Michal Sioda

Michał Sioda is a finance professional turned venture investor and a co-founder of Cofounder VC (previously CofounderZone), a Warsaw-based fund he leads alongside Dr. Tomasz Goliński. He is a CFA charterholder and holds two regulated Polish market credentials — an Investment Advisor licence (No. 674) and a Securities Broker licence (No. 2554). He graduated from the Poznań University of Economics, Faculty of Finance and Accounting.

Before founding CofounderZone, Sioda spent roughly nine years across several areas of finance: he worked in the Research Department at Trigon Brokerage House, on the Financial Controlling Team at Eurocash Group (one of Poland's largest FMCG distributors), and in the Corporate Credit Analysis Department at Raiffeisen Polbank. That mix of equity research, corporate finance controlling, and credit analysis underpins the fund's disciplined, metrics-driven approach to backing companies with real revenue.

CofounderZone began as a platform connecting experienced entrepreneurs and a network of 250+ business angels with startups, providing deal sourcing, co-investment, and hands-on operational support. In December 2025 the firm rebranded to Cofounder VC and launched a new early-growth fund designed to bridge the gap between seed financing and later-stage growth capital in CEE — a segment Sioda argues is underserved by international VCs. The fund is backed by the Polish Development Fund (PFR), private investors, and family offices from Poland and abroad, and plans to build a concentrated portfolio of roughly eight companies.

• Invests in early-growth / post-seed technology companies that already have a validated product and recurring, growing revenue — not pre-revenue bets.
• Concentrated strategy: ~8 portfolio companies, with checks of €1–3M (≈PLN 4–12M) for minority stakes in the current fund.
• Looks for companies with ~€100–200k+ monthly recurring revenue, profitable or near break-even, with a credible path to scaling and international expansion.
• Sector-agnostic but leans toward business-process digitization, sustainability/cleantech, and health tech.
• Focused on the CEE funding gap, especially Poland: in Sioda's words, "We see limited interest from many international VCs in the CEE region, which leaves a gap for promising companies… [we are] ready to partner with teams that have already demonstrated early commercial success."
• Value-add beyond capital: a 250+ business-angel network plus Venture Partners who provide hands-on help with sales strategy, market entry, team building, fundraising, and international expansion.