The Ukrainian Startup Fund held the 17th Pitch Day
On November 27, the Ukrainian Startup Fund held its 17th Pitch Day. The event took place online and due to quarantine was held remotely, using a service for video conferencing – Zoom. 12 startups made presentations (pitches). All of them are at the pre-seed stage (each of them applies for state grant funding in the amount of $ 25,000).
The event began with a greeting from Executive director of European Business Association Anna Derevyanko, with which the Fund launched a joint initiative to implement corporate innovations the day before:
“The European Business Association is happy to have the opportunity to cooperate with the Ukrainian Startup Fund. We recently launched an initiative that will aim for corporations and young Ukrainian startups to find each other. Right now, we are looking for opportunities that will allow us to reach the corporate segment so that they can accept Ukrainian startups and give them the opportunity to jointly solve problems that are on the agenda of corporate business.”
The festive part was closed by Iryna Novikova, Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine:
“And at one time I visited the mother of all startups – Silicon Valley and since then I remember exactly three components for successful development: product, team and financing. All our startups have the first two components, but there are always difficulties with financing and this is where the state can help. We have already taken the first steps and the Ukrainian Startup Fund is a striking example of this. The next steps will be the creation of a Fund of Funds, business incubators, as well as a bill on the development of innovation.”
Who is the jury made up of?
- Olena Mazhuga. Investment manager at Genesis Investments.
- Olesya Malovana. Chapter director at Startup Grind Dnipro.
- Andriy Zinchuk. Managing director at Demium.
- Andriy Zaikin. CEO and founder of YEP startup incubator.
- Yurii Sereshchenko. Managing partner at Quarter Partners.
- Sergii Dovgopolyy. Managing partner at FeelGoodLabs business accelerator.
- Igor Rusnak. Strategic and Development Officer at OTP Bank.
The main criteria for evaluating projects at the pre-seed stage are: team, market, idea, feasibility of financing, strategy. In each category, a maximum is 5 points (in total maximum is 25). The passing score for a recommendation to the Supervisory Board for a grant is 12 points.
The results
This time the audience award according to a vote in the telegram channel was gained by the startup SolidERP.
iCardy, Recoshelf and Assayme projects received a special prize from Inna Shylova in the form of free access to the LIFT99 Kyiv Hub for two months.
According to the results of the Competition Сommittee’s assessments, the following startups rating list was formed (from the highest score to the lowest):
- Supplio. Automated restocking platform for the cosmetics suppliers that integrates them with their clients (beauty salons, pharmacies, shops), providing automatic order management (supply orders automatically planned & sent to the supplier) based on actual clients’ stocks and product usage, recommend new products, and promotions and solve typical order issues. As the result, the suppliers will decrease manual work up by 90% and total suppliers’ costs by 30-35%.
- iCardy. Convenient and affordable service that allows you to diagnose the risk of heart problems with 99% reliability in real time.
- AssayMe. Personal Wellness & Health Assistant enables patients to monitor health and prevent medical problems through a simple, at-home, self-administered rapid test, as well it`s a comprehensive tool for Telehealth.
- Recoshelf. We are a big brother for retail that monitors the products, customers behavior and prices with smart cameras and IoT sensors to increase revenue up to 5-6%.
- Reelly. Digital platform that helps to find a responsible real estate expert anywhere in the world, in a clear single segment and region.
- BloggerMall. Influencer marketing platform. The platform helps advertisers to cooperate with bloggers fast, efficiently and safe using built-in tools like account analytics, filters for finding bloggers with the required target audience, Secured deal and rating system.
- Chargeback Optimizer. Chargeback management platform for banks, payment service providers, and merchants. The platform reduces costs and time of dispute investigation and money refund to customers.
- Advisera. Machine Learning-enabled marketplace, which helps entrepreneurs to receive specific business advice from international niche experts.
- HoldYou. Online psychological aid service. Our project is for people who want to get help from psychologist whenever and wherever, no matter where they are at the moment. All the consultations take place online through our platform, it can be mobile application, your account on the site or by phone.
- dataFreeze. Personal Digital Notary application for fixing copyright infringement, encroachment on honor and dignity.
- SolidERP. ERP system for modern service companies.
- SunDate App. Mobile application for online matchmaking with the simple and original system of dating appointment in three steps. It’s all for respect and time-saving, because time is the priceless nonrenewable resource. Also, SunDate App has original searching modes for more efficient matchmaking, original monetization system, original bottoms, and many original functions including the possibility of matchmaking for persons with any disabilities, etc.
At the USF Supervisory Board meeting, which will take place in the near future, it will be decided which startups will receive grant funding.
We remind that according to the results of the 12th, 13th and 14th Pitch Days five startups at the pre-seed stage were funded (RE-leaf PAPER, iceFood, AI Impulsar, Muscreators, Smart Way) and two startups at a seed stage (eSalesPlatform, HackenAI).
