• Emailsmok@smok.vc
  • Locationul. Lektykarska 27/2 Warsaw, Poland

Bridging

Silicon Valley to CEE

We are a US venture capital fund investing 100k-1M USD in early stage startups in Central & Eastern Europe and diaspora. We invest in software startups with the primary focus on software developement tools, gamedev and AI. We love to work with serial entrepreneurs with a global vision who aim to build leaders in their industries.

We're fast and transparent

We respond to every quality email from a founder. If we're interested, we act fast. If we are not, we let you know. We're committed to transparency ourselves and we require the same from our founders.

We're ex founders

Being former founders with a history of exits we understand the importance of a supportive, founder-friendly investor. We're doing our best to be just that.

We think global domination

We are the first and the last check you'll ever need from Central and Eastern Europe. 80% of follow-on funding in our startups comes from Silicon Valley, Western Europe and Asia.

Why CEE?

What Paul Bragiel really thinks of the Polish & CEE tech
Watch Paul Bragiel's interview at Digital Dragons on CEE tech ecosystem. Paul also discusses his investment thesis, explains how he was able to invest in 13 unicorns globally and why Poland & CEE is the next big thing.
Watch the video

Mission

We are a team of entrepreneurs and community leaders with the aim to help early stage startup founders build multi-million-dollar global software enterprises from CEE & diaspora.
Eastern Europe is now at an inflection point where local entrepreneurs are poised to build the next generation of global billion dollar startups. We as SMOK are excited to support these entrepreneurs and help enable them to reach their goals faster.
Paul Bragiel: Managing Partner at SMOK

Our team

The people behind Smok

Physics graduate. ReaktorX co-founder. Community leader of the Polish startup scene. Ambassador of Startup Poland. Named CESA Female Role Model of the Year, Strong Woman in IT, Forbes 30 Under 30.

Industries: gamedev, edutech

Led deals in: Exit Plan Games, Madcore Games, Frying Jelly, Absynth, Gotiva

Contact: diana@smok.vc

Diana Koziarska

MANAGING PARTNER

Engineer and entrepreneur. Product guy. Sold his previous startup Filmaster to Samba TV in 2015 to build the company’s thriving European business. Co-founded Poland’s first coworking space for startups, Reaktor, first private acceleration program, ReaktorX, and the biggest tech think tank, Startup Poland.

Industries: software development tools, artificial technology

Led deals in: Authologic, Vue Storefront, Hipets, inStreamly, SLS

Contact: borys@smok.vc

Borys Musielak

MANAGING PARTNER

Entrepreneur turned investor. He’s advised or invested in the seed rounds of 200+ companies which includes holdings in billion dollar companies Uber, Niantic (Pokemon Go), Stripe, Unity & Zappos. Paul has founded and oversees 6 funds with over $ 400m under management across 4 continents.

Paul Bragiel

MANAGING PARTNER

Our Portfolio

We invest in tireless entrepreneurs. Meet the companies in our portfolio.

Fams

Fams is a purpose-led parenting assistant aimed at enhancing emotional bonds with children and aiding parents in their roles through dialogue.

Collabwriting

Collabwriting was created to make online research collaborative, efficient, and traceable. It’s easy to share, comment, and collaborate anywhere online with anyone you’re working with.

Gotiva

Gotiva is led by Sebastian Szczygiel, formerly co-founder of Huuuge Games, one of the biggest mobile gaming successes of the CEE region. The company has developed a mobile app called Jigsaw Puzzle Universe that enables content creators to distribute digital images and earn money from revenue generated as users engage with the images in the form of […]

Absynth

Studio specialised in games with style and substance.

Workee

Workee is a California-based startup with Ukrainian roots aiming to create the Future of Work for freelancers worldwide. Company started with private tutors as the most active audience and will extend to other professionals as the next steps. Today they help private tutors in the US to build their business and overcome marketplaces, work directly […]

Masthead Data

Masthead Data is a real-time data reliability solution that detects anomalies in the data warehouse to ensure high-quality data for decision-makers. Unlike traditional data observability solutions, Masthead does not compromise on clients’ data privacy and security. Their platform observes data pipelines and table health in real time via logs without accessing clients’ data directly (i.e. does not require […]

Hyperjob

Hyperjob’s talent attraction platform leverages marketing know-how to optimize candidate engagement and help companies secure top talent in a competitive market. Hyperjob combines a full-scale candidate relationship management (CRM) system with irresistible job ads to boost candidate conversion rates by up to 600% and save recruiters more than 50% time on outreach when recruiting candidates […]

Finmap

Finmap provides cash-flow management tool that eliminates chaos in SMEs finances and helps them be more profitable.

57hours

57hours is a booking platform for outdoor enthusiasts. Company connect people with local certified guides around the globe and cover everything from backpacking trips in Nepal, mountain biking on Croatian islands, skiing in Japan to single-day hikes, rock climbs or backcountry skiing.

Bitskout

Software platform that allows anyone create A.I. plugins in minutes that can read messages, documents, emails and write data to your tools and free time for meaningful tasks. See also: Why did we invest in Bitskout?

What we look for

Proven Leadership

We love serial entrepreneurs with a history of successful exits (as well as many failures). If you can prove you've done it before, it's a sign for us you can do it again.

Deep Understanding of your Industry

Be the person that others associate with your industry when they want to recommend an expert. In-depth know how of the industry you're trying to disrupt is something we require from all our founders.

Culture Fit with SMOK

Working with an investor is a long-term partnership. We need to be sure we will be able to communicate, help each other out and build awesome things together.

Not ready yet?

Here are some tips we've prepared for you.
We invest in top 1% of founders who apply for funds. Obviously we have to say 'no' a lot. Sometimes silently, when you're not hearing back from us (although we try really hard to always respond). If you are determined to work with us, there are a few things you can do to improve your chances.
Check out our FAQ

Press about SMOK

As seen in the media
“One of the most influential natives of the start-up environment Borys Musielak, and the eccentric American entrepreneur Paul Bragiel, launch a venture capital fund | SMOK Ventures, established thanks to the support of the Polish Development Fund, intends to invest PLN 46 million in start-ups within a few years.”
Forbes
"There was no such VC fund in Poland yet. It is started by known startupers | SMOK Ventures is officially a Polish-American fund, many people involved in it are Polish entrepreneurs who founded startups themselves, which are today important companies in the industry.”
Business Insider
"Paul Bragiel, an international investor, together with crème de la crème of local tech business got together to finance top early stage startups in Poland."
Puls Biznesu
"Anonymous VC review site Landscape has published the first list of the top 20 seed investors in Europe, based exclusively on feedback from founders [...] SMOK Ventures is one of the top 20 European seed funds according to founders."
Tech.eu

Latest News

We blog about our approach to investing and general entrepreneurship
  • June 20, 2023

Why We Invested In Masthead Data

  • January 26, 2023

Sasha Yatsenko joins SMOK as Principal for Ukraine & the Baltics

  • July 27, 2022

Why did we invest in Bitskout?