When Michał Borkowski launched the start-up Brainly, in Krakow, Poland, in 2009, he and his two co-founders did something that once would have been extremely difficult. Brainly, which helps children research tough questions on their homework, raised the $500,000 it needed from private investors in Poland — a formerly Communist country that traditionally has not been a hotbed of Silicon Valley–style deal making — as well as from backers in Germany, where the start-up financing ecosystem is more mature.
