Admission of applications for participation in the Grant Program of the Ukrainian Startup Fund is temporarily suspended.
The Fund is currently proposing other initiatives, which can be located on the official website of the Fund.
Program purpose
The Grant program of the Ukrainian Startup Fund (USF) was created to provide financial support to Ukrainian startups in the form of grants. USF provides funding to Ukrainian startups in the pre-seed and seed stages of $ 25,000 and $ 50,000 without equity participation.
The startup has the opportunity to receive up to $ 75,000 for its development and current activities, as well as up to $ 10,000 for the Acceleration program in one of the international or Ukrainian accelerators.
Program objectives
USF Grant program aims to promote the creation and growth of early-stage technology startups in Ukraine in order to increase their global competitiveness. By providing capital for startups, Fund seeks to facilitate efforts to finance and promote these startups, as well as to develop the Ukrainian technology startup ecosystem.
About USF Grant Program
We support startups, in particular, but not exclusively, in the following industries (verticals):
Roadmap
Registration and submitting an Application
Internal compliance
Expert evaluation
Pitch and evaluation by the Selection Commission
Approval by the Supervisory Board
Concluding a Grant Agreement
Useful Information
Every year more and more startups appear in Ukraine, and we support them by awarding grants. However, for first-time grant recipients, this process may seem too complicated. We cannot simplify the application procedure, but we can make it apparent. That is the primary goal of the free online course “Grants of the Ukrainian Startup Fund” from USF and Creative Practice.
THE COURSE INCLUDES 4 CONSECUTIVE MODULES:
We hope that this tool will make it possible to increase the number of winners of the Grant Program of the Fund.
CLICK “REGISTER” TO GET ACCESS TO:
Enjoy!
Budget and funding
USF Grant program covers the entire amount of expenses envisaged by the estimate approved by the Fund. The amount of grant financing is transferred in tranches to a separate bank account opened for the purposes of implementation of the Grant Agreement.
How to plan the Estimate properly?
• Get acquainted with the provisions under the Regulation on the Grant Program of the Innovation Development Fund;
• Examine all the requirements and cost limits;
• Plan and discuss each of the expense items with team members;
• Review price proposals;
• Check the existence of an employment relationship with team members;
• Prepare the necessary documents.
General Questions
On the USF website, click the “Grant” and register on the web portal through the link: https://portal.usf.com.ua/.
Read and accept all the Terms, Conditions of Use of Web Portal and Policies. After that – fill in the required application fields on the web portal.
Please apply only through our official web portal and do not send information to the USF e-mails or social networks. Such applications will not be considered.
We support Startups that operate in all industries, except those that are expressly prohibited by Ukrainian law.
We provide support to Ukrainian startups, that are in the early stages of the development (pre-seed and seed). At the same time, institutions of higher education and research institutions can participate as co-performers.
The startup must be registered in the manner provided by law in the United State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs, and Public Organizations of Ukraine.
Our initiative together with EBA will help with this issue. To understand the problems and find proper solutions for your business, fill in the Application Form on the USF website in the “Corporate Innovations” section.
Grant Application
There is no deadline for applying for a grant. We accept applications on a continuing basis.
Individuals cannot be Grant applicants. The startup must be a registered business entity: an individual entrepreneur or limited liability company. The application is submitted by an authorized person from Startup and signed with the qualified electronic signature.
When concluding the Agreement, you must provide the following documents:
The startup submits one application for one type of grant: seed or pre-seed. In case of rejection of your application, you can re-submit it, but not more than 3 times a year.
Yes, but in this case, if you plan to involve team members, please add a technical requirement for the key positions of the Startup.
Instructions for completing the Application are contained in the Application Form and the Grant Program Regulation.
The application is filled in exclusively in Ukrainian by the authorized person of the Startup. The information provided in the Application must be reliable, up-to-date and may not violate any requirements of the legislation of Ukraine and the Regulations.
No. The application is filled in the Ukrainian language only, except for the fields with the annotation, which should be filled in both Ukrainian and English.
A pitch deck is a graphic presentation of the Startup that will be used on the Pitch, and a demonstration video about the startup is a video demonstration of your Startup with the participation of at least half of the founders of the Startup and lasting at least 8 minutes.
This is the method of the startup model used when filling out the Application by the Startup.
The description using lean canvas includes the following categories: problem, available alternatives and solutions, key metrics, revenue and cost structure, unique value and non-market competitive advantage, the path to the consumer, consumer segments, and description of the ideal consumer.
All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. We also recommend that you fill in all other fields, although this is not required.
You can save the information at any time during the application process and continue filling it in later. When completing each section, do not forget to save data regularly, so as not to lose information.
After clicking the Submit Application button, you will be able to view the latest information about the application before the final submission. If you want to change any of the information displayed on the application preview page, you can do so by returning to the previous page.
After submitting the application, you will be able to view it, but not to change.
Financing
The startup has the opportunity to receive up to $ 75,000 for current activities, up to $ 10,000 for training in one of the accelerators accredited by the Fund, as well as up to $ 10,000 within the Innovation Vouchers Program.
The Pre-seed stage is the phase of Startup development in which there is no MVP and the activities of Startup are aimed at its development to further bring it to the consumer market. The amount of grant funding is $ 25,000 in UAH equivalent.
The Seed stage is the phase of Startup development, that has an MVP and has already entered the market. The amount of grant funding is $ 50,000 in UAH equivalent.
Yes, the total amount of investments, grants and state aid received, as well as income for the entire period of Strtup activity, should not exceed $ 300,000 in UAH equivalent as of the date of application.
This information is needed due to the fact, that we do not finance expenditures that have already been financed by other investors or funds.
We finance, in particular, but not exclusively, and subject to the limitations of the Grant Program Regulation: salaries, including all taxes and fees, the cost of consulting services determined on a competitive basis, the cost of equipment and/or equipment for production purposes, and/or R&D and costs of product promotion, marketing, subscriptions.
The Grant program does not cover monetary commitments incurred prior to receiving grant funding related to exchange rate changes, as well as any fines, penalties, damages, entertainment and any entertainment expenses other than participation in exhibitions and conferences related to office changes, current and / or capital repairs, purchase of furniture and others, provided by the current Regulation on the Grant Program of the Fund.
You can make changes to the Budget (Estimate) at the stage of submitting the documents required for signing the Grant Agreement.
We do not receive any share in the authorized capital. We provide financing in the form of grants, the targeted use of which we monitor.
You are not obliged to return the grant if you have used it in accordance with the Grant Agreement and the Regulations of the Fund.
Competitive selection procedure
We try to process applications as they are received. Usually, the review lasts 2-3 months, but it depends on the number of applications and the level of the experts workload.
You can monitor the results of the selection and the status of your application in your personal account on the Web portal.
The stages of selection of grant applications are:
The event takes place online, remotely, using a service for video conferencing – Zoom. If you want to join the Pitch, the event is always streaming on YouTube.
We respect your ideas and intellectual property, and take all possible measures to protect them. We adhere to the approved Privacy Policy, as well as the Terms of Use of the Web Portal, which you have had the opportunity to read. In addition, we sign a number of necessary documents with conditions of confidentiality with the Experts, members of the Selection Commission and the USF team.
The evaluation of each submitted application is carried out in several stages.
It is first checked in the compliance stage, then evaluated by independent experts who are professionals in the industry in which Startup works.
According to the results of experts evaluation, the Startup may be admitted to the Pitch – a presentation to the Selection Commission.
The Selection Commission evaluates the Startup and provides its recommendations to the USF Supervisory Board. Finally, the Supervisory Board of the Fund makes final decision on financing your Startup.
We do not provide individual feedback on why we did not choose your application for funding. The main reason why the application may be rejected is its non-compliance with the requirements of the Regulations and a sufficient number of the applications.
However, during the competition process, we will provide feedback on the stages of your Startup application.
Other questions
Do you like green trees and clean air? So why use tons of paper if we can sign contracts and keep documents in electronic format? A document signed with an electronic digital signature / qualified electronic signature has the force of a written document.
There is no need, but if you have such documents – you need to add them to the application. These can be state-standard documents (certificates, patents), license or copyright agreements, or agreements on the provision of services / performance of works, according to which you have been transferred intellectual property rights.
We try to respond within a day, but we do not have time limits. The speed of response and feedback depends on the level of complexity and the number of requests as they are received.
You can follow the latest initiatives of Ukrainian startups, relevant events and our daily activities by joining the official pages of the Fund and following us on social networks:
