What is the result of the cooperation? The results include, for instance, a system for predicting failures in factories, measuring and predicting pollution with the selection of plants which filter the air, or using eye-tracking technology in marketing activities. Start-ups design new solutions with the financial and substantive support of the Łódź Zone. At a later stage, they test and verify their business assumptions with investors such as P&G, Indigo Nails, Ericsson, Pietrucha Group, PwC, Siemens and a number of others.

The Łódź Special Economic Zone is a catalyst for the investment development of companies from the Small and Medium Enterprise sector as well as large investors. This is another step taken towards strengthening the competitiveness of the Polish economy - support in the process of optimisation and digitisation of companies, in particular in cooperation with young technological entrepreneurs. Technologies must respond to the current needs of the economy, its real issues or challenges.  However, the Łódź Special Economic Zone does not only bring modern investments – it also brings thousands of workplaces. It is very encouraging that an increasing number of companies will join the ecosystem Łódź Special Economic Zone

– Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin.

Special economic zones are increasingly involved in supporting young, innovative companies. The Łódź Special Economic Zone and its Startup Spark 2.0 acceleration programme, co-financed by European Funds under the Intelligent Development Operational Programme, are the best example of this. Participation in an accelerator programme is an opportunity for young companies to establish cooperation with corporations, develop a business model or attract investors. I am confident that qualifying for the programme is going to serve as a turning point in the development of further 19 start-ups

– said Deputy Minister for Development Funds and Regional Policy Waldemar Buda.

26 investors officially joined the Łódź Zone. They intend to invest nearly 1.3 billion PLN and create and maintain over 2,000 workplaces.

Both SME and large, Polish and foreign, manufacturing and service companies have joined the Łódź Zone. This shows that we have established a wide range of programmes to support investors. Today, the Łódź Zones provides investment incentives in the form of state aid, a base of investment land, a modern industrial park, funding for training, as well as support for start-ups and building bridges between them and investors. Cooperation with start-ups brings the implementation of technologies in our investors' production facilities in order to optimize costs, energy consumption, predict failure, increase safety.

– says Marek Michalik, president of the SEZ in Łódź.  

Polish companies as well as companies from the SME sector dominate the group of investors who joined the Zone. They account for over 60 percent of all investments. The list however also includes several large foreign companies, such as Indorama Ventures Recycling Poland, an Indian producer of PET polyester flakes, the chemical group S54 from Luxembourg, the French Roldrob – a European leader on the poultry processing market, or the American WAW 11, which is constructing a modern Data Centre on a few hectares of land in Warsaw.

“Stages” was the slogan used to welcome investors to the Łódź Zone. The companies that have joined us are at different stages of development and operate at different levels, but what unites them is the Łódź Special Economic Zone and the opportunities it creates for cooperation. For several years, we have been connecting start-ups and their innovation ideas with the experience of investors. This combination allows to create real new technologies which facilitate the development of Industry 4.0 in Poland

– Agnieszka Sygitowicz, Vice President of the SEZ in Łódź says.

Large companies are keen to enter into partnerships with start-ups. The creativity of young high-tech companies, their ease in adapting to the market and customer needs combined with the knowledge of experienced business representatives results in new technologies on the market that are ideal for industry and modern business. Their potentials are combined by the Łódź Zone, as it initiates cooperation in start-up accelerators. It currently runs three of those – Startup Spark, S5 – 5G Technology Accelerator and Re-Source which sources start-ups from abroad and brings them to Poland. Over PLN 30 million has already been granted to start-ups from the Łódź Zone, and that is certainly not the end. This broad support allows start-ups to work on innovations with and for global brands such as P&G with a sense of security.

We have been a Startup Spark partner since the beginning of this initiative in 2017. Due to the cooperation with the Łódź Special Economic Zone, during that time we met many young technological companies. Together, we thought about how to use the innovations they create in their business. As a global company, we offer our international experience, consumer insight and full business background to start-ups. The strengths of our partners include an unconventional approach to meeting consumer expectations and solving business tasks and excellent knowledge of technological innovations. This gives us the opportunity to complement each other to create solutions expected by our bosses – the recipients of our products

– comments Małgorzata Mejer, P&G Corporate Communications Director for Central Europe.

Cooperation between mature businesses and start-ups allow to create innovations which work well in the marketplace. This allows start-ups to further develop their products and extend the circle of companies interested in their innovations.

Due to our close collaboration with Procter&Gamble, we were able to add a fully developed survey module that perfectly complements the process of conducting research with declarative answers from panellists to our neuromarketing research platform, realeye.io. From the outset, the module itself responded directly to the needs of the Technology Recipient. It was developed together with Polish and Brazilian P&G, and despite the involvement of four parties (not to forget that the process was coordinated by the fantastic Spark team from the Łódź Special Economic Zone) the entire process went surprisingly smoothly and RealEye is now able to boast new features of the platform

– Adam Cellary, Managing Director of RealEye sp. z o. o.

Vacupredict analyses real-time air parameters in pneumatic systems. The device collects data on the production process, primarily the flow and pressure in the individual circuits of the pneumatic system. Proprietary AI algorithms allow to observe even the smallest deviations from set performance tolerances. This way, the system is able to predict in advance the risk of failure or estimate when components will wear out.

– Łukasz Gębala, Dentec Sp. z o.o.

The event was also attended by Deputy Minister Anna Kornecka, who visited the Special Economic Zone together with Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin.