16 November 2023
[SFF Special] Under the Radar: Poland as a leading market for fintech firms, fostering collaborations with Singapore to grow the fintech pie
Did you know that Poland is becoming an increasingly attractive and leading market for activities in financial innovation due to its well-developed infrastructure, quality business environment and outstanding talent?
In fact, the country boasts half a million IT professionals, the most in the Central East European region. Not only that, Poland also consistently ranks among the top three countries with the best programmers in the world.
It is home to one the biggest game studios in Europe, CD Projekt - known for the Witcher series and the futuristic Cyberpunk 2077. And you know those little chat windows on websites? Poland's LiveChat is one of the companies making that magic happen.
Given these assets, the country is well positioned to tap the boom in the fintech sector and has also seen global fintech eager to enter the market. For one thing, the fintech sector grew by 32% from 2020 and by as much as 79% compared to 2018.
The market is also maturing with the debut of VC funds and the opening of R&D and business service centres by international financial instructions. More Polish fintechs are also taking the chance to think internationally and put themselves on the global map.
But what are some success stories of Polish startups? And how can Poland and Singapore firms further collaborations to grow the fintech pie?
For more, I speak with The Polish Investment and Trade Agency, or PAIH. The agency supports Polish fintechs and attracts foreign investment to the country, and is the first point of contact for investors and a partner for entrepreneurs.
In this Singapore Fintech Festival edition of Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to  Lukasz Grabowski, Director at Polish Agency for Trade & Investment and Magdalena Smolak, Head of PAIH Trade Office in Singapore.

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