The Heart Warsaw is already open
On the 38th floor of Warsaw Spire building, a new European corporate-startup collaboration centre was officially launched. The Heart Warsaw helps the largest international corporations to embrace the innovative potential of young tech companies from Europe and Israel. Thanks to The Heart Warsaw, best entrepreneurs from across the region get an opportunity to scale their businesses and expand into new markets. The center was established by D-RAFT company with support of Mastercard and Ghelamco Poland.
The Centre of Corporate and Startup Cooperation
The opening of the tech center is the next step of development for the D-RAFT company which has been cooperating with global corporations as a startup headhunter for the last two years.
The startup ecosystem is a valuable source of innovation for large companies. Corporations have the resources and money, but they lack the agility of startups. We have seen repeatedly that the combination of these two worlds can be mutually beneficial — says Tomasz Rudolf, President of DRAFT and Co-founder of The Heart Warsaw.
Supporting Corporations Ready-for-Startups
The Heart Warsaw is for corporations a single point of contact and meetings with the European business community. The support provided to corporations is comprehensive — from preparing the organization to work with startups, through dedicated scouting, up to pilot implementations.
The Heart Warsaw will be a meeting place for the Corporate Club which already for two years has been focused on exchanging experiences of corporate leaders responsible for innovation and digital transformation. The project has been joined by organizations such as BNP Paribas, Orbis, ING Bank Slaski, PKO Polish Bank, EY and Microsoft.
Supporting Ready-to-Scale Startups
The Heart complements the European ecosystem of incubators and accelerators, supporting mature startups in the next stages of development. Such companies can apply to join the ScaleUp Club, which brings together the best and ready-to-scale startups, and supports them in gaining corporate customers and partners. In this way, The Heart is building a group of companies aiming for fast global expansion.
Thematic Programs
After opening its space, The Heart Warsaw will launch comprehensive thematic programs related to areas such as: Omnichannel, HealthTech, Internet of Things and Smart City. The first has already kicked off — FinTech program is dedicated to the banking sector and the financial industry.
Our programs are driven by the corporate innovation needs. Within each program, we are looking for ready-to-scale startups that have already had first implementations and revenues. We want to help these young companies to turn first contacts into contracts very quickly — said Jędrzej Iwaszkiewicz, Co-founder of The Heart Warsaw.
Within FinTech program, The Heart Warsaw is working closely with Mastercard StartPath, a global program for supporting the growth of startups.
As a 50-year old FinTech company, Mastercard shares the know-how and experience on how to bring innovations to life. We understand and appreciate the benefits resulting from the cooperation with startups, both for business and for the economy as a whole. I believe that The Heart Warsaw can substantially contribute to establishing Poland as the regional leader of fintech — said Bartosz Ciołkowski, Country Manager at Mastercard Poland.
The Tech Heart of the City
The Heart Warsaw is located in the new business center of the Polish capital, on the 38th floor of Warsaw Spire office building which belongs to one of the co-founders of the initiative — Ghelamco. The company has allocated to The Heart Warsaw an entire floor which is over 1700 m2.
Warsaw Spire and Plac Europejski is the new business center of Warsaw. We are excited to be part of an initiative that helps position Warsaw as an international innovation center which attracts corporations and startups from across Europe — said Jeroen Van der Toolen, Managing Director at Ghelamco CEE.
Another partner providing a wide range of IT services and know-how, which will enable fast growth of the project is DaftCode. The company delivers extensive IT and Marketing support. DaftCode’s specialists will also share their knowledge at events organized by the centre.
Moreover, Samsung Electronics Poland has also engaged itself in the launch of the space. As a partner of The Heart Warsaw, the company has provided full technological support with its devices. The center has been equipped with, among others, professional monitors, mobile devices (smartphones, VR sets) and MagicInfo software.
Cooperation with The Heart Warsaw is the next step from Samsung to increase its involvement in the rapidly growing startup environment. We know that startups’ work culture and their unconventional approach to new technologies may result in delivering interesting solutions for large companies and corporations. On the other hand, we hope that thanks to The Heart Warsaw young entrepreneurs will be able to realize and commercialize their ideas more efficiently, and get quick direct feedback from potential investors. We believe The Heart will be a boost of energy which will help Polish startup scene to reach the next level — says Jacek Łęgiewicz, Public Affairs Director, Samsung Electronics Poland.
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