including extrapolated and publicly available data. Legal basis Until 2016, operating in Poland as a private equity and venture capital fund that implements investment projects among enterprises in the seed or startup phase was associated with small formal and legal, or capital requirements. Most frequently, PE/VC funds were small, simple limited liability companies or partnerships in which people with capital were willing to co-finance and then gain from prospective projects of young entrepreneurs. The Polish law did not provide for additional requirements for such entities over those resulting from the provisions of the commercial law. The situation changed on June 4, 2016, when as a result of the implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive into Polish law, greater fortifications were introduced by appointing two new financial institutions, supervised by Poland's Financial Supervision Authority (, KNF). Alternative investment company It is a collective investment institution, legally available in Poland since 2016, other than specialized open-end and closed-end investment funds. AICs () may be carried out in the form of a limited company (joint-stock or limited liability company), and a limited partnership or limited joint-stock partnership. An AIC's activity requires an authorization or entry into the register kept by the KNF, which entails a number of capital, infrastructure or personal requirements. That is why it is intended for large asset managers over . In January 2019, due to the high costs of running a closed-end investment fund and numerous statutory regulations that restricted VC investors, AICs were exempted from double taxation. Revenues obtained from the sale of shares were exempt from corporate income tax, with the condition that they held 10 percent of shares in the company for two years. Closed investment fund Registering an AIC involves lower operating costs. However, an alternative to larger entities is establishing of own closed investment fund (), which can be created only by a selected licensed investment fund company, responsible for the quality of asset management and cooperation with third parties. CIFs have a wide range of investment opportunities (including asset placement in shares of non-public companies), which is associated with a greater limitation of participation in the fund. Due to the high investment risk, the CIF offer is addressed mainly to experienced investors—financial institutions and entrepreneurs aware of investment goals and risks. The amount of entry for natural persons is regulated in the act, at the level of . Characteristic of Polish