Vue Storefront, a Polish company offering front-end solutions for e-commerce, raised PLN69mn (€15.1mn) in the latest round of financing and is now in the top 10 of most valuable Polish start-ups, the newspaper Puls Biznesu reported on October 13.

Following the latest financing round, the company’s valuation is nearly PLN320mn. The new money came from Creandum, Earlybird Venture Capital, Paua Ventures, Movens Capital, and a number of other investors.

The company was also qualified for Y Combinator, one of the largest international acceleration programs for technological start-ups, Puls Biznesu reported.

“We believe that [Vue Storefront solutions] are well prepared to become market standard in e-commerce. Dynamically developing e-commerce and growing customer expectations force merchants to constantly improve their software,” Mehmet Atici, partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, told Puls Biznesu.

E-commerce is a hit sector with investors since the first COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020. With millions locked at home, online shopping and services surged – with at least some of consumers’ then-new behaviour becoming the new normal since. 

Poland’s e-commerce market surged last year to reach some PLN83bn, an expansion of 36% versus 2019, a report by the consultancy PwC said earlier this year. That was 14% of Poland’s entire retail sales last year.

The market is poised to grow 12% a year on average, reaching the value of PLN162bn (€36bn) in 2026, PwC also said.

Other than start-ups, Polish e-commerce is the battleground of the giants. The longtime market leader, Allegro, is now facing fierce competition from the world's number one online retailer, Amazon. Just over half a year after launching its Polish store, Amazon stepped up efforts to win Polish shippers by introducing its Prime service earlier this week.