Sometimes, you just know.

I met Jarek Sygitowicz at SXSW in 2021. Neither of us had cash for a hotel, so we crashed on the sofa of Przemek Żebrowski (now one of SMOK’s LPs). It was the kind of startup scrappiness that usually makes for a good story—and in this case, a great investment.

A few months earlier, in September 2020, Jarek pitched me the idea for Authologic. He had no product, no traction, and the company was just three months old. But the vision was clear, the timing was perfect, and the team—made up of serial founders with two successful exits under their belt—was one I would’ve backed blindfolded.

I committed on the spot. It remains one of the easiest investment decisions I’ve ever made.

Stripe for identity

Identity is one of the last unsolved layers of the internet. Every fintech, marketplace, or digital platform needs to know who their users are—but verifying identity online is still painfully fragmented.

Some countries have robust national eID systems. Others rely on third-party KYC providers. Startups often have to stitch together multiple solutions just to serve a single market. It’s messy, expensive, and error-prone.

Authologic solves this by aggregating national and global identity verification APIs into a single SDK. Think Stripe for identity—a plug-and-play solution that works across geographies and use cases, and makes it just as easy to verify a user as it is to accept a payment.

This is especially relevant in the GenAI era, where anyone can forge a document with ChatGPT and a bit of patience. Authologic bypasses the need for selfies and ID scans by using verified digital identities where available—but supports those methods too when needed.

“Stripe made payments simple. Authologic is doing the same for identity.”

A team built for trust

The founding team had already built and exited two companies before starting Authologic—but they weren’t interested in playing it safe. They were going after one of the most foundational problems in digital trust and doing it from day one with global ambition.

A month after our $250K pre-seed investment, they were accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 batch. The product has since matured into a widely used identity layer for fintechs and regulated industries across Europe and beyond.

We’re proud to have been their first backers—and even prouder to watch them build the infrastructure layer for trusted interactions online.

Are you fundraising for a CEE startup?

If you made it this far, liked what you read, and feel like our thinking resonates—whether you’re a founder or know someone building something great in Central and Eastern Europe—we’d love to hear from you. Check out our investment FAQ and send your deck to borys@smok.vc.

Let’s talk.