The Ukrainian Startup Fund held the 19th Pitch Day
On December 18, the Ukrainian Startup Fund held its 19th Pitch Day to select startups for state financing. 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 the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko, who noted the importance of innovation in the field of modern Ukrainian culture:
“We are all from the creative industry and in one way or another involved in creating something new. There are theaters, design, cinema, and much more in our field that deserves the attention of startups and where our ministry can help to involve people in reading and visiting museums through extraordinary and unexpected decisions. As of today, we have not digitized anything and there are great challenges to solve which you can come to us, for example. We are ready to support such initiatives through grants from the Ukrainian Cultural Fund, but we are also ready to participate in public-private partnerships. I will be glad to see you in our creative space.”
Who is the jury made up of?
- Kateryna Degtyar. Chapter director at Startup Grind Kyiv.
- Yurii Sereshchenko. Managing partner at Quarter Partners.
- Vadym Rogovskiy. CEO and founder of Startup School Online.
- Mykhailo Khaletskyi. Senior Investment Analyst at Simpact VC.
- Andrii Gulyi. Head of analytics at INDAX.
- Oleksandr Yatsenko. Managing partner at BRISE Capital.
- Andriy Zinchuk. Founder at AZ Ventures, co-founder at SLASH GAMES.
The main criteria for evaluating projects at the seed stage are team, market, idea, the 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 Audiokazky Ukrainskoyou.
According to the results of the Competition Сommittee’s assessments, the following startups rating list was formed (from the highest score to the lowest):
- BDiary. Mobile assistant for private practice in the beauty sphere.
- Custle. A platform for casting talents that provides ML-generated shortlists with the relevant actors.
- inLovery. A mobile application that helps partners better understand each other and improve their sex life.
- Audiokazky Ukrainskoyou. The world’s largest collection of quality audio tales in Ukraine.
- WonderWay. A travel app that in one-click provides bespoke itinerary guides, specific to your interests and recommended by bloggers, public figures, locals, and guides.
- Librarius. The best offer of e-books by Ukrainian publishers. Reading is convenient, fashionable and useful.
- Provizio. Smart system for glaucoma home-monitoring.
- Sugarrr. An application that helps take diabetes under control.
- PROJECT 2020. Fastening elements production for alternative technology of assembling furniture frames for kitchens, bathrooms and storage areas (dressers, storage stands, containers).
- Bindercar. Everything a car owner needs in one application.
- Dopamine. The first smart time & task manager that allows creating and getting done realistic day plans.
- FREE SOCIETY network. Social network and marketplace for even more freedom.
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 17th Pitch Day eight startups at the pre-seed stage were funded: Supplio, iCardy, AssayMe, Recoshelf, Reelly, BloggerMall, Chargeback Optimizer, and Advisera.
