Poland
Poland is one of Europe's most underestimated economies. CD Projekt Red (The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077), Techland (Dying Light), Allegro (the EU's eBay), Reserved/LPP, Inpost. Plus serious cloud and SaaS — Nozbe, Brainly, DocPlanner. Warsaw and Kraków increasingly compete with Berlin for the title of Europe's most credible non-Big-Four startup capital.
Below: Polish brands worth choosing over their US or Chinese alternatives.
GOG.com
Known for: Originally known as Good Old Games, GOG.com is a digital distribution platform for video games and films, known for its DRM-free approach. Curated selection of classic and indie games. GOG Galaxy client offers optional online features.
Availability: Global.
https://www.gog.com
Polo-Cockta
Known for: Polish communist-era cola, re-released in 2002 with the original PRL packaging. Tastes more like Cockta than Coke (lots of herbs, less sugar). The Polish equivalent of finding your dad's old vinyl. Older Poles get genuinely emotional about it. Marketed entirely on remember-when energy.
Emanuel Berg
Known for: Polish premium shirtmaker founded 1990, headquartered in Skarbimierz. Made in Poland. Premium Italian fabrics. Single-needle stitching, removable collar stays, mother-of-pearl buttons. Surprising entrant — quality competes with brands at twice the price. The under-rated value pick. Polish craftsmanship, Italian fabrics, prices materially below the Swedish or German equivalents. The well-kept secret of Central European wardrobes.
WB Group
Known for: Ożarów Mazowiecki-based, founded 1997. Poland's largest private defence company. Warmate loitering munition (used extensively in Ukraine), FlyEye reconnaissance drones, FONET battlefield comms, TOPAZ artillery fire-control. Europe's most operationally proven loitering-munition maker after the Israelis. WB's Warmate has been validated in actual combat conditions in Ukraine more than almost any Western equivalent. Polish-owned, privately controlled.
https://www.wbgroup.pl
HSW (Huta Stalowa Wola)
Known for: Stalowa Wola-based, founded 1937. Maker of the AHS Krab 155mm self-propelled howitzer — South Korean K9 chassis with Polish turret and gun, in service with Poland and Ukraine (donated batches plus an export contract). Part of PGZ (. The Krab has performed well in Ukraine — battlefield-proven European artillery at scale. HSW is the manufacturing anchor for Poland's massive ongoing artillery rearmament.
https://www.hsw.pl
PGZ (Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa)
Known for: Warsaw-headquartered state holding, founded 2014. Umbrella for 50+ Polish defence companies including HSW, PCO (optics), WZL (aviation MRO), Bumar-Łabędy (armour), Mesko (munitions), Radmor (comms). . The structural backbone of Poland's defence industrial base — and the entity managing the country's massive post-2022 defence build-up. State-owned, deliberately so, on national-security grounds.
https://pgzsa.pl
Pesa Bydgoszcz
Known for: Bydgoszcz-based, founded 1851 as a rail repair shop. Modern manufacturer of trams, regional trains, metro trains, locomotives, and a growing line of military rail vehicles (armoured wagons, military transporters). Customers across Poland, Germany, Czechia, Italy, Romania. . Poland's rail-manufacturing champion and one of the few European trammakers competing with Alstom, Stadler, and Škoda Transportation. State-backed since the 2018 PFR rescue.
https://pesa.pl
BLIK
Known for: Polish mobile payment standard launched 2015 by Polski Standard Płatności (consortium of 6 major Polish banks). 15M+ users, over 40% of Poland’s population. Six-digit codes generated in banking apps, used at ATMs, online checkout, and increasingly at physical merchants. BLIK overtook card transactions in Poland in 2024. Expanding cross-border via EPI partnership.
Available in: Poland (cross-border expansion underway via EPI)
https://blik.com
Przelewy24 (P24)
Ownership: Acquired by PayPro (Nasdaq-listed Standard Industries' Polish entity), but operations remain Polish
Pricing: Per-transaction fees typically 1.0-2.4% for merchants, depending on volume.
Known for: Poznań-based, founded 2005. The dominant Polish online-payment gateway — accepts ~390 payment methods including BLIK, card, bank transfers, BNPL. If you've paid for anything online in Poland, you've probably used P24. Dominant local-payment gateway, with the network effects to match.
https://www.przelewy24.pl
Tpay
Ownership: Owned by Krajowy Integrator Płatności
Pricing: Per-transaction merchant fees typically ~1.6-2.5%. Free starter plan for small merchants.
Known for: Poznań-based payment processor, founded 2010 (as Transferuj.pl, rebranded Tpay 2016). Online payments for SMEs and e-commerce — card, BLIK, instant bank transfers, payouts. . The challenger to P24 in Polish payments. Cleaner SME-focused product, slightly cheaper for low-volume merchants. The actual choice for new Polish e-commerce launches.
https://tpay.com
Autopay
Ownership: Owned by Blue Media S
Pricing: Per-transaction fees for online payments. Toll-payment app free for end users.
Known for: Sopot-based, founded 2010 as Blue Media. Rebranded Autopay 2022. Online payments + the dominant Polish toll-collection system (Autopay system covers state and motorway-operator tolls). .A. (Polish). The interesting wrinkle: Autopay is what most Poles use to pay highway tolls via app instead of stopping at booths. That gives it a consumer footprint Polish payment processors typically don't have.
https://autopay.pl
Nozbe
Ownership: Privately held
Pricing: Free up to 3 users with 3 projects. Premium €8/user/month with unlimited projects and 20 GB storage.
Known for: Polish team chat that's actually a task and project tool with chat threads. Mobile-first design. Combines instant messaging, threads, and kanban boards in one app. Available on most platforms. Closer to Asana with messaging than Slack with tasks. The right pick if your team's pain is projects, not channels.
https://nozbe.com
CD Projekt Red
Ownership: Listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
Known for: Warsaw-based, founded 2002. The Witcher series, Cyberpunk 2077. . Polish-controlled. The breakout success of Eastern European AAA gaming. Single-player, story-led, no microtransactions. The studio that proved AAA gaming doesn't have to come from the US.
https://www.cdprojektred.com
11 bit studios
Ownership: Listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange
Known for: Warsaw-based, founded 2010. This War of Mine, Frostpunk, Frostpunk 2. Anti-war, morally-loaded strategy and survival games. The most morally serious game studio in Europe. Frostpunk made you choose between feeding children and burning corpses for heat. That's the editorial range.
https://www.11bitstudios.com
Techland
Ownership: Privately held by Marchewka
Known for: Wrocław-based, founded 1991. Dying Light (2015) and Dying Light 2 Stay Human (2022) — parkour zombie open-world series, 30M+ copies. Earlier: Call of Juarez Western series, Dead Island (2011, original IP, later licensed). The other major Polish studio after CD Projekt Red. Dying Light has matured into a genuinely well-supported live-service action game without becoming exploitative. Founder still controls it.
https://www.techland.net
People Can Fly
Ownership: Listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2020
Known for: Warsaw-based, founded in 2002. Painkiller (2004), Bulletstorm (2011), Gears of War: Judgment co-dev (2013), Outriders (2021). Multiple internal studios across Poland and the US. Polish shooter studio with serious co-dev pedigree for Epic Games and others. The Bulletstorm and Painkiller IPs are cult classics. Outriders had a rough launch but the team's craft is real.
https://peoplecanfly.com
Bloober Team
Ownership: Listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange
Known for: Kraków-based, founded 2008. Psychological horror specialists — Layers of Fear (2016, 2023), Observer (2017), The Medium (2021), Silent Hill 2 remake (2024, in partnership with Konami). The Polish horror studio that Konami trusted with the Silent Hill 2 remake — a hand-off that's gone better than most fans expected. Bloober's atmospheric horror is now world-class.
https://www.blooberteam.com
CI Games
Ownership: Listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange
Known for: Warsaw-based, founded in 2002. Sniper: Ghost Warrior series (5 entries, 11M+ copies), Lords of the Fallen (2014 original; 2023 reboot). The Sniper Ghost Warrior IP is the longest-running Polish-developed shooter franchise. The 2023 Lords of the Fallen reboot was the studio's most ambitious project — uneven launch, but the dark-fantasy souls-like has improved with patches.
https://cigames.com
Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH)
Focus: Humanitarian emergency response, food security, water and sanitation
Reach: Ukraine (frontline, since 2014), Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen
Funding: Polish government + EU + private donors; Pajacyk school-feeding programme is one of Europe's longest-running
Known for: The Polish humanitarian organisation that became the first non-Ukrainian responder inside Ukraine after February 2022 — Polish proximity plus a decade of Ukraine operations since 2014 meant PAH was already on the ground when the full-scale invasion began. Janina Ochojska is now an MEP but the organisation remains operational and independent.
https://www.pah.org.pl
Allegro
Known for: General online marketplace (electronics, home, fashion, etc.)
Employees: 6,000+
Availibility: Central/Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia)
https://allegro.pl
