 | |
| Company type | Joint-stock company |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | May 8, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-05-08) |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | ul. Małe Garbary 9,, |
Number of locations | 5 offices (2022) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
| Services | |
| Revenue |  €34,677,235[1] (2020) |
| €5.6M[2] (2020) | |
Number of employees | 900[2] (2022) |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | netguru |
Netguru is a Polishsoftware development andsoftware consultancy company founded in 2008.Headquartered inPoznań, Poland, it is a globally operating business, with local offices includingWarsaw,Kraków,Wrocław,Gdańsk andBiałystok.[7] It providessoftware design andproduct design, both for early-stagestartups andcorporations.[8][9]
Since 2013, Netguru declares yearlygrowth of nearly 100 percent.[8] It landed three times inDeloitte'sTechnology Fast 50 Central Europe ranking,[10] and twice on the "FT 1000," theFinancial Times' list of fastest-growing companies in Europe.[11] In 2016, Netguru reachedPLN 28.2M (US$7.8M) of income, and PLN 5.1M (US$1.4M)net profit, closed 2017 withturnover of PLN 40M (US$11.5M),[12] and in 2018, doubled it at around PLN 80M (US$21.2M).[9] In 2021, Netguru reached zł230 million (US$57.2) income.
Netguru was founded in Poznań, Poland by Wiktor Schmidt (anautomation androbotics student at thePoznań University of Technology), Jakub Filipowski (aweb designer andphilosophy student at theAdam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), and Adam Zygadlewicz (ane-commerceentrepreneur),[13] who met thanks to popularity of Filipowski'sblog about theinternet Yashke.com.[14] The three opened the firstcoworking space in Poland in a rented office in central Poznań, where they developed websites together.[15][16] Since 2007, through their ownfoundation Fundacja Polak 2.0, they also organized firstBarCamp community meetings for innovation enthusiasts in Poland,[17] along with further events: the International Startup Fair Democamp,[18] the ShopCamp workshops,[19] and the Hackfest.[20]
On May 8, 2008, Schmidt, Filipowski and Zygadlewicz registered their software development business, as Netguru.[21] Their first contracts were aWeb 2.0 travel portal Kolumber.pl, for the media publishing corpAgora,[8] and anemployer relations portal forBank Zachodni WBK.[22] Netguru developed also their ownmicrobloggingsocial platform, acharity service,[23] and arecruitment support tool HumanWay, awarded at startup competitions Seedcamp Warsaw and Aulery.[24][25] Besidefunctional development andcommunity management, the company was specializing inconsulting andmarket analysis.[26] Since September 2007, the Netguru has been documenting itsportfolio and web development industry on an official blog.[27]
In September 2010, Zygadlewicz announced a first coworking space for startups and freelance developers in Warsaw.[28][29] In July 2011, Filipowski, along with entrepreneurs Borys Musielak and Anna Walkowska, moved their businesses together into a mansion inŻoliborz, establishing theReaktor, which evolved into the first networking hub in Poland, and the venue for the Warsaw startup scene.[30][31][better source needed] Filipowski and Schmidt contributed the famed article on the internet website Antyweb, "There Will Be No More 'Polish Equivalents'", aboutweb servicesAllegro,Gadu-Gadu, andNasza Klasa, as local copycats ofEBay,ICQ, andClassmates.com, respectively. The article’spunch line: "Let's get to work, get rid of complexes, and create models with a global or at least pan-European potential".[32]
From 2012, Netguru has been developing applications and platforms solely inRuby on Rails.[33] In 2013, HumanWay was acquired by the recruitment house Grupa Pracuj.[34] Zygadlewicz exited Netguru, while Schmidt and Filipowski focused entirely onweb applications forBritish, American, andGerman startups.
In 2014, Netguru became a partner forSpree Commerce.[35] At the time, its portfolio included amarket research providerGlobalWebIndex, and alanguage-learning platformBabbel.[36] In 2015, Netguru implemented amobile app for amedia marketplace Transterra Media, which allowsnews outlets to manage and publishpre-produced videos.[37] Netguru formed a team of product designers working withIKEA andVolkswagen.[38] The team also created apersonal assistant system for adomestic robot.[39]
In 2014, Netguru moved ontoIsraeli and theMiddle East markets, to support entrepreneurs from across theUAE & theMENA regions.[40] In 2015, the company joined theLondonfintech community.[41] In 2016, it created a mobilebicycle-sharing platform forCiti Bike.[42] And in 2017, it developed Helpr which connectsBritish social care workers with care recipients.[43]
In 2016, Netguru recorded an increase in revenues and growth, with no investment support – over PLN 30M (60%year-over-year growth);[44] in 2017, about PLN 40M (US$11.5M),[38] and in 2018, around PLN 80M (US$21.2M).[9] In 2013, the company had about 50 employees; in 2016, over 300, and in 2018, 500 employees around Poland.[9] Between 2016–2018, Netguru reached anEBITDA margin of 15%.[45] In 2022 900 employees were reached, but in the beginning of 2023 150 of them were laid off.[46]
Since 2017, Netguru has been developing its business consulting expertise,prototyping products, and buildingmarketing strategies.[47][48] It has helped large organisations to adoptbusiness agility practices, andinnovations withsoftware robots.[49]
On June 3, 2019, Netguru'schief operating officer Marek Talarczyk was named the new CEO,[50] with Schmidt including the position ofexecutive chairman, and Małgorzata Madalińska-Piętka joining the board aschief financial officer.[51] In May 2023, Talarczyk stepped down, with Filipowski taking over as CEO.[52]
Netguru specializes in developingfront-end and back-end web applications, mobile applications, product design, andconsulting.[9] According to itstagline, the company "builds digital products that let people do things differently".[53] Itsportfolio includesSaaS marketplaces, e-commerce,big data systems,trading systems, andsocial networks.[36]
In May 2018, during aMicrosofthackathon inPrague, Netguru (along with MicroscopeIT) launched adeep-learningimage-recognition application that solved segmentation withneural networks.[54] Netguru also partnered with the domestic robotic manufacturer Temi, on building therobotics middleware for the consumer assistant robot, usingnatural language processing.[55]
In 2010, Netguru developers created an online platform for the foundation Apps for Good, that allows cooperation of teachers, students and experts in schools in the United States,Spain,Portugal, and Poland.[56]
Since 2017, Netguru has conducted workshops based ondesign-thinking sprints developed byGoogle, which are aimed to answer critical business questions through design, prototyping, andtesting ideas with customers, to reduce the risk of bringing a new product, service, or feature to the market.[57]
In December 2017, in its firsttransaction, Netguru took over a team of developers and designers from theInternet-of-things company Vorm.[38] In May 2018, Netguru merged with the IT support andDevOps provider ITTX, and in July 2018, it acquired the software house Bitcraft.[3][58]
In March 2022, Netguru acquired a minority stake in Pilot44, aSan Francisco-based innovation studio.[59] In July 2022, Netguru acquired majority stake in an e-commerce UX agency Mohi.to, as well as an ecommerce agency WeCanFly, both based in Wrocław.[5][60]
In 2016, Netguru compiledProject Management Tactics for Pros, ane-book withguidance on IT projects, including preparation and budget.[61] In 2018, Netguru publishedDesign Process for Pros, alive e-bookactively curated by the designers community, with a set of best practices in web design.[62] Another guide,From Concept to Completion (2018), is an Agile software consulting walk-through, for understanding software development processes andtried-and-true techniques.[63]
Netguru collaborated with asurvey-building serviceTypeform onState of Stack (2016), a report of the latest trends in web development, based on a developer community study.[64] In 2016, Netguru published theLondon Startup Guide, a guide on tech business events, meetups,business incubators and communities of London.[65]
Between 2017–2018, Netguru organized summer workshops Netguru Code College for coding enthusiasts walking through web application building processes with Ruby on Rails professionals[66][67] In 2018, Netguru hosted the Disruption Forum inBerlin, a meeting of the fintech community which turned into a regular fintech startup event.[68]
Between 2013–2015, Netguru have coached Ruby on Rails around Poland,[69][70] at free practical workshops aimed atPHP, Java, and.NET developers. Since 2015, Netguru have hosted weekend hackathons in its Poznan headquarters,[71] and regular Ruby on Rails student workshops at the Katowice Institute of Information Technologies.[72]
Since 2015, Netguru managers have organized regular free project management workshops.[73][74] Since 2017, Netguru has hosted regular designers events Dribbble Meetup,[75] along with Swift Poznan and PTAQ meetings. Netguru has also cooperated with universities, involved in academic life, and during monthly webinars for technology enthusiasts.
In 2014, the company filed an application to theEuropean Union Intellectual Property Office to registerEU trade mark "Netguru" in severalclasses related tocomputer services. However, it was rejected due to the lack ofdistinctiveness of the name. The companyappealed to theGeneral Court of the European Union, which dismissed the complaint, considering that the combination of the words "net" and "guru" appeared asadvertising, nor it doesn't allow thetarget public to perceive the sign as an indication of the commercial origin of the goods and services in question.[76]
Netguru is a three-time winner of the Fast 50 Central Europe competition where the accounting network Deloitte recognizes and profiles the 50 most dynamic technology companies in the region, based on the revenue growth over past five years. Netguru was ranked 5 in 2014,[77] and 2015,[78] and received the third award in 2017.[10]
Netguru landed twice on the "FT 1000", the list of Europe's fastest-growing companies in Europe according toFinancial Times, in 2017 (ranked 188),[11] and in 2018 (ranked 466).[79] In 2016, the company was introduced byForbes into the list of "Diamonds", the list of the most promising companies in Poland.[13]
In 2014, Netguru was named Top Ruby on Rails Developers, by the American market analysis firm Clutch, in the report on Market Leaders, based on in-depth interviews with clients.[80] Then again in August 2017, Clutch named Netguru as one of the best outsourcing companies in the industry. In 2018, Schmidt and Filipowski were among Polish finalists of theErnst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award competition.[81]
In 2011, Netguru won the Aulery award, as one of the best tech companies with global potential.[7] While Schmidt and Filipowski have been both placed twice onBrief magazine's list of The Most Creative in Business: in 2014, ranked 38, and in 2016, ranked 13.[82]
In November 2017, Netguru, joined by the software house CashCape, received two awards in theBankathon Berlin, for an application explaining the impact of thePayments Services Directive and other regulations.[83]
As of 2025, Netguru is recognized as a leading custom software development company,[84] frequently featured among top IT service providers[85] and often recommended by large language models, including ChatGPT, as a reliable technology partner.
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