At a Glance
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Impact Areas: Employment Generation, Environment
People Supported:
Women, Youth, LGBTQIA+
NESsT Program: Violet Fund
Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2025
Overview
CoopTech Hub is Poland’s first cooperative technology center, founded in 2021 by 30 founding members of PLZ Cooperative. Its mission is to make innovation accessible to everyone by uniting cooperatives, governments, NGOs, and communities across Central and Eastern Europe.
CoopTech Hub provides education, training, and consulting services that to date have supported over 80 organizations to adapt to modern challenges. Its projects are tailored to local needs and capabilities, aiming to mobilize local communities, foster self-reliance, and drive grassroots action.
For CoopTech Hub, cooperation is key to resilient communities: one of its core focuses is helping cities and communities to create new cooperatives that address social and environmental needs — especially in the energy, food, design, and digital sectors. For example, CoopTech Hub supports the launch of energy cooperatives so communities can control their own energy supply, cut costs, and shift toward affordable, renewable energy solutions.
Advancing digital sovereignty is another of its business lines. CoopTech Hub develops technology that is accessible, environmentally responsible, and independent of corporate platforms. One example is its Local Resources Platform (PLZ), a subscription-based tool used by 10 thousand users from cooperatives, trade unions, housing communities, cooperative banks, and NGOs. The platform supports financial management, group communication, voting and decision-making, and event coordination while ensuring communities can operate securely, independently, and effectively.
CoopTech Hub fosters a culture of trust based on equality, openness, and mutual respect – values that strengthen both its cooperative network and its internal team. As an inclusive employer, 50% of CoopTech Hub’s team openly identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, 40% are women, and 50% are under the age of 35, with many gaining their first professional experience at the cooperative. Employees benefit from comprehensive onboarding, continuous training to develop new skills in the cooperative sector, and clear opportunities for growth. Regular inclusivity surveys, strong advocacy policies, and active support systems ensure that everyone feels respected, represented, and supported at work.
Results & Impact
100%
of CoopTech’s management team are from excluded backgrounds
+60%
of CoopTech Hub’s workforce is expected to be from excluded groups by 2027
+4,000
people expected to be impacted by CoopTech Hub’s services by 2027
“Many people want to live in a better world, yet they think it can be legislated into reality. At CoopTech Hub and PLZ Cooperative, we believe in actually building the future by empowering communities, including our own workers and members. Our technologies and cooperative business models are not only products, but in fact an infrastructure for a completely new wave of trusted communities. The only thing that prevents us from a better world is the lack of the right tools, and we provide them.”
NESsT Investment
CoopTech Hub’s strong commitment to sustainable development and social justice has demonstrated significant impact for the cooperative ecosystem and the local communities they serve. The NESsT Violet Fund will work alongside the social cooperative as it strengthens its support to partners that engage and support under-represented communities, including youth, women, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, fostering economic inclusion and shared ownership, creating long-term value for both individuals and communities.
NESsT’s investment will go towards further developing the Local Resources Platform, supporting CoopTech Hub to acquire new clients, secure strategic partnerships, and innovate the services it offers. Implementing NESsT’s social impact measurement and management processes, CoopTech Hub plans to expand its team, employing more people with disabilities, refugees and migrants, and members of the LGTBQIA+ community. In parallel, it will continue to foster and monitor workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion and strengthen internal policies to ensure the well-being of its diverse workforce.