At the 26th Capital Market Conference, Rafał Lis took part in the panel discussion “Unlocking the potential of private markets to fund innovation and build economic resilience”. The topic is particularly timely in the context of the anticipated step-change in investment by Polish companies and the need to secure funding for innovation, which requires capital with a higher risk appetite.

For more than 14 years, CVI has been providing Polish businesses with growth capital. Over that period, we have financed more than 800 projects through private debt, with a total value exceeding PLN 14 billion. At the same time, we have no doubt that the economy’s demand for this type of financing is many times greater.

The key to scaling up private market funds lies in stronger mobilisation of domestic institutional capital. We are very pleased to have established partnerships with institutions such as PFR, BGK, PKO TFI (PPK), the EBRD, the EIF and the IFC, as well as pension funds from Latvia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We hope that appropriate regulatory changes will enable insurance companies and open pension funds to participate in this market to a much greater extent. Globally, these institutions represent the largest group of investors in private market funds, where they successfully leverage their longer investment horizons to enhance returns.