• Other portfolio examples mentioned included Cardoo (fintech for car rentals), Homebound (financial services for renters), Vise (electric-bike rentals for US couriers), Palta Group, MediaCube, Garner, and Smartcat AI (localization software).
• An unnamed furniture-rental proptech startup was cited as an example of founders starting with very little infrastructure and doing the work themselves before building a successful business.

Fund and Startup Timelines

• A typical venture fund has a 10-year life, though some pre-seed funds may run for up to 15 years. A startup’s available time to exit depends on when the fund invests—for example, an investment in the fund’s fourth year may leave roughly six years in a 10-year fund.
• One investor said their first fund was already in its tenth year and still held six or seven portfolio companies. The panel stressed that investors should not force founders to exit if the business is still developing and growing.

Presenters and Source

• Moderator: Dmitry Danilchuk, founder of BelTech.
• Panelists: Ulad Radkevitch, Managing General Partner, Verras Capital; Konstantin Zapolianski, Senior Investment Director, Zubr Capital; Diana Koziarska, Partner, SMOK Ventures; and Kamil Węgliński, Investment Manager, Market One Capital.
• Source: BelTech 4.0 Warsaw panel, “Secrets Behind Successful Investments.”