Ukrainian Startup Fund – how to apply and get financing

In his column for AIN.UA, Igor Pertsia, venture partner of TA Ventures and iclub.vc, talks about how Ukrainian startups can get funding from the Ukrainian Startup Fund.

There are not enough angel investors in Ukraine. It’s true. As a managing partner of the largest angel club in Ukraine, I see this. We actually have to learn people from scratch, telling them what venture capital is and how to invest correctly.

How the ecosystem of the valley works

First, the future founder may come to the incubator, assemble a team, test hypotheses, or if he has a team, go to the accelerator and, most often, get his first angel investment when he leaves.

Next will be VC and rounds of investment. Like so:

Who are the angels

Angels are successful businessmen who have huge businesses and are able to invest with checks in the amount of $ 50,000 in at least 10 startups. Or are they businessmen who have gotten away from their business and have the means to invest.

And the first and second in Ukraine are still few, and given the fact that you need to understand where you are investing – even less.

And what to do? If there are no angels and a sufficient number of incubators and accelerators, then the roadmap of investment in a startup looks like this:

Not a small jump for a startup.

What to do? Every time I advise something at the Ministry of Finance, I say: “Startups in Ukraine do not have a lot of money. Give them money”.

And Ukrainian Startup Fund was created for this. Replace angels, and help with a very small check to new interesting startups.

Ukrainian Startup Fund is a grant fund created for development and investment in Ukrainian projects. 22 start-ups have already been invested, and the fund has money for +- 150. Getting money is not very scary, let’s go through in detail how to do it.

Filing an application

It is necessary to submit an application through the Foundation’s web portal by filling out a standardized electronic form with instructions.

A startup can apply for a pre-seed grant – up to $ 25,000, or for a seed grant – up to $ 50,000.

Startups that have already developed MVP (a product that satisfies at least one consumer need) can apply for a seed grant, and startups that have an idea without MVP can pretend.

Assessment by experts

After signing, the application is automatically distributed to free experts from the startup’s field of activity (for example, healthcare, artificial intelligence, etc.), who evaluate it in the following categories:

• team;
• market;
• product;
• technology;
• strategy.

Each startup evaluates at least two experts. If the difference between expert ratings exceeds 6 points, a third expert is appointed.

The maximum possible score can be 20 points. If a startup scores more than 12 points according to the results of the assessment, then it gets the opportunity to present live, during Pitch Day.

Startup Pitch

Pitch days are organized by the fund, usually once a month. The pitch of startups is evaluated by a competition committee of 7 members elected by the Supervisory Board.

On the pitch, the most important thing is to prepare well for it. Here one of the participants has already laid out how to make a perfect pitch. It is important to know that each expert evaluates the project himself, therefore there is no “collective intelligence”.

The startup has 7 minutes for the pitch itself and 12 minutes for the Q&A session. Many experts do not ask questions, since most often the questions of the experts coincide, and therefore, when answering one expert, one should not forget that the startup answers everyone.

The maximum possible assessment of a startup is 25 points. Startups with 15 or more seed grant points and 12 or more pre-seed points are recommended for financing.

What about taxpayer money control

Within 10 days from the date of the relevant decision, the Supervisory Board concludes a grant agreement with startups and lists the first tranches (the Fund does not transfer the entire amount).

Using the first tranche, the startup presents a financial report and an activity report. If the expenses are targeted, and the startup shows success in its activities, it receives the next tranche.

Nuclear weapons will not receive a grant, even if you really want to, because there are prohibited industries. Among them are startups in the field of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, nuclear weapons, gambling and other types of activity prohibited by law.

So if you don’t produce a mixture of tobacco and alcohol, submit your startup to the USF, and get a grant.

Source: ain.ua