Starting up and catching up

Today, it is difficult to imagine what the hotel market was like before Booking.com. Few people know that one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world was once a small Dutch start-up. The origins of WeWork were equally modest. The company started its operations in New York during the financial crisis, but today it is a global firm in which Japanese conglomerate Softbank has recently invested almost USD 4.4 bln. Polish start-ups, including those in the real estate sector, have yet to achieve such spectacular success, which does not mean that they are not trying. For example, Eobuwie.pl has grown to become the leading online shoe retailer in Central Europe. Funds also believe in the success of innovative start-ups and are investing increasingly more in them. Such investment, however, involves the kind of risks that is in no way equivalent to the security of a bank deposit. According to KPMG's ‘Venture Pulse Q1 2018’ report, Germany and the UK account for 50 pct of th