24Ventures is a Poland-based VC firm managed by Katarzyna Kowalczyk, Stanisław Rogoziński, and Łukasz Wąsikiewicz. The Fund started investing in mid 2025 with €20 million in AUM. The partners previously were responsible for managing the Status Starter VC firm, with notable investments in Alphamoon, Hearme (now Hedepy for Business), and Foodsi.
24Ventures focuses on Polish founders, supporting them from the earliest stages. The fund seeks new investment opportunities, looking for projects that target AI vertical use cases, AI infrastructure, quantum, cybersecurity, and companies that want to grow by targeting social changes.
The firm’s Managing Partner, Katarzyna Kowalczyk, spoke with Vestbee about its strategy and investment approach.
Fund strategy overview
Geography: Poland-based companies
Preferred industries: enterprise software, SaaS, deeptech, Industry 4.0
Investment ticket: €200k–1.2M
Company stage: pre-seed and seed
Product type: mostly B2B, less often B2B2C or B2C
Product stage: at least MVP
Revenues: no revenues or early traction
Q&A with Katarzyna Kowalczyk, Managing Partner at 24Ventures
What are the 5 main things you look for in a startup?
- We won’t be unique in saying that we look strongly at the founders – we assess founders-market fit, their readiness to scale the project and to fundraise in the future.
- The second thing is the product stage and any early traction that can validate the market need (PoCs, reference calls, testing the product with our network).
- Market size and competitors, whether this early traction proves that the potential is high enough to match the VC firm targets.
- Barriers to enter the market, we try to evaluate the uniqueness of the project, if it is tech, network effects or other factors.
- Overall business model and scalability.
What disqualifies a startup as your potential investment target?
Startups that are outside our investment policy due to geography, product stage, or sector. If we see a broken cap table, that is usually also a reason to pass on the investment. We may not invest if we see no progress in the project for a couple of months or if that progress is very small — regarding product development, product testing among others.
I would also add that we usually look for teams with at least 2 founders. Investing in a solo founder is possible, but it is rather an exception to the general rule.
What, in your opinion, differentiates the best founders from the rest?
If there are two or three founders, it is important to understand what each brings to the project. What top competences do they have and if they can collaborate. The second part is the ability to combine strategic thinking and the best execution.
What startups should take into account before making a deal with a VC fund?
The fact that the targets are usually set high for a startup and that the runway is limited. This is a stressful combination, so founders should decide whether the VC path is best for their type of business and their personality.
If the answer is yes, then a startup should look for a VC fund with a good reputation, that brings good value to the table and whose vision is compatible with the startup.
What is your approach to startup valuation and preferred share in the company?
We evaluate the startup’s investment needs with its business plan and roadmap, then compare it to a range of min and max dilution that we expect to match the company stage of development. This valuation is then compared to expected exit valuations in a couple scenarios and other deals in our portfolio. Our preferable share in the company is 5–20% depending on the company's stage of development.
How do you support your portfolio companies?
We have a strong network that can help especially B2B startups in our portfolio. We often use this network to evaluate the project and then such a company may even become the first client of the startup.
As we invest at the pre-seed and seed stage we may help, if needed, in operational challenges regarding finance, legal, pricing or hiring by helping to match the founder with a relevant expert or company. Lastly, as we make only several deals per year, the managing partner who leads the deal usually builds a strong relationship with the founders and may support them in challenging times.
What are the best-performing companies in your portfolio?
The Fund has been operating for 6 months, so it’s too early to assess the first investments. In our previous Fund named Satus Starter (2019 vintage year) if considered technology, traction, and plans the notable investments are for example: Surveily, Hearme (Hedepy for Business), Foodsi, cThings, Sagenso, and Pethelp.
What are your notable lessons learned from investments that didn’t work out as expected?
Bad timing might defeat even the best product. In our previous fund, we could observe the impact of LLMs broad adaptation on portfolio companies. Often, very fast decisions were needed.
Execution is extremely important – at the early stage the founders’ consistency, perseverance, adaptability and focus makes a difference.
What are the hottest markets you currently look at as VC, and where do you see the biggest hype?
We look at AI usage in different verticals, this is a number one investment target for most VCs and an important part of 24Ventures investment policy as well. Due to the geopolitical situation, we see a hype or, at least, growing number of startups and investment rounds for dual-use projects in our CEE region.
In your view, what are the key trends that will shape the European VC scene in the coming years?
I expect the market to further concentrate on strategic sectors, important for Europe to stay competitive, that is AI, deeptech and healthtech to name a few.
Currently, the funding goes to a smaller number of companies; the funds are picky, more selective, but they double down more on chosen companies. I expect this trend to stay longer with us.
Regarding the CEE region, the Polish VC market will hopefully play an even bigger role as new funds are already investing or will soon be announced.
