SiliconBeat

Funding opportunities for early stage American companies available through a board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange will be the topic of a briefing hosted by a San Jose venture firm next month.

The Polish exchange is the fastest-growing equity market in Central Europe, according to a press release put out by Silicon Hill Ventures, which maintains offices in San Jose and Warsaw. At the end of 2007 the exchange had 345 companies listed, with a total market cap of almost $100 billion, according to the release.

And it started a new market last September named NewConnect that’s designed to hook up Polish investors, who evidently are flush with cash and a higher tolerance for risk, with “small but rapidly developing companies” looking to “launch their stock market careers,” according to an article published by Wardynski & Partners, a Warsaw-based law firm that is an “authorized adviser” to the market.

“Sophisticated Polish investors welcome the chance to invest in American, especially Silicon Valley, start-ups and early-stage companies,” contends Silicon Hill Ventures, which says that start-ups looking for first or second round financing, between $1 and $5 million, “should become familiar with getting listed on the NewConnect board.”

Attendance at the August 11 presentation, to be held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, is open only to principal players at local technology companies and is limited to 30 participants. More information is available on Silicon Hill’s Web site.