Polish bank mBank is launching a €50m FinTech investment fund to and accelerator to back startups across Central and Eastern Europe.
The project will be headed up by bank’s current COO Jarosław Mastalerz and strategy department director Wojciech Chmielewski, who will both leave the bank to take on the new role.
The fund will look to invest in startups that will benefit from its accelerator programme and have the potential to be implemented by the bank.
Once startups reach a certain critical mass the company says it will help in taking them to market and offering their services to other financial institutions.
The country’s fourth-largest bank, mBank counts 5 million users across Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The direction of the firm’s investment strategy and approval of deals will be overseen by the CEO, CFO and the heads of retail and corporate banking.
Company CEO Cezary Stypułkowski said: “The project is a great opportunity for mBank both in financial terms and from the point of view of our market position.
“It will help us strengthen our position as a company that is well-prepared for the challenges of the digital economy and is able to respond to the expectations of increasingly mobile customers, which is one of the key initiatives defined in our “mobile Bank” strategy for the period from 2016 to 2020.”
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