Building Ebury in Poland and Central Europe.
When I joined Ebury in January 2015, Poland was only the fourth country on the company’s international map and the first step into Central and Eastern Europe.
There was no business in Poland, no team, no client portfolio and no brand recognition. What existed was crazy enough myself and ambitious international fintech with a proposition for companies trading across borders and an opportunity to build something meaningful in one of Europe’s largest and most competitive markets.
Eleven years later, when my journey with Ebury came to an end in march 2026, the business looked very different. Thousands of companies had worked with Ebury in Poland and surrounding countries. We had built teams across several locations, developed generations of salespeople and managers, expanded further into Central Europe and established Ebury as a recognised name in the Polish market for international payments, FX and currency risk management. Looking back at those eleven years, these are the achievements that matter most to me.
1. Building the business from zero
Perhaps the most important point is also the simplest: there was no Ebury Poland business to inherit. We had to build it. That meant much more than selling financial products. It meant understanding the Polish market, defining our target clients, recruiting the first people, establishing commercial processes, developing relationships and convincing companies to trust a financial institution that many of them had never heard of before. Building something from zero is fundamentally different from managing an established organisation. In the beginning, there are no structures to hide behind. Every client, every employee and every decision matters.
2. Establishing a new category of financial provider
When Ebury entered Poland, corporate banking was still overwhelmingly dominated by traditional banks. Back in 2015, there were essentially only two foreign financial companies operating in Poland under a non-bank model. Their scale, market position and range of services were still relatively limited, and their growth had been slow. At that time, fintechs and payment institutions focused on serving business clients were virtually non-existent in the Polish market.
Fintech was growing rapidly in consumer finance and payments, but the idea that a non-bank international financial company could become a serious partner to exporters and importers was much less established. We therefore had to sell not only Ebury. In many conversations, we had to explain an entirely new model of financial services – payment institution for international trading businesses. Over time, specialist providers became a normal part of the financial ecosystem available to Polish businesses. I am proud that we contributed to that revolutionary change.
3. Building a large commercial organisation
Companies are ultimately built by people. Over the years, I recruited, managed and helped develop a commercial organisation that grew to almost hundred people – in the peak moment – Over those eleven years, more than twice the number of people currently in the team passed through our organisation. Today, many of them are continuing to grow and build successful careers across different companies and businesses. I like to think that the foundations, experience and skills they gained while being part of our team continue to serve them well to this day. Some people stayed for a relatively short period. Others built long careers with Ebury. Some became managers and senior leaders and partners in the company. Some eventually moved into banks, fintechs or created businesses of their own. Watching people develop from young sales professionals into experienced managers and financial specialists remains one of the most satisfying parts of those eleven years.
4. Winning the trust of thousands of Polish companies
Financial services are built on trust. This is particularly true when you are asking an entrepreneur or CFO to move part of their international payments or currency risk management away from a bank they may have worked with for decades. Over 11 years, my Teams at Ebury built relationships with thousands of companies involved in international trade. Every one of those relationships represented a decision by a business owner, CFO or finance team to try something new and different. That accumulated trust became one of the most valuable assets of the business.
5. Creating a commercially successful operation
Growth only matters if the underlying economics work. Over the years, Poland developed into an important business within Ebury’s European and global organisation, generating significant revenues while maintaining very strong attention to compliance, credit risk and portfolio quality. I have always believed that sustainable financial businesses require a balance between commercial ambition and risk discipline. Revenue matters. But so does the quality of that revenue.
6. Finishing with a record nominal result
There is something personally meaningful about the fact that the final financial year of my involvement with Ebury Poland produced the strongest nominal performance in the history of the Polish operation. It came despite a challenging environment, including periods of exceptionally low volatility in EUR/PLN – traditionally an important driver of client activity in the Polish FX market. For me, this demonstrated something important: after more than a decade, the organisation was no longer dependent on the energy of a start-up phase. It had become a mature commercial business.
7. Helping create Ebury’s foundations in Central Europe
Poland was Ebury’s first market in Central and Eastern Europe. What we learned here subsequently became relevant as the company expanded further across the region, Romania, Czech Republic and Lithuania when Arcapay has been acquired. Most recently Hungry has joined the map.Building financial services across CEE is not simply a matter of translating a website and opening an office. Each country has its own banking structure, corporate culture, regulatory environment and approach to financial risk.Being part of that regional expansion gave me one of the most valuable experiences of my career: understanding how international financial businesses can scale while remaining genuinely local.
8. Building a culture, not just a salesforce
Some achievements appear in financial reports only. Others are not so obvious. Culture belongs to the second category. For me, Ebury Poland was never supposed to be simply a collection of salespeople chasing monthly numbers. I wanted it to be an environment where ambitious people could learn quickly, take responsibility and grow. We certainly made mistakes along the way. Every rapidly growing organisation does. But many people who worked with us built friendships, careers and professional networks that survived long after particular teams or structures changed. That matters to me.
9. Making Ebury part of the Polish financial conversation
Building a financial brand requires much more than sales and advertising. Over the years, we participated in conferences, webinars, client events, media discussions and educational initiatives. We talked about currencies, international trade, risk management and the changing role of fintech in commercial banking. My objective was always to position Ebury not simply as a company selling FX transactions, but as a source of expertise for businesses operating internationally.
Education became an important part of our commercial strategy. I remain convinced that this is how sophisticated financial services should be delivered.
10. Bringing the market into the organisation
Country Management in an international fintech is not only about executing a strategy designed elsewhere. Some time ago I’ve set a term for my fellow colleagues Country Managers at Ebury – Multitasking Ninjas. Why? Because this function requires very comprehensive knowledge, skills and experience. CM function also means representing the local market inside the organisation. Over the years, I was involved in the initiatives covering products, credit risk, compliance, operations, marketing, commercial strategy and technology across the globe.
Poland is a sophisticated financial market with strong banks, demanding corporate clients and specific local infrastructure. What works in London, Madrid or Amsterdam cannot simply be assumed to work equally well in Katowice, Warsaw, Poznan, Gdańsk or Kraków. One of my roles was therefore to continuously bring the CEE client’s perspective into a rapidly expanding international organisation. In this kind of environment „one size doesn’t fit all”
11. Leaving behind something that could operate without me
Perhaps this is the ultimate test of building a business. Can it continue when the person who started it is no longer there?
After eleven years, Ebury Poland had experienced managers, established teams, thousands of client relationships, market recognition and more than a decade of accumulated knowledge.I believe that is ultimately what building an organisation means. A founder or country manager should never become the organisation itself. The objective should be to create something capable of surviving changes in leadership. I believe we achieved that.
What eleven years taught me
My journey with Ebury was not linear. In 2020, I left the company following a change in its organisational structure, when Ebury created a broader CEE region and Poland and Czech Republic moved away from a locally led management model. In 2021, Ebury’s management asked me to return and support the business again – this time with responsibilities extending Poland Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic States. I came back in November 2021 and spent the following years on restructuring and rebuilding parts of the organisation, strengthening the commercial business and helping develop Ebury’s presence across the region. That second chapter lasted more than four years and ultimately concluded in March 2026, bringing my eleven-year relationship with Ebury to an end.
Ebury complexity is precisely why the experience became so valuable. It taught me that building a financial business requires much more than a good product. Technology matters. Regulation matters. Capital matters. Pricing matters. But people matter even more. You need people who can convince the first client when nobody knows your brand. People who stay when the market becomes difficult. Managers who can develop others. Specialists who challenge bad decisions. And leaders who understand that their job is eventually to make themselves less essential.
I also learned that successful market entry requires genuine localisation. International companies often underestimate how different European markets remain. Regulation may be increasingly harmonised, technology may be global and capital may move freely, but business is still built locally – through people, relationships, reputation and trust.
Perhaps the biggest lesson, however, is that building a company and building a career are not the same thing. For eleven years, Ebury was an enormous part of my professional identity. But no organisation should ultimately define the person who helped build it. What remains after such a chapter closes is experience. The experience of starting with almost nothing. Of hiring the first people. Winning the first clients. Making mistakes. Opening new markets. Developing leaders. Navigating crises. Fighting for ideas. Watching people grow. And eventually understanding when it is time to move forward. In January 2015, I joined a relatively young fintech and started building its fourth international market. Eleven years later, I left behind an established financial business and took with me something considerably more valuable than a job title: the experience of having built it.That is a chapter I will always be proud of.
Jakub Makurat August 2026
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