Enterprise plans to double IT investments to $40 mil
The publicly financed venture capital fund expects this month to commit an additional $3.5 million to an as yet unnamed company, said Zygmunt Grajkowski, a vice president with Enterprise Investors. When completed this will bring the total number of Enterprise's current IT investments in Poland to five with a total of about $20 million, he added.
The fund's previous four investments have been in companies that focus on service, software, equipment, teleinfo services and private networks. He added that software development here is strong and that programmers are now using "worldwide technology." Management software, as well as digital mapping are popular fields within IT, Grajkowski said.
Despite Enterprise's enthusiasm for the Polish IT sector, it is not leading a wave of fresh capital into the industry, which is worth about $2 billion. Total investments by other funds into the industry are about $20 million, Grajkowski said.
Other venture capital funds said they have taken a cautious approach and do not see huge needs, and more importantly opportunities, at the moment.
"For the time being we have not invested," said Anna Hejk, managing director at U.S.-based PGF Management, which examined the possibility of investing in IT last year, but decided against it.
She cited specific risks involved with individual companies and evolving technology as reasons. "These sectors become obsolete very quickly," Hejk said.
"Generally they are not capital intensive businesses," added Ian Haggis, finance administrator at Polskie Towarzystwo Prywatyzacyjne Kleinwort Benson (PTPKB), which focuses on investments in National Investment Funds (NIFs).
Because of this, the amount of investment the companies are seeking, usually from zl. 1 million-zl. 5 million ($285,000-$1.4 million), is too low to interest
many funds.
Neil Milne, managing director at Copernicus Capital Management, which has also reviewed possible IT investments but not made any, said that he would look more to integration and internet investments.
"Poland has not really developed commercial use of the internet," he added. (See also Interview, page 12)
Another possible field of IT interest, Milne said, is in maintenance and disaster recovery. In the United States and England, he added, such companies are publicly traded. But in Poland, it is practically nonexistent as an industry.
In many ways, areas such as software development are limited here, fund managers said. Many Western companies bring their own software and local software developers only have the opportunity to write programs for special situations.
However, Enterprise's Grajkowski believes that Polish IT could make its mark in Central European markets. "We are now more or less in the same position" in terms of the transition to a market economy, he said.
The fund's previous four investments have been in companies that focus on service, software, equipment, teleinfo services and private networks. He added that software development here is strong and that programmers are now using "worldwide technology." Management software, as well as digital mapping are popular fields within IT, Grajkowski said.
Despite Enterprise's enthusiasm for the Polish IT sector, it is not leading a wave of fresh capital into the industry, which is worth about $2 billion. Total investments by other funds into the industry are about $20 million, Grajkowski said.
Other venture capital funds said they have taken a cautious approach and do not see huge needs, and more importantly opportunities, at the moment.
"For the time being we have not invested," said Anna Hejk, managing director at U.S.-based PGF Management, which examined the possibility of investing in IT last year, but decided against it.
She cited specific risks involved with individual companies and evolving technology as reasons. "These sectors become obsolete very quickly," Hejk said.
"Generally they are not capital intensive businesses," added Ian Haggis, finance administrator at Polskie Towarzystwo Prywatyzacyjne Kleinwort Benson (PTPKB), which focuses on investments in National Investment Funds (NIFs).
Because of this, the amount of investment the companies are seeking, usually from zl. 1 million-zl. 5 million ($285,000-$1.4 million), is too low to interest
many funds.
Neil Milne, managing director at Copernicus Capital Management, which has also reviewed possible IT investments but not made any, said that he would look more to integration and internet investments.
"Poland has not really developed commercial use of the internet," he added. (See also Interview, page 12)
Another possible field of IT interest, Milne said, is in maintenance and disaster recovery. In the United States and England, he added, such companies are publicly traded. But in Poland, it is practically nonexistent as an industry.
In many ways, areas such as software development are limited here, fund managers said. Many Western companies bring their own software and local software developers only have the opportunity to write programs for special situations.
However, Enterprise's Grajkowski believes that Polish IT could make its mark in Central European markets. "We are now more or less in the same position" in terms of the transition to a market economy, he said.
