Salaries, increased demand for tech latent, new IT players, Fintech companies, war in Ukraine – in this 144-page report MOTIFE explores the trends that are shaping the local tech ecosystem, while sharing insights about employment, hiring, office space, and costs of doing business in Krakow.
Key findings
– Despite inflation and rising salary expectations, the Krakow tech scene and its 50 000 IT professionals remains very attractive to global companies looking to grow their capabilities;
– Krakow remains an affordable destination, but cost saving is no longer the main factor. Availability, quality, time-to-hire, low attrition, and culture matter more to companies considering Krakow;
– Krakow and Poland are welcoming Ukrainian IT companies and IT professionals. Already, many technology companies have relocated their Ukrainian employees to Krakow, finding here the ecosystem, infrastructure, and support needed to continue their business operations. This influx has had an immediate impact on the availability of serviced offices, co-working spaces and subleases as a result of companies relocating Ukrainian staff to Krakow;
– After two years of pandemic conditions, remote work and hybrid working have become the norm, meaning that the talent pool available to tech companies in Krakow has swelled from 50 000 IT professionals locally, to 300 000 from across the country. This is a game changer in times of high demand for tech talent;
– Fintech presence in Krakow continues to grow. There are now more than 30 Financial Technology companies present in Krakow, including 5 unicorns (Revolut, Bitpanda, SpotOn, BlockFi and Zepz);
– Of the new technology companies who established a presence in Krakow in 2021, 3 of them are recognized unicorns (Project44, Bitpanda and BlockFi), demonstrating that Krakow appeals to companies of all shapes and sizes, and from a variety of sectors.
– With an Increasing demand for tech talent, employers have to work harder to appeal to candidates. Candidates can afford to wait for approaches and are likely to wait for the right opportunity (company fit, tech stack, mission) before changing jobs.
Hear it from the Experts
From tech leaders to ecosystem representatives, 26 experts share their views on what makes of Krakow a major tech hub in Europe and what they have been able to achieve with setting up an office here.Our experts from the Krakow start-up ecosystem:
– Marcin Welner (Kitopi),
– Dominika Walec (OMGKRK),
– Krzysztof Ras (Bitpanda),
– Rajesh Bysani (Brainly),
– Bill Wilkins (Karhoo),
– Łukasz Drewnowski (VeloxAlpha),
– Maciej Grzyb (Forte Digital),
– Max Burgess (Yolk Community & Workspace),
– Justyna Czyszek (Krakow Technology Park),
– Michał Piątkowski (MOTIFE).
