Krakow, home to Deutsche Telekom's first overseas branch of hub:raum. Image: Shutterstock

Deutsche Telekom is hoping to catch the wave of startup potential currently coming out of Central and Eastern Europe with a new Polish incubator, hub:raum.

Hub:raum, located in Poland's second city, Krakow, has been open for around a month and aims to support startups with viable business ideas. In return, the startup's services will be offered to customers of Deutsche Telekom's various businesses, including T-Mobile.

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Like every incubator, hub:raumprovides funding, access to mentors, office space, and launch pad services to its chosen startups.

Deutsche Telekom opened the first hub:raum, based in Berlin, moe than a year ago. To date, it's backed five startups, including an online reputation management service and a tool for finding beauty parlours and hairdressers.

Currently, the Polish hub:raum is still in the exploration phase, attending small scale events in Poland. "We are currently preparing a shortlist of potential startups," Jakub Probola, innovation unit manager at Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, the Polish arm of Deutsche Telekom, says.

The Krakow branch already works with about 10 mentors and is extending that network (according to Probola: the hub:raum website currently lists six).

Probola cites the obvious reasons why Deutsche Telekom decided to set up its first overseas branch of hub:raum