Intel inside Poland

Intel Capital, the venture-capital arm of international computer-processor giant Intel, has announced it is making an investment in Grono.net, a social-networking website operator. This is the first investment of Intel Capital in a social-networking company in Europe and its third such investment worldwide. Intel will take over some 10 percent of the company, but the exact value of the investment remains confidential.

The website comprises over 140,000 various themed sections, boasting a total of 1.3 million unique users and has a mobile-phone service with about 10,000 members. The site is also available in English, Spanish and French versions. Its rapidly growing popularity won it a 2007 "CoolBrands" award.

"Instead of establishing virtual communities, we copied the social relations from the real world," Grono.net shareholder Piotr Wilam explained.

The funds Intel Capital pumps into Grono.net will go towards acquiring equipment such as servers and other hardware, Marcin Hejka, Intel Capital's director of strategic investments for CEE told WBJ.

Intel Capital made its first investment in Poland in 1999, and is now planning new initiatives in the country. "Future investments will involve greater funds and larger shares in the companies," said Hejka.

Though the IT market in Poland is less developed than in the West and the number of IT firms in Poland is still relatively low, those that exist deserve attention, said Tomasz Słoniewski, a research manager at IDC Poland, stressing the potential for investments in this sector of the Polish market.

"It is our membership of the EU, the presence of a well qualified workforce and [the country's] fast-growing number of internet users that are the main factors [attracting investors]," he said.