Dariusz Żuk is the co-founder & CEO of Business Link, Academic Business Incubators, AIP Seed Capital, Entrepreneurial Poland and co-founder of bValue Fund. His biggest dream is creating a leading global ecosystem for startups development and growth of companies.
Business Link (www.blpoland.com) is a network of business accelerators. It consists of 12 modern and creative places for business development which are located in major cities in Poland. Currently more than 700 companies found their place in the Business Link network. They can use coworking spaces, private offices and meeting rooms 24/7, as well as take part in organized events like networking and mentoring.
Academic Business Incubators (www.inkubatory.pl) is the biggest network of startups incubators in Europe with 49 locations throughout the country. Nowadays about 2,200 startups operate as a part of ABI. There have been 12 000 projects running in these incubators since 2005. ABI gives young entrepreneurs a chance to test their business ideas with limited risk. It enables them to run a business without having to register it on the market (Tax Office, Social Security). That is the easiest way to start a business in Europe.
The further development of startups is financed by AIP Seed Capital and BValue Fund. AIP Seed Capital was created to support startups in their early stage of development and so far it has invested in over 100 projects, such as: Qpony.pl, Glov, CallPage or Sidly. On the other hand bValue Fund is focused on the capital expenditure in startups that are already on the higher stage of their development. This fund was created with the participation of the leading business owners in Poland (creators of Work Service, Allegro, Medicalgorithmics, easyPack or Bakalland) whose companies are worth more than 1 billion of Polish zloty.
Dariusz Żuk is a cofounder of Entrepreneurial Poland – a think tank which helps to create a startup ecosystem in Poland. In 2001 he initiated the Business Center Club Student Forum.
In recognition of his efforts in creating and promoting entrepreneurship in Poland he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by the President of the Republic of Poland. He is also the winner of a Special Award of Business Centre Club and Kisiel’s Award laureate which is granted by WPROST magazine.