Warsaw startup Investly raises PLN 4.2 million. Investors from “traditional finance” back digital assets

A PLN 4.2 million seed round is above average by Polish market standards. Investly, a company building a platform for investing in digital assets, has just closed a round of exactly that size. Its list of investors includes names more commonly associated with traditional capital markets than with cryptocurrencies.

Who believes in digital assets?

Warsaw-based Investly has announced the closing of its seed round — the first major financing round for a technology company after the idea and prototype stages. The company raised PLN 4.2 million. VO2 Ventures acted as the lead investor, providing the largest share of the capital and negotiating the terms of the transaction, with Andrzej Ziemiński leading the deal on the fund’s side. The round was also joined by IPOPEMA Fund Services, part of the IPOPEMA Securities group, as well as private investors Maciej Duda and Michał Jakubowski. According to some media reports, Maciej Zientara also participated.

The size of the round becomes more meaningful when compared with the broader market. PFR Ventures estimates the average value of pre-seed and seed investments in Poland at approximately PLN 3 million. Investly’s round is therefore above average, although still far from the funding rounds that typically make headlines. VO2 Ventures itself has a capitalisation of PLN 81.25 million, of which PLN 65 million comes from PFR Ventures under the European Funds for a Modern Economy programme. In other words, public funding is also indirectly flowing into a Polish platform focused on investing in digital assets.

In the announcement, Ziemiński explained the investment decision by pointing to three factors: the team, market demand and timing. In his view, clients are increasingly asking about digital assets, but they expect simplicity and standards familiar from traditional finance. That statement says more about the company’s positioning than the rest of the announcement combined. The newly raised capital will be used to finance the commercial launch of the platform and further develop its technology.

Ready-made investment strategies with full control

Investly is building a tool designed to simplify access to ready-made strategies based on digital assets. A key element of the model is its non-custodial approach, meaning the platform does not take control of users’ funds or private keys and does not hold assets on their behalf. Clients retain full control over their assets at all times, while the company provides the service layer: identity verification, strategy selection and performance reporting within a single application.

At launch, the system is expected to focus on strategies based on the digital dollar — stablecoins, i.e. tokens whose value is linked to the US dollar. Investly is therefore neither an exchange nor a currency exchange platform. It is closer to an intermediary layer between an adviser and the market than to a place where clients’ money is actually held.

The target customer, however, is not an individual investor looking for a ready-to-use mobile app. The company is pursuing a B2B2C model in which financial advisers, wealth managers and family offices use the technology to offer the solution to their own clients.

“We are starting by working with financial advisers, wealth managers and family offices because they are the ones helping clients turn their interest in digital assets into specific investment decisions,” explains Maciej Król, co-founder and Management Board Member at Investly.

As he adds, users do not want to understand the technical mechanisms behind the market. They want to understand costs and risks, while the platform’s role is to hide the complexity without taking control away from them.

The company brings together people from two different worlds. Król has spent a decade working in wealth management for high-net-worth clients, while his business partner Bogusz Kończak has worked in international relations within the digital currency industry. The first commercial implementations are planned for late September and early October, while the newly raised capital will be allocated to product development, integrations and compliance.