BRAVE Venture Capital — Investment Thesis & Preferences

01Investment Thesis

Backing dynamically developing enterprises with global aspirations at seed and early stage across Internet/SaaS, IoT/Hardware, Renewable Energy Sources, and Life Science (MedTech/BioTech). 4-14 year investment horizon with a patient capital approach through multiple fund vehicles.

Exclusion Criteria

Late-stage companies, non-technology ventures, companies without global aspirations, or ventures with no clear competitive advantage

02Investment Team

ŁF

Łukasz Feldman

Chairman of the Board

AS

Albert Smektalski

Business Partner

MK

Morten Karnøe

VC Partner

PF

Przemysław Federowicz

Partner

AM

Aleksander Mercik

Partner

03F4 Research Brief

BRAVE Venture Capital Research

Investment Thesis

BRAVE Venture Capital is a Poland-based early-stage venture capital group founded in 2018, headquartered in Wrocław. The firm backs dynamically developing enterprises with global aspirations across a patient 4-14 year investment horizon. Their core philosophy emphasizes team competency and sustainable competitive advantages over product maturity alone — they can invest at concept stage if the team is compelling and the business model is sound. The firm describes itself as a group of funds focused on ventures that have the potential to become internationally competitive from their Polish market roots.

Sector Focus

BRAVE focuses on four primary verticals:

Internet / SaaS / Enterprise Software: The largest segment of their portfolio. This includes SaaS platforms for banking, recruitment, HR, legal services, healthcare management, and document automation. Notable examples include BPBS (banking SaaS), Rekruteo (recruitment SaaS), Activatio (document/process management), Temada (legal SaaS), and BallSquad (infrastructure management SaaS).

IoT & Hardware: Smart city technology, 5G infrastructure planning tools, sensors, and industrial automation. Investments include mTap IoT Devices (smart street lighting), AKP Wireless (5G antenna design), Chameleon (radar safety system for e-bikes), and Smartsensing (parking monitoring).

Renewable Energy Sources (RES): Clean energy solutions and sustainability tech, including agri-tech and eco-camping solutions like Petal International (indoor farming tech) and Cubeeco (modular eco-camping).

Life Science — MedTech & BioTech: Digital health, patient monitoring, medical imaging, and physiotherapy apps. Investments include Oppa (physiotherapy app), Recoveries (patient rehabilitation), Nifti VR (VR medical imaging), Get Care Today (health tracker), Victor (e-health activity tracking), and Neggo (psychotherapy platform).

Stage Focus

BRAVE is primarily a seed and early-stage investor. They prefer projects with prototypes or higher investment readiness but explicitly do not exclude concept-stage ventures if the team and business model are compelling. Their investment horizon of 4-14 years reflects patient capital typical of their regional fund mandates with Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.

Check Size

Initial investments typically do not exceed PLN 2 million (~$500K USD) per company. The smallest investments in their portfolio were PLN 100K (Langi, ~$25K USD) while the majority cluster around PLN 1-2M (~$250K-$500K USD). Exceptional cases may exceed the typical ceiling. BRAVE does not disclose fund sizes or total AUM publicly.

Lead Tendency

BRAVE typically acts as a primary early-stage investor, often providing the first institutional capital to their portfolio companies. Given the check sizes and stage, they appear to lead seed rounds in most cases.

Fund Structure

BRAVE operates multiple fund vehicles:

BRAVE Seed Fund — Their flagship early-stage fund for technology startups.
Warmińsko-Mazurskie Capital Fund — Regional fund co-financed by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and private investors.
Kujawsko-Pomorskie Capital Fund — Regional fund co-financed by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and private investors.

The regional funds carry government mandates and likely have sector/geographic restrictions tied to the Warmia-Mazury and Kujawy-Pomerania regions of Poland.

Geographic Focus

BRAVE invests primarily in Polish startups with a secondary focus on Scandinavia. Partner Morten Karnøe brings a Scandinavian network from his academic and investment experience at Aalborg University and Stanford. The firm actively leverages the ecosystem in both Poland and Scandinavia for deal flow and portfolio support.

Decision Process

The firm operates as a multi-partner model with five partners (Łukasz Feldman, Albert Smektalski, Morten Karnøe, Przemysław Federowicz, Aleksander Mercik). Investment decisions appear to require partnership consensus, consistent with a mid-sized institutional fund structure.

Team

Łukasz Feldman (Chairman of the Board): Managing Partner and founder of BRAVE Venture Capital. Stockbroker and European Financial Consultant specializing in seed-stage to IPO financing. He has a background in financial markets and has built the firm from inception. Email: [email protected]

Albert Smektalski (Business Partner/Managing Partner): ACCA-certified investor with nearly 10 years in startup financing and restructuring. Technology broker responsible for Industry 4.0, ICT/IoT, and MedTech deal scouting. Email: [email protected]

Morten Karnøe (VC Partner): PhD professor at Aalborg University (2010-2019); former Director of New Capital Markets Research at Stanford University. Extensive Silicon Valley experience and track record including involvement in three successful startups: IP Wit and Eco2Pay. Bridges Polish and Scandinavian ecosystems. Email: [email protected]

Przemysław Federowicz (Partner): Former CIO at several successful startups; CEO of a technology consulting firm; advises VC/PE funds on tech investments and M&A. Brings deep operational and technology expertise. Email: [email protected]

Aleksander Mercik (Partner): PhD in economics; 10+ years as lecturer at University of Economics in Wrocław; expert in financial risk management and blockchain applications in finance. Leads fintech and deep-tech evaluation. Email: [email protected]

Portfolio Highlights

BRAVE has invested in 32+ companies, primarily Poland-based across multiple sectors:

Healthcare / MedTech: Oppa (PLN 2M), Recoveries (PLN 900K), Nifti VR (PLN 1.7M), Get Care Today (PLN 1M), Victor (PLN 2M), Neggo (PLN 935K)

Enterprise SaaS: BPBS (PLN 1.8M), Activatio (PLN 1M), Rekruteo (PLN 2M), BallSquad (PLN 2M), Temada (PLN 400K), Azimuthe (PLN 2M)

IoT / Hardware: mTap IoT Devices (PLN 600K), AKP Wireless (PLN 1M), Chameleon (PLN 1M), Smartsensing (PLN 250K)

Consumer / Marketplace: Sellektor (PLN 2M), Sparesty (PLN 1.5M), Task4m (PLN 1.2M)

Other: Crowdex (asset tokenization, PLN 2M), YouArtGift/DasForma (3D printing, PLN 2M), ARTIGIANO (polymer composites, PLN 1.6M), Cubeeco (eco-camping, PLN 1M), Petal International (indoor farming, PLN 1M)

Founder Preferences

BRAVE values competent teams with domain expertise, clear business models, market knowledge, and sustainable competitive advantages. They prefer global aspirations from Polish market roots. Technical founders or those with strong domain expertise are preferred. Concept-stage teams can qualify if these criteria are met.