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The subject of cooperation with Warsaw University of Technology was the organization of the second BEST Engineering Meeting conference in which PGE Ventures held the position of the Main Partner.

On May 25th 2018 in the building of the Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science of Warsaw University of Technology, the second BEST Engineering Meeting conference was held. The main purpose of the event was to familiarize participating students with the Polish startup ecosystem through the meeting with three different environments: corporations, startups and universities.

The event included: theoretical part, workshops and networking. After the official inauguration of the conference, the PGE Ventures’ lecture took place. During the performance, the key assumptions for the PGE Ventures’ operation were presented. Moreover, students had an opportunity to see how the investment process in PGE Ventures looks like. Next, there was a series of startups’ performances in which startups have shared their experience within implementation of their innovative ideas on the market. As a part of the event, workshops and debate were also conducted. During the debate, the speakers discussed about the broad startup environment. Some of the discussed topics were: sources of funding and cooperation between startups and large corporations. The event ended with the networking which gave the opportunity for the participants to establish new business relations with speakers.

The cooperation between PGE Ventures and Warsaw School of Economics involves organization of the series of workshops for students. Workshops called Build a good startup with PGE Ventures are planned to take place on May 15th, 29th and June 5th, 2018 and include three thematic sections: The Venture Capital market in a nutshell, The transaction process and How to valuate a startup? During the workshops, PGE Ventures’ experts present Poland’s and worldwide startup’s markets, available programs to support innovation and issues related to the real startup’s valuation process. These workshops are a great opportunity for students to get familiar with the startups’ ecosystem from the investor’s point of view, and simultaneously for the investor – PGE Ventures, to meet the problems that young entrepreneurs have to face while running their own business. Understanding these problems is a key issue for PGE Ventures to improve fund’s offer for the cooperation both with startups and academia. 

PGE Ventures fund is an active entity in a wide academic environment. Universities can provide  the fund a deal flow of interesting projects but also they can bring benefits in the form of business relations with graduates. University students are a group of people having  a substantial importance when it comes to the startups. They need an essential support from a big partners in running their business. PGE Ventures provides a multi-level support and invites to cooperation all young entrepreneurs whose ideas and projects fit into the fund’s criteria.

Second BEST Engineering Meeting conference was an opportunity for young students and emerging entrepreneurs to gain knowledge on the startups’ market and the real life projects’ business environment. We are satisfied with the effects of the cooperation with the BEST Association from Warsaw University of Technology. Cooperation with academia organizations is very important for us in order to build our presence on universities. We are ready to support innovative projects and we think that universities are excellent source of technical knowledge and inspiration to create own business by young people – says Piotr Czak, President of the Management Board, PGE Ventures Sp. z o. o

Through the BEST Engineering Meeting project, we strive to fulfill the mission of our Association – developing students. We believe that the event was a great source of inspiration for students of Warsaw University of Technology. Students are not only interested in changes on the technology market, but also want to participate in these changes by running their own startups. We are happy that together with PGE Ventures we provided an essential information on the startup market – says Ida Gwóźdź, co-organizer of the BEST Engineering Meeting