Balnord Research
Investment Thesis
Balnord is a high-conviction, early-stage venture fund investing in frontier and dual-use technologies across the Baltic Sea Region and wider Europe. The thesis centers on backing "the technological platforms of tomorrow — the picks and shovels of Europe's reindustrialisation": companies building critical infrastructure and deep technology in space, healthcare, and industrial resilience that strengthen European strategic autonomy. The team explicitly frames itself as investing in Europe's dual-use economy — technology with both commercial and defense/security applications — at a moment when NATO, the EU, and national governments (Poland's PFR, Luxembourg's presence in ESA) are actively channeling capital toward sovereign technology capability.
The firm's legacy portfolio (2016-2023) spans generalist Central/Eastern European SaaS, fintech, and consumer software — Autenti, Nordigen, Wisnio, IamIP, Xopero, GoCardless via the Nordigen acquisition — before the team narrowed its mandate specifically to frontier/dual-use deep tech starting with Fund I.
Stage Focus
Balnord invests primarily at pre-seed and seed, with the explicit intent to be the first institutional check and to support companies "from pre-seed to exit and beyond." It reserves capital to follow on into Series A and B rounds for existing portfolio companies (REGENT Craft reached Series B, Infinite Orbits and Tapline reached Series A).
Check Size
Initial tickets run €0.5M–€3M, with the ability to deploy up to €12M per company across a company's lifecycle to sustain conviction through follow-on rounds. This "concentrated bets" approach is deliberate — the team says it invests in fewer companies to put more capital, time, and attention behind each one.
Lead Tendency
Balnord leads or co-leads rounds. Portfolio pages show partners individually credited as the deal lead for named companies (e.g., Marcin P. Kowalik led Satim and REGENT Craft; Aleksander Dobrzyniecki led Atmos Space Cargo and VitVio; Jarek Pilarczyk led Astrolight and Skycore Semiconductors), and press releases describe Balnord explicitly leading rounds (Sapient Perception, Skycore Semiconductors, VitVio) or co-investing alongside strategics (Microamp with ffVC).
Recent Activity
Balnord launched a €70M Fund I in November 2025 to back frontier and dual-use startups across the Baltic Sea Region, with the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Polish development bank BGK signing €24M into the fund under the "Future Tech Poland" program (March 2026). The fund is actively deploying: Sapient Perception emerged from stealth with a €2M pre-seed (April 2026), Avenue Biosciences raised $5.7M (January 2026), Skycore Semiconductors raised a €5M seed (November 2025), and VitVio closed an $8M seed (October 2025). Portfolio companies have gone on to raise significant follow-on capital — ATMOS Space Cargo raised a €25.7M Series A (April 2026), REGENT secured a $240M Series B (August 2026), and INLEAP Photonics raised €20M (September 2026) — while Infinite Orbits expanded via acquisitions in the UK (Lúnasa) and Luxembourg (LMO). Balnord also won "VC Fund of the Year" and "VC Deal of the Year" at the Nagrody PSIK 2026 awards and joined the ESA Investor Network.
Portfolio Highlights
Current dual-use/frontier fund portfolio: REGENT Craft (electric maritime Seagliders), INLEAP Photonics (laser-based drone defense), Sapient Perception (AI perception for unmanned systems), Avenue Biosciences (protein expression platform for biologics), Infinite Orbits (in-orbit satellite servicing), Skycore Semiconductors (power ICs for AI data centers), VitVio (AI ambient sensing for operating rooms), Microamp Solutions (5G mmWave wireless), Astrolight (optical space communications), Atmos Space Cargo (space cargo return capsules), Satim (AI/SAR satellite imagery, led by Balnord), and Port.app (urban mobility OS). Notable exit: TerraEye, a strategic exit in spacetech (March 2026). The legacy (pre-rebrand) portfolio includes Nordigen, which was acquired by GoCardless, and GoCardless itself, now a European payments unicorn.
Team
- Marcin P. Kowalik, Managing Partner
- Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, General Partner
- Jarek Pilarczyk, Partner
- Wojciech Drewczyński, Head of Research
- Hubert Szczołek, Operating Partner & CFO
- Gabrielė Poteliūnaitė, Principal
- Maciej Skórkiewicz, Operating Partner (pre-Balnord)
- Tomasz Woźniak, Tech & Automation Lead
- Julia Warnel-Hala, Operations Lead
- Peter Bialo, Founders Board (Co-Founder & CFO at DocPlanner)
- Davis Siksnans, Founders Board (Co-Founder & ex-CEO at Printful)
- Prof. Andrew A. Michta, Advisor (Professor of Strategic Studies, University of Florida; Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council)
- Lt. Gen. (ret.) Tomasz Piotrowski, Fund Advisor (former Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces)
- Thorsten Claus, Advisor (Founding Partner, NATO Innovation Fund; Founder, Thinkstorm Ventures)
Decision Process
Balnord operates as a partnership with a small, deeply technical team (Managing Partner, General Partner, Partner, Head of Research, Operating Partner/CFO, Principal) rather than a solo-GP structure. Individual partners are publicly credited as deal leads on portfolio pages, suggesting partner-led sourcing with partnership-level backing. Investment is self-serve accessible via a public "Pitch us" typeform, suggesting no strict warm-intro requirement.
Founder Preferences
The team explicitly favors "operator-investor" pedigree and looks for founders with deep technical and often ex-defense, ex-space-agency, or repeat-operator backgrounds solving hard, real-economy problems in space, healthcare, and industrial resilience. Several LPs are former founders the firm has backed. Balnord co-authored a widely distributed "Dual-Use Founder's Handbook" (with the Polish Development Fund PFR and Casimir Pulaski Foundation, first launched December 2024, second edition September 2025) aimed at founders navigating European defense-tech and dual-use markets — signaling active involvement in founder education and market-building, not just capital deployment.
Geographic Focus
Primary focus is the Baltic Sea Region — Nordics, Baltics, Poland, and Germany — with Balnord SARL legally domiciled in Luxembourg (28, boulevard d'Avranches, L-1160 Luxembourg) and operating offices in Gdańsk and Berlin. The fund benefits from EU InvestEU Fund support and is active in NATO's DIANA program and Poland's IDA Bootcamp, giving portfolio companies pathways to defense buyers, pilots, and policy networks across Europe. Portfolio companies span Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden, with occasional US and UK exposure.