Ukrainian Startup Fund received the “Best Seed Fund for Fintech” award
Kyiv, March 16, 2023 – The Ukrainian Association of Fintech and Innovation Companies (UAFIC) has named the Ukrainian Startup Fund (USF) “Best Seed Finance Fund for Fintech” at the Ukrainian Fintech Award 2023 for its leadership in promoting Ukrainian fintech in 2022.
The Ukrainian Fintech Award 2023 is an annual professional award designed to recognize the contribution of leading companies to the development of the Ukrainian fintech ecosystem in order to popularize the Ukrainian market, highlight annual achievements, and draw public attention to the industry. This year’s jury members include: Oleksandr Savruk, Dean of Kyiv-Mohyla Business School (kmbs), Serhiy Shevchuk, Finance Editor at Forbes Ukraine, Yulia Vitka, Deputy Chief of Party of the USAID Financial Sector Reform Project, Serhiy Chernenko, Chair of the Management Board of PUMB, Volodymyr Mudry, Chair of the Management Board of OTP Bank, and others.
“Our goal is to support Ukrainian startups, popularize breakthrough solutions in Ukraine and abroad, and enable teams to grow. This award is an encouragement for us to move forward and strengthen our work to help the country’s economic development,” said Evelina Komarnytska, a representative of the Fund, when receiving the award.
The main achievements of the Fund in the fintech industry in 2022:
- Fintech startup elKYC, a B2b SaaS solution that helps to verify and onboard customers in minutes, received $50 thousand in seed funding in early 2022. Previously, in 2021, elKYC received a $25 thousand pre-seed grant. Thanks to investments in the startup in the early stages, the team attracted an additional €250 thousand in investments from the Polish fund czysta3.vc.
- USF and the Payoneer payment platform have launched a joint offer for tech startups entering the international market: companies can receive and send payments at a reduced fee to Payoneer, as well as take advantage of accelerated connection to the platform, personal manager services, and other benefits.
- Partnering with N1 Fund and launching a program that allowed Ukrainian startups to attract up to $1M in investment in their project. From the applications received, a number of projects were selected for the next stage and continued to interact with the N1 Fund.
- As part of the Innovation Voucher program, a number of fintech startups have been selected to join international delegations in 2022: FinMap – SaaStock (Dublin), Akurateco – Viva Tech (Paris), TechBBQ, (Copenhagen), Slush (Helsinki), Fuelfinance – SaaStock (Dublin), Getpin – SaaStock (Dublin), Trustee Plus – WebSummit (Lisbon), Electronic KYC – TechCrunch (San Francisco). In total, 75 Ukrainian teams participated in 10 international technology conferences in 2022.
2 teams from the above list attracted millions of dollars in investment in early 2023: Fuelfinance, a platform that allows you to keep records, create financial reports, plan the future of the company using financial data, received $1M in funding from American and European investors in January 2023; Finmap raised a €1M round in February 2023 from the Polish-American fund SMOK Ventures, with the participation of Czech Presto Ventures, Capital Genetics, etc.
It is worth noting that in 2021, the Fund financed a number of fintech startups: UpSwot (raised an additional $4.3M in 2021 from a pool of angel investors), Meteocontrol AI, Fintellect, Finmap, Djooky, Checki.
“Despite the challenges of the war, public confidence in the financial sector is extremely high, as evidenced by the stable operation of the market even in the most difficult first weeks and months of the invasion. We managed to keep the situation in a perfect storm mode thanks to the speed of decision-making and non-standard approaches of the regulator, which was recently awarded the prestigious Central Banking Awards, business adaptability and a wide range of fintech solutions used by all industry participants,” said Pavlo Kartashov, Director of the Ukrainian Startup Fund.
Among the winners of the Ukrainian Fintech Award 2023 is the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which was named “Best government agency for fintech”, a nomination that recognizes the government agency that made the greatest contribution to the development of Ukrainian fintech in 2022.
FOR THE REFERENCE:
The Innovation Development Fund (Ukrainian Startup Fund) is the one-of-a-kind state institution that helps innovative projects and technology startups raise funds at the early stages and launch their projects. The Fund is the driver of the startup ecosystem development, provides conditions for the growth of the sector, creates a positive investment image of the Ukrainian tech industry abroad, and represents Ukrainian innovative solutions around the world.
The Fund was established in 2018 by the Ministry of Finance on the initiative of the Prime Minister of Ukraine. On January 1, 2023, it was transferred to the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
After the full-scale invasion, the Fund’s main focus is on supporting military tech and deep tech projects. Currently, there are 3 target programs: Grant support for dual-use projects, the Innovation Voucher Program, and the Fast track for drones.
